Managing impression opportunities for a set of content items associated with goals to guarantee achievement of the goals within a specified period of time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11023932-B2
Application number	US-201715829866-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2017
Priority date	Dec 1, 2017
Publication date	Jun 1, 2021
Grant date	Jun 1, 2021

Abstract

An online system guarantees achievement of an impression goal and a reach goal associated with a set of content items received from a content-providing user of the online system within a period of time associated with the goals. To ensure that the goals are achieved within the period of time, the online system may adjust values of filters associated with the set of content items that control a number of impression opportunities for which the set of content items will be eligible for presentation to users of the online system. The online system may compute a normalized ratio throughout the period of time associated with the goals based on the goals and the progress made by the online system towards achieving the goals. Based on the normalized ratio, the online system may track the performance of the content items and adjust the values of the filters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
maintaining, at an online system, a set of content items associated with a first goal corresponding to a first type of content delivery and a second goal corresponding to a second type of content delivery provided by a content-providing user of the online system, the goals associated with a period of time in which the goals are to be achieved;
presenting one or more of the set of content items to users of the online system during the period of time using a first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery and a second filter value corresponding to the second type of content delivery, the first and second filter values respectively indicating a probability that one or more content items from the set of content items will be selected for the first or second type of content delivery to a user of the online system;
receiving a first count indicating progress towards the first goal and a second count indicating progress towards the second goal based on the presentation of the content items on one or more client devices of users of the online system, wherein each of the counts is tracked by an action logger that uses internet protocol (IP) address information associated with the one or more client devices;
for each of one or more times within the period of time associated with the goals:
computing a normalized ratio for the set of content items, wherein the normalized ratio is a ratio of an achievement ratio to a goal ratio, the goal ratio comparing the first goal and the second goal, the achievement ratio comparing the first count and the second count;
comparing the normalized ratio to a predetermined first over-delivery value associated with the first type of content delivery and a predetermined second over-delivery value associated with the second type of content delivery, the predetermined first and second over-delivery values corresponding to a current time;
determining, based on the comparison, that a difference between the normalized ratio and the predetermined first over-delivery value is less than a predetermined threshold difference;
adjusting, based on the determined difference, the first filter value to increase a likelihood that the normalized ratio approaches a target normalized ratio corresponding to a successful achievement of the first and second goals during the time period;
selecting one or more content items for presentation on a client device of a user of the online system based on the adjusted first filter value; and
presenting the selected one or more content items to the user in a display area of the client device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second type of content delivery comprise one of: a number of impressions to be achieved within the period of time or a number of unique users of the online system to whom the set of content items are to be presented within the period of time.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first count and second count comprise one or more of: a number of impressions achieved by the set of content items or a number of unique users of the online system to whom the set of content items has been presented.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the first filter value comprises:
generating a graph comprising at least a point corresponding to the normalized ratio and a time at which the normalized ratio was computed and one or more over-delivery curves corresponding to the predetermined first and second over-delivery values associated with the first and second goals.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more over-delivery curves comprise one or more of: a reach over-delivery curve, an impression over-delivery curve, a predetermined target curve describing the target normalized ratio, or a tolerance threshold curve.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein adjusting the first filter value comprises:
plotting one or more additional points on the graph, each of the one or more additional points corresponding to each of one or more additional normalized ratios and a respective time at which each of the one or more additional normalized ratios was computed;
generating a trend line that best fits the point and the one or more additional points; and
determining whether the normalized ratio is improving or deteriorating based at least in part on whether the trend line is approaching or deviating from the target curve.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein adjusting the first filter value comprises:
determining that the first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery should be adjusted if the normalized ratio is greater than one or more threshold values corresponding to the one or more over-delivery curves.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein adjusting the first filter value comprises:
determining that the first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery should be adjusted if the normalized ratio is less than one or more threshold values corresponding to the one or more over-delivery curves.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein adjusting the first filter value comprises:
responsive to determining that the normalized ratio is improving:
determining that the first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery should not be adjusted if the target curve is intersected by the trend line at a coordinate along the trend line corresponding to an end of the period of time associated with the first and second goal; and
determining that the first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery should be adjusted if the target curve is not intersected by the trend line at the coordinate along the trend line corresponding to the end of the period of time.

10. The method of claim 6 , adjusting the first filter value comprises:
responsive to determining that the normalized ratio is deteriorating, determining that the first filter value of the filter corresponding to the first type of content delivery should be adjusted.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein an amount by which to adjust the first filter value is determined based at least in part on one or more of: a base value of the first filter value, a current value of the first filter value, a complement of the current value of the first filter value, or a difference between the normalized ratio and the predetermined first over-delivery value.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
maintain, at an online system, a set of content items associated with a first goal corresponding to a first type of content delivery and a second goal corresponding to a second type of content delivery provided by a content-providing user of the online system, the goals associated with a period of time in which the goals are to be achieved;
present one or more of the set of content items to users of the online system during the period of time using a first filter value corresponding to the first type of content delivery and a second filter value corresponding to the second type of content delivery, the first and second filter values respectively indicating a probability that one or more content items from the set of content items will be selected for the first or second type of content delivery to a user of the online system;
receive a first count indicating progress towards the first goal and a second count indicating progress towards the second goal based on the presentation of the content items on one or more client devices of users of the online system, wherein each of the counts is tracked by an action logge

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Jain Vishal
• Deodhar Rima
• Zhu Zhengyong

Classifications

• G06Q30/0273

  Determination of fees for advertising · CPC title

• G06Q30/0272 Primary

  Period of advertisement exposure · CPC title