Determining a number of cluster groups associated with content identifying users eligible to receive the content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016232575-A1
Application number	US-201514616543-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 6, 2015
Priority date	Feb 6, 2015
Publication date	Aug 11, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A social networking system receives an advertisement request including multiple sets of targeting criteria. To increase the number of users eligible to be presented with the advertisement request, the social networking system generates a cluster group associated with each set of targeting criteria. A cluster group associated with a set of targeting criteria includes users satisfying the targeting criteria and additional users that do not satisfy the targeting criteria. The social networking system determines an amount of overlap between the cluster groups. If the amount of overlap equals or exceeds a threshold value, the social networking system combines the cluster groups to generate an overall group associated with the advertisement request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving an advertisement request including a set of targeting criteria and an additional set of targeting criteria at a social networking system; retrieving characteristics of users of the social networking system maintained by the social networking system; generating a cluster group associated with the set of targeting criteria included in the advertisement request including users having characteristics satisfying the set of targeting criteria and one or more users having one or more characteristics that do not satisfy the set of targeting criteria by applying a cluster model associated with the set of targeting criteria to characteristics of users having characteristics that do not satisfy the set of targeting criteria; generating an additional cluster group associated with the additional set of targeting criteria included in the advertisement request including users having characteristics satisfying the additional set of targeting criteria and one or more users having characteristics that do not satisfy the set of additional targeting criteria by applying a cluster model associated with the additional set of targeting criteria to characteristics of users having characteristics that do not satisfy the additional set of targeting criteria; determining an amount of overlap between the cluster group and the additional cluster group, the amount of overlap based at least in part on a number of users included in the cluster group and also included in the additional cluster group; determining whether the amount of overlap equals or exceeds a threshold amount; generating an overall group of users associated with the advertisement request by combining the cluster group and the additional cluster group subject to determining the amount of overlap equals or exceeds the threshold amount.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the overall group of users associated with the advertisement request by combining the cluster group and the additional cluster group subject to determining the amount of overlap equals or exceeds the threshold amount comprises:
associating a classifier with the overall group of users to indicate whether a user is included in the cluster group or is included in the additional cluster group.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement request includes one or more advertising parameters associated with the set of targeting criteria and one or more alternative advertising parameters associated with the additional set of targeting criteria.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include advertisement content and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include alternative advertisement content.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include a bid amount and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include an alternative bid amount.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include a duration and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include an alternative duration.

7 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving a request to present an advertisement to a user of the social networking system; retrieving characteristics of the user maintained by the social networking system; determining whether the user is included in the cluster group or in the additional cluster group based at least in part on the characteristics of the user; responsive to determining the user is included in the cluster group or in the additional cluster group, including the advertisement in a selection process with one or more additional advertisement requests using advertising parameters associated with targeting criteria associated with which of the cluster group or the additional cluster group was determined to include the user.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the amount of overlap between the cluster group and the additional cluster group is a ratio of the number of users included in the cluster group and also included in the additional cluster group to a sum of a number of users included in the cluster group and a number of users included in the additional cluster group.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
associating the cluster group and the additional cluster group with the advertisement request if the amount of overlap between the cluster group and the additional cluster group is less than the threshold value.

10 . A method comprising:
receiving an advertisement request including a plurality of sets of targeting criteria at a social networking system; retrieving characteristics of users of the social networking system maintained by the social networking system; generating a cluster group associated with each set of targeting criteria, a cluster group associated with a set of targeting criteria including users having characteristics satisfying the set of targeting criteria and one or more users having characteristics that do not satisfy the set of targeting criteria by applying a cluster model associated with the set of targeting criteria to characteristics of users having characteristics that do not satisfy the set of targeting criteria; determining that an amount of overlap between the cluster groups based at least in part on a number of users included in at least a plurality of cluster groups; and generating an overall group of users associated with the advertisement request by combining the cluster groups based on the determining.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein generating the overall group of users associated with the advertisement request by combining the cluster groups comprises:
associating a classifier with the overall group of users to indicate a cluster group including a user in the overall group of users.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the advertisement request includes one or more advertising parameters associated with the set of targeting criteria and one or more alternative advertising parameters associated with another set of targeting criteria.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include advertisement content and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include alternative advertisement content.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include a bid amount and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include an alternative bid amount.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more advertising parameters include a duration and the one or more alternative advertising parameters include an alternative duration.

16 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
receiving a request to present an advertisement to a user of the social networking system; retrieving characteristics of the user maintained by the social networking system; determining whether the user is included in at least one cluster group based at least in part on the characteristics of the user; and responsive to determining the user is included in at least one cluster group, including the advertisement in a selection process with one or more additional advertisement requests using advertising parameters associated with a cluster group determined to include the user.

17 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
receive an advertisement request including a plurality of sets of targeting criteria a

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Kirti Rituraj
• Hong Sue Ann
• Cho Leon R

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0269 Primary

  based on user profile or attribute · CPC title

• G06Q30/0275

  Auctions · CPC title

• G06Q50/01

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/42

  Determination of affinities or common interests between users · CPC title