JP4468135B2 - Advertisement distribution apparatus, computer program, program storage medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an advertisement distribution apparatus, and more specifically, to an advertisement distribution apparatus that is configured by a computer connected to the Internet and performs a process of posting advertisement content on a Web page.

  The portal site on the Internet is flooded with advertisements such as banner images and text. In recent years, advertisements are often seen on private websites opened by general users. In the advertising content (text including moving image data, moving image data, still image data, etc.), a hyperlink to a home page of a website (advertiser site) managed by the advertiser is set.

  A browser installed in a computer used by a general user obtains a Web page (medium page) on which advertisement content is posted, and is set to the content by clicking the advertisement content in the page with a mouse. When a hyperlink is instructed, the browser can instantly access the advertiser site.

  Using a web page as an advertising medium in this way can reduce the printing cost and the delivery cost of the medium in the conventional advertisement using paper as a medium for the manager (affiliate) of the medium page and the advertiser. There is an advantage that the contents can be corrected at any time. For those who are interested in the advertising content, the contents of the advertiser site, which is a detailed information source related to the advertisement, can be viewed instantaneously without being restricted by time and distance.

  The advertising distribution agency that mediates the advertising contract between the advertiser and the affiliate recruits the affiliate and the advertiser, entrusts the advertising content put out by the advertiser, and posts the content on the appropriate affiliate media page. Get it. Similar to the conventional advertising agency, the advertising distribution agency is building a business model by obtaining a part of the advertising fee related to the posting of the advertising content from the advertiser to the affiliate as a fee.

  However, the general user who browses the media page does not always browse the advertiser site by instructing the hyperlink of the advertisement content, and for the advertiser, a sufficient effect cannot be obtained for the paid advertising fee. There is a problem. Therefore, a fee system that pays the advertising fee for the number of times the advertising content is displayed, and a so-called “click-based system” that pays the advertising fee for the number of hyperlink instructions to the advertising content by the browser Various fee systems have been adopted for advertising distribution, such as the system.

  In addition, the advertisement fee is paid to the affiliate only after the user who browses the web page of the advertiser site generates some transaction (product purchase, questionnaire entry, member registration, etc.) by the browser on the advertiser site. A fee system based on the “Affiliate Program”, a success-reward-type advertisement distribution method, has been widely adopted. As a result, advertisers can pay advertising fees after obtaining certain outcomes (transactions) without taking any risk when placing an advertisement.

  A computer (advertising distribution device) that manages various types of information processing related to advertising distribution managed by an advertising distribution agency, in order to implement an advertising distribution service based on an affiliate program, It is necessary to identify the media page that contains the URL, and track the information distribution route until the general user's browser finally generates an event related to the transaction (product purchase instruction, questionnaire entry, member registration instruction, etc.) . A well-known tracking system is a computer system or program that executes processing related to tracking.

  As a general tracking method, if advertising content is to be posted on a certain medium page, the affiliate such as identification information of the advertising site is specified in the URL describing the hyperlink set in the advertising content. Is recorded in accordance with a description format such as a well-known tracking URL as information (tracking information) for use in tracking (affiliate ID).

  The hyperlink destination set in the advertisement content includes a predetermined program installed in the advertisement distribution apparatus. When an advertisement is clicked and a hyperlink is instructed, tracking information is delivered to the predetermined program, and it is possible to know which advertiser's advertisement content is clicked starting from which media page. Then, an HTTP response for redirecting to the advertiser site is returned to the browser. The browser interprets the content of the response and obtains the home page of the advertiser site. The tracking information is also notified to the linked advertiser site via the browser during this redirect.

  The advertiser site records the tracking information acquired from the browser that has been accessed, and manages subsequent communication with the browser using, for example, a well-known cookie. If any transaction occurs during the session, the advertiser sends the tracking information acquired by the advertiser site and the details of the transaction to the ad management device, etc. Notify achievements. Thereby, the advertisement distribution agent can obtain the basis for calculating the success fee for the affiliate. In addition, about the technique regarding an affiliate program and tracking, it describes in the following patent documents 1-3.

  By the way, the use form of the Internet is diversified. There are various types of hardware that can be connected to the Internet, such as a fixedly installed computer such as a personal computer equipped with a browser and a mobile phone (browser phone) having a browser function. Many Internet users own a plurality of Internet connection means such as a PC and a browser phone, and appropriately use these means depending on the location, time, type of web content to be browsed, and the amount of data.

  For example, it is assumed that a user obtains an advertisement posting page from his / her PC and is interested in an advertisement content posted on the page. Then, suppose you want to browse the advertiser site linked to the advertisement content even when you are away from home. In such a case, if the advertiser has established an advertiser site for a browser phone (hereinafter referred to as a mobile site), the user accesses the mobile site with his / her browser phone and obtains information on the advertisement site. can do. In this way, the user can access desired information regardless of time and place by making full use of the Internet connection means owned by the user. In addition, the URL of the mobile site may be described with the character string attached to the previous advertisement content, or a form including a function capable of sending the URL character string by e-mail to the advertisement posting page is prepared. You may keep it. The URL may be converted into an image of a predetermined standard for making character information latent, such as a barcode or QR code (registered trademark), or may be made latent in an image such as a natural image by a known digital watermark technique. In other words, if the browser phone has a function of optically reading and interpreting an image (character latent image) in which character information such as the URL is latent, it is possible to access a predetermined mobile site.

The QR code is described in the following non-patent documents.
JP 2001-117847 A JP 2002-117318 A JP 2002-157494 A Denso Wave Co., Ltd., “QR Code.com”, [online], [October 7, 2004 search], Internet <URL: http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/aboutqr.html>

  As described above, when a user is guided to the advertiser site starting from the media page, the user does not necessarily access the advertiser site with a computer viewing the media page. If an affiliate earns ad revenue on a pay-per-click basis, the browsing opportunity is counted as the number of clicks, even though the advertiser ’s mobile website is viewed starting from the media page it manages. Therefore, you will miss the opportunity of advertising revenue. If you are participating in an affiliate program, you will not be able to get a higher success fee and the loss will be great.

  Even for the advertiser, it is not possible to know which media page the user has accessed the mobile site as a trigger and whether the content of the affiliate site is consistent with his / her merchandise. In addition, it is impossible to determine the direction of work related to future advertising and to obtain information on marketing.

  An advertiser opens an advertiser site for PC browsers (hereinafter referred to as a PC site) and a mobile site, and reliably presents the information intended by the advertiser to the user regardless of location or time, or performs some transaction. When it is desired to generate the page, it is important to identify the user who reliably browses the advertiser site using different hardware and to specify the affiliate of the medium page that is the origin of the browsing.

  In addition, even if the user can be identified and the affiliate specified on the PC site and the mobile site, if the viewing environment of the PC site and the mobile site varies greatly depending on the hardware of the browser, the user can use the PC site and the mobile site. Willingness to view both of them will decline. In other words, if the user wants to obtain the information he / she wants to go out of, and needs complicated work such as transferring the URL of the mobile site which is the information source to his / her own browser phone, the work itself becomes the mobile site. Reduce your willingness to browse.

  Even if there is a function to easily transfer the URL of the mobile site to the entered address by preparing a form for entering the browser phone's email address on the media page, a private email address can be used by a third party. If you try it, you will feel a little resistance. Also, there are cases where the user has set limited reception of e-mail to the mail server of the mobile phone carrier (carrier) of the browser phone. In such a case, an extremely troublesome procedure such as changing the setting of the conditional access function for the carrier mail server is required.

  The present invention has been created in view of the above problems. The purpose of the present invention is to deal with complicated advertising business even in diversified Internet usage forms, and to ensure fair rewards for affiliates regarding advertisement placement, and the user accesses the advertiser site with a browser phone starting from the media page It is an object of the present invention to provide an advertisement distribution device that secures convenience when doing so.

The advertisement distribution device of the present invention for achieving the above object is specified by the following items (1) to (5).
(1) The advertisement distribution apparatus is configured by one or more computers connected to the Internet.
(2) A database access means for accessing an advertisement database storing a large number of advertisement contents each associated with a link destination.
(3) When a script generation request is sent together with the identification information of affiliate B from the accessing computer A, the identification information of affiliate B is sent by accessing the advertisement distribution apparatus as a script that can be interpreted by the browser. A function for requesting the sending of advertisement contents and an image with character information hidden based on a predetermined standard, and the advertisement contents returned from the apparatus in response to this request and the character latent image with the character information displayed are displayed. And a character latent image request script generating means for sending a character latent image request script including a function to the computer A.
(4) When browser C, which has obtained a Web page on which a character latent image request script is written, interprets and executes the script, sends the identification information of affiliate B, and obtains appropriate advertising content D from the database And return it to the browser C, and generate a latent character image E with a latent URL for sending the identification information of the affiliate B to the link destination corresponding to the advertisement content D via the advertisement distribution apparatus. Is provided with a character latent image transfer means for transferring to the browser C.
(5) When the browser phone F is accessed based on the interpretation of the character information latent in the character latent image E, the browser phone F obtains the identification information of the affiliate B and takes a log of the access. Link destination transfer means for returning a URL for accessing F to a link destination corresponding to the advertisement content D is provided.

  In the above advertisement distribution apparatus, the character latent image transfer means includes the identification information of the advertisement posting site B sent from the browser C to the character latent image E as tracking information, and the link destination transfer means is accessed by the browser phone F. Then, the tracking information may be recorded in the access log, and the tracking information may be added to the URL for accessing the link destination corresponding to the advertising content D.

  Note that the scope of the present invention includes a program that is executed by a computer and causes the computer to function as any one of the above advertisement distribution apparatuses, and a program storage medium that stores the program.

  According to the advertisement distribution apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to cope with a complicated advertisement business even in diversified Internet usage forms. For example, when the same user browses an advertiser site using a browser and a browser phone of a personal computer, the affiliate of the media page that the user browses first as the origin of browsing of the user or the advertiser site is specified. be able to. As a result, it is possible to reliably present the information intended by the advertiser to the user regardless of the place and time, and to accurately and fairly calculate the remuneration paid to the affiliate regarding the advertisement placement of the advertising content. Further, by placing a two-dimensional barcode for assisting access to the mobile site on the medium page, it is possible to facilitate access to the mobile site.

=== Network configuration ===
FIG. 1 shows a network configuration including the advertisement distribution apparatus of the present invention. A computer (hereinafter referred to as a browser) in which a browser is installed, such as the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 and a personal computer, and a WWW server are connected to the Internet 40. There are browsers 20a used by affiliates and 30a used by general users. The mobile communication network 50 and the Internet 40 are connected via a gateway 51, and the browser phone 30 b can also communicate with the Internet 40 via the gateway 51.

  Examples of the WWW server include a WWW server (hereinafter referred to as an affiliate site) 20b that publishes a website including a medium page, an advertiser's PC site 10a, and a mobile site 10b. Of course, the mobile site 10b may be in the mobile communication network 50 as an “official site” of the carrier.

  The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment performs various types of information processing based on an affiliate program. The advertisement database 2 attached to the apparatus 1 stores a large number of advertisement contents deposited by advertisers, and manages the advertisement contents in association with URLs of the PC site 10a and the mobile site 10b.

  The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 accumulates and manages a large number of advertisement contents deposited by the advertiser in the advertisement database 2. When advertising content is posted on a medium page, information (affiliate ID) that can identify an affiliate such as identification information of the medium page and identification information of an affiliate managing the page is dynamically incorporated as tracking information. As a result, the browser 30a of the user who ordered a certain media page accesses the advertiser site 20a instructing a hyperlink of the advertisement content posted on the media page, or generates some transaction on the advertiser site 20a. When it is allowed, the affiliate site 20b, which is the starting point of the known tracking tracking system implemented in the advertiser site 20a, is associated with specific contents such as the user's browser operation status up to the transaction. Can be recorded.

  The member database 3 stores and manages various pieces of information about each member, with affiliates and advertisers having a contract relationship with the advertisement distribution agent managing the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 as members. Then, when the tracking record is sent from the advertiser sites 20a and 20b, the advertisement distribution device 1 pays which success fee to which affiliate to which affiliate based on the stored information in the member database 3, for example. Various information processing related to the affiliate program is executed, such as calculating the relationship between the content of the affiliate site and the tracking record, etc. in the marketing materials.

=== Mobile site linkage function ===
The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment publishes advertisement content on a medium page and also publishes a latent character image for allowing the browser phone 30b to access the mobile site 10b. In the present embodiment, QR codes employed by many carriers are posted as character latent images.

  Then, the advertisement distribution device 1 determines whether the browser 30a that has accessed the affiliate site 20b and the browser phone 30b that has been accessed by interpreting the QR code posted on the site 30b are from the same user. It has a function (mobile site linkage function) for recognizing or specifying which browser phone 30b has accessed based on a QR code corresponding to which advertising content posted on which affiliate site 20b.

  Thereby, for example, when a user who is interested in a certain advertisement content posted on a medium page accesses the mobile site 10b opened by the advertiser of the content with his / her browser phone 30b at a later date, the access is made. Is counted as the number of clicks on the advertising content in a specific affiliate site 20b, or the transaction that the user of the accessing browser phone 30b has generated on the mobile site 10b and the affiliate site 20b that is the origin of the transaction And the basis for paying the performance fee to the affiliate.

=== Two-dimensional barcode request script creation function ===
For the media page on which the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 of the present embodiment distributes / posts the advertisement, the browser 30a of the user who has acquired the page requests the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 to acquire the advertisement content and generate the QR code. A script (a two-dimensional barcode request script, hereinafter referred to as a barcode request script) such as an HTML tag including a function for visualizing advertisement contents and a QR code returned from the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 based on this request is described. ing.

  The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment has a function as a WWW server and opens a membership website for accepting a barcode request script creation service. FIG. 2 shows a communication procedure with the browser when creating the barcode request script in the advertisement distribution apparatus 1. Here, it is assumed that the affiliate browser 20a has accessed. The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 performs an authentication procedure with the browser 20a that has been accessed by using a member ID, a password, and the like. If the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 recognizes that the browser is a member (affiliate) browser 20a, the browser 20a requests the browser 20a to create an advertisement QR code generation script. A web page for accepting is sent (s1-s3, s4-> s6). When authentication fails, a predetermined Web page such as an error screen may be delivered to the browser 20a (s4 → s5).

  A Web page for accepting a request for creating a barcode request script may be provided with a button for instructing that. When the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 is instructed to create a barcode request script by instructing the button on the browser 20a or the like, a predetermined program of the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 receives the instruction information. This program creates a barcode request script including a display function of advertisement contents and a QR code by editing a template of the barcode request script, and the text of the script is transmitted to the browser 20a in the form of a Web page. Return (s7, s8).

  To write the created barcode request script on the media page, copy the text of the barcode request script displayed in the browser using a well-known copy and paste function in the computer, and use a text editor or the like. The copy may be transferred to an appropriate position in the HTML document of the media page.

  The barcode request script includes an HTML tag that defines a function for sending an affiliate ID to a predetermined program of the advertisement distribution apparatus. The affiliate ID is obtained from appropriate information such as authentication information sent from the affiliate browser 30a when the barcode request script 50 is created, and a stored identifier obtained as a result of referring to the member database 2 for the authentication information. Can be acquired.

=== Ad delivery process ===
FIG. 3 shows an outline of the advertisement content distribution process in the advertisement distribution apparatus 1. In this figure, the communication procedure in the user's browser 30a is mainly shown. When the user's browser 30a obtains the media page (s11, s12), the barcode request script 50 described on the page is interpreted and executed, and the affiliate ID in the script is assigned to a predetermined CGI of the advertisement distribution apparatus 1. Send (s13, s14). The CGI of the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 acquires the sent affiliate ID and selects appropriate advertisement contents from the advertisement database 11 (s15, s16). The selection of the advertisement content is appropriately performed in accordance with a program installed on the search engine 10 side, such as a priority and a schedule set for each advertisement content in advance at random. The affiliate ID and the advertising content may be associated with each other.

  Then, the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 generates a QR code including the URL of the mobile site associated with the selected advertisement content and the acquired affiliate ID, and the browser 30a together with the advertisement content selected from the QR code image data. (S17, s18). The browser 30a visualizes the advertising content and the QR code by inserting the sent advertising content and the QR code on the medium page.

  FIG. 4 shows an outline of a screen of a medium page on which advertisement content and a QR code are posted. The medium page 60 includes content 61 of the medium page 60 itself, a text advertisement 62, and a QR code 63. In the example shown here, in order to allow a browser phone that does not support QR code 63 to access the mobile site, a text box 64 for inputting an account of the browser phone mail address and a domain name of the carrier are selected. A list down box 65 is provided for this purpose. When the user inputs an account, selects a domain name, and instructs the send button 66, the information included in the QR code is delivered to his browser phone by e-mail. In addition, a URL for accessing the advertiser's PC site 10a via the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 is set as a hyperlink in the text advertisement.

== Access to mobile site ===
FIGS. 5A and 5B show an outline of information included in the QR code. In this QR code, a URL for sending a predetermined program of the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 as a link destination and sending the affiliate ID 71 and the URL 70 of the mobile site 10b as tracking information to the link destination is encoded (A). Note that tracking information such as a mobile site sent to the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 is converted into a character code. (B) shows the text of the tracking information.

  FIG. 6 shows a procedure for the browser phone 30b to access the mobile site 10b. A user browsing the media page 60 uses a browser phone having a digital camera function and a function for interpreting and executing a QR code image captured by the camera function, and is displayed on the browser screen of the PC. After the code is photographed and the image is stored in the browser phone, when the QR code image is called to interpret the QR code, the browser phone sends the URL of the mobile site and the affiliate to the predetermined program of the advertisement distribution device. ID is sent (s21 to s23). The advertisement distribution apparatus 1 stores the affiliate ID in association with the log for this access. Then, a URL including the received mobile site URL as a redirect destination and an affiliate ID as tracking information is generated, and this URL is returned as an HTTP response to the browser phone 30b (s24 to s26). The browser phone 30b accesses the mobile site 10b in accordance with the URL described in this response, and delivers the affiliate ID as tracking information (s27). The mobile site 10b acquires the sent tracking information and returns a predetermined web page for the browser phone such as the home page of the mobile site (s28, s29).

  As is well known, the browser phone 30b stores a unique terminal identifier and notifies the access destination of the identifier. On the mobile site 10b side, the terminal identifier of the browser phone 30b that has accessed is acquired, and the session is managed based on the identifier. If the user generates any transaction while the session is continuing, the contents of the transaction and the previously acquired affiliate ID are stored in association with each other. At a later date, the stored correspondence relationship is sent to the advertisement distribution apparatus 1, so that the advertisement distribution apparatus 1 executes a process based on the affiliate program, such as calculating a success fee for the affiliate.

=== Various processing based on logs ===
In the above embodiment, even if tracking information is included in the QR code and the user who browses the media page accesses the advertiser's mobile site using a browser phone, which is hardware different from the computer used for the browsing, The affiliate that originated the access can be identified. Then, when the user generates some transaction on the mobile site, a basis for calculating the success fee to be paid to the affiliate can be obtained based on the tracking information included in the QR code.

  The affiliate ID included in the QR code can also be used as information for obtaining a basis for calculating the number of clicks on the advertising content. That is, when the browser phone that has interpreted the QR code accesses the advertisement distribution apparatus, the number of clicks on the advertisement content is counted based on the URL of the mobile site and the affiliate ID included in the QR code. Thereby, it is possible to calculate an advertisement insertion fee based on a click-based pay-as-you-go system.

  Also, based on the date and time of access based on the interpretation of the QR code recorded in the log and the date and time when the transaction occurred, if both dates and times are within a predetermined period, the transaction is viewed on the advertisement posting site. It is conceivable to execute various processes related to the affiliate program based on the access log of the browser phone based on the interpretation of the QR code, such as paying a success fee to the affiliate by accrediting it as the origin.

It is a network block diagram containing the advertisement delivery apparatus in the Example of this invention. It is a communication procedure figure with a browser when the said advertisement delivery apparatus produces a two-dimensional barcode request | requirement script. It is a communication procedure figure in connection with the delivery process of the advertisement content in the said advertisement delivery apparatus. It is the screen schematic diagram of the medium page on which the said advertising content and QR code were published. It is the schematic of the information contained in the said QR code. It is a flowchart until a user's browser phone accesses an advertiser's mobile site based on the QR code.

Explanation of symbols

1 Advertising distribution device 10a WWW server (advertiser PC site)
10b WWW server (advertiser mobile site)
20a Browser (Affiliate)
20b WWW server (affiliate site)
30a Browser (user)
30b Browser phone 40 Internet 50 Mobile communication network

Claims (4)

An advertisement distribution device composed of one or more computers connected to the Internet,
Database access means for accessing an advertisement database storing a large number of advertisement contents each linked with a link destination;
When a script generation request is sent from the accessing computer A together with the identification information of the affiliate B, the advertisement distribution device is made to access the advertising distribution device and send the identification information of the affiliate B as a script that can be interpreted by the browser. A function for requesting transmission of an image having character information hidden based on a predetermined standard, and a function for displaying an advertisement content returned from the apparatus in response to this request and a character latent image in which character information is latent. A character latent image request script generation means for sending the included character latent image request script to the computer A;
When browser C, which has obtained a Web page on which a character latent image request script is written, interprets and executes the script, sends the identification information of affiliate B, and obtains appropriate advertising content D from the database, the browser A character latent image E having a URL for sending the identification information of the affiliate B to the link destination corresponding to the advertisement content D via the advertisement distribution apparatus is generated and the image E is displayed in the browser C. Character latent image transfer means for transferring to,
When the browser phone F is accessed based on the interpretation of the character information latent in the character latent image E, the identification information of the affiliate B is acquired and the access phone is logged, and then the browser phone F is advertised. Link destination transfer means for returning a URL for accessing the link destination corresponding to the content D;
An advertisement distribution apparatus comprising: The character latent image transfer means includes the identification information of the advertisement posting site B sent by the browser C in the character latent image E as tracking information, and the link destination transfer means accesses the browser phone F when the access is made. The advertisement distribution apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the tracking information is recorded in a log, and the tracking information is added to the URL for accessing a link destination corresponding to the advertisement content D.   A computer program that is executed by a computer to cause the computer to function as the advertisement distribution apparatus according to claim 1. A program storage medium storing the program according to claim 3.

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