Social Rebroadcasting of Sponsored Content to Alleviate Ad Blindness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing social networks face challenges in effectively targeting advertisements to users, leading to ad blindness where users ignore ads after a period of display, and advertisers lack adequate feedback on ad quality.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that allows users to rebroadcast sponsored content items, such as advertisements, to their friends and acquaintances within a social network, incorporating a social aspect to ad display and providing feedback to advertisers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If advertisements are targeted to static profile information, then ad delivery is simple and automated, but ad relevance deteriorates and users begin to ignore advertisements
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by allowing users to indicate interest in advertisements through actions such as clicking 'like' or 'send to friend' buttons. This feedback is then used to dynamically adjust ad targeting, enabling the system to learn from user responses and improve ad relevance over time while maintaining automated delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms static profile-based targeting into a dynamic system where ad delivery evolves based on user interactions. The system continuously updates targeting parameters based on real-time user feedback, making the ad delivery process adaptive rather than fixed, thereby maintaining both automation and relevance.
2Illumination intensity
If advertisements are displayed frequently to users, then ad visibility increases, but user engagement deteriorates due to ad blindness
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces social connections as intermediaries in ad delivery. Instead of directly pushing ads to users, ads are transmitted through trusted social contacts who forward them to their networks. This intermediary approach maintains visibility while improving engagement because users are more likely to interact with ads coming from trusted sources rather than direct system broadcasts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a social dimension to traditional ad delivery by incorporating user relationships and social graphs into the targeting mechanism. This transforms the ad delivery space from a simple user-ad matching problem to a multi-dimensional problem involving social trust, connection strength, and network effects, thereby improving engagement while maintaining visibility.
3Device complexity
If advertisers receive limited feedback on ad quality, then system complexity is reduced, but ad optimization capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service feedback mechanisms where users actively provide quality signals through their interactions with ads. By embedding feedback buttons and tracking user actions, the system automatically collects optimization data without requiring complex external measurement infrastructure, thereby improving measurement precision while keeping system complexity manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that receives at a server a first request to rebroadcast a first sponsored content item that was displayed on the social network to the first user to a second user. A second request to display at least one sponsored content item to the second user when the second user accesses an electronic document associated with the social network is received at the server. The first sponsored content item is retrieved for rebroadcast from one or more sponsored content items indicated for rebroadcast to the second user. The first sponsored content item is output to the second user of the social network in response to the second request to display and without requiring the second user to select the first sponsored content item for display.