User configurable advertising profiles applied to Web page banners Patrick Baudisch GMD-IPSI October 97 GMD

Content Current situation Motivation Adapting banners to users Requirements Existing approaches & rating User configurable advertising profiles Conclusions

Current situation Economical aspects gain influence on the World Wide Web Refinancing sites becomes an important issue Difficulty in transferring small amounts of money through the web (subscription fees) Advertising gains significance

Advertising banners Example: Spiegel Online June ‘96

Web advertising is far from reaching its potential There are only few advertising clients, especially in Germany Banners have low impact on users Users see no use in banners, only costs banners lengthen transmission, thus raising transmission fees banners are usually not related to users’ interests Adapt banners to users

Adapting banners to users: Desired effect Internet commer- cialization more advertising clients better user involvement more users of the service better user acceptance refinanciation allowing better content quality increasing number of Internet users user related advertising banners

Requirements Effectiveness Wide applicability Low effort for users Low effort for the site provider Low effort for advertising clients Respect user privacy

Existing concepts Internet demography Users are young, educated, ... Page content Accept only matching banners User demography: Form or IP-Address Find out who users are Web history: Bookmark upload or cookie Find out what pages users view

Classification relate to person relate to Web pages restrictive Internet page content demo g raphy adaptive User Web history demogr a phy manual/ Form IP- Book Cooki automatic address mark es

Problems, problems, ... Restrictive -> not widely applicable Adaptive -> require minimum banner set Demography -> poor adaptation Manual -> many users refuse extra effort Automatic -> violate privacy

Approaches vs. Requirements web history (cookies) web history (bookmarks) User demography (IP-a.) User demography (form) page content Internet demography effectiveness applicability low user effort low site effort low a. client effort privacy (*Higher bars = better ratings)

User configurable advertising profiles Problem: Banner selection based on demography or Web history is indirect, thus inaccurate Possible solution: Find out what users think about presented banners Generate personal advertising profile according to feedback about banners Use profile to select most suitable banners

User interface Mouse click on banner (following the link) means positive feedback. Increases probability for similar banners Mouse click on trashcan (removes banner) means negative feedback Decreases probability for similar banners

Feedback propagation Banners are related by a similarity graph 21 p1 Banner 2 n 21 p p2 23 Banner 3 p3 n 23 Banners are related by a similarity graph Each banner has a display probability

Test implementation: Channels Simplify graph to shallow tree Similar banners are grouped as “Channels” Additional interface: Users may access profile directly Advertising clients use this interface to place banners Default = off Ads

Advertising profiles: Rating Hypothesis: Direct manipulation less biases high effectiveness Requires account and minimum banner set (like all adaptive systems) Increased performance requires extra users interaction Users are not forced to participate

Advertising profiles vs. Requirements effectiveness applicability low user effort low site effort low a. client effort privacy (*Higher bars = better ratings)

Conclusions (“Moral”) Users can access and control their data “Advertising is necessary to finance sites” We expect that users accept this fact Give advertising pull charac- teristics (matching the Web) “Info channels”: Advertising gains an informative character Evaluation within “TV-Online”