US Patent 7778874 Automated generation of suggested online advertising campaign parameters

An advertising system automatically generates suggested ad campaign parameters for a business based on information obtained automatically from one or more sources, such as a corresponding business directory listing, a web site of the business, and/or a user account record associated with the business. The suggested ad campaign parameters, which may include suggested keyword strings for ad targeting, are presented to a user associated with the business via a partially or wholly pre-populated electronic form that can be submitted to create an active ad campaign for the business. In one embodiment, the pre-populated form is presented in response to the user selecting an ad solicitation object displayed on a web page. The ad solicitation object may be displayed in the format of an actual ad, and may include suggested ad text for use in the ad campaign.