Unified first-price auction vs aggressive price floors

Unified first-price auction vs aggressive price floors

What it does — both try to squeeze more per impression. First-price (now standard) takes the top bid as-is; price floors set a hard minimum below which you'd rather show nothing or house ads.

Setup effort (1-5) — First-price: 0 (it's default). Floors: 3 (per-geo, per-format floor tuning + monitoring fill).

RPM lift seen — Static floor set too high: -10% (you kill fill). Dynamic/optimized floors at the 60-70th percentile of historical bids: +5-12% eCPM with fill intact.

Pros / Cons —
Floors: lift eCPM, signal value to buyers, but a wrong floor silently bleeds revenue via unfilled slots.
No floors: max fill, but you accept lowball bids.

Verdict — Don't set floors by gut. Pull your bid distribution, set the floor at the 60th percentile, and watch fill weekly. Skip floors entirely below ~$1 RPM, you need the fill more than the eCPM.

Lift: ★★★☆☆ — Risk: ★★★☆☆
Best for: sites with steady premium demand. Skip if fill is already shaky.