Playbook: Tune your Prebid timeout

Playbook: Tune your Prebid timeout
What it does: balances how long you wait for bids vs how many bidders time out.

Setup (effort 3/5):
— Pull bidder response-time percentiles from Prebid analytics. Find the 80th percentile latency.
— Set setTimeout just above that — usually 1000-1500ms desktop, 1500-2000ms mobile.
— Too low: slow-but-high bidders drop out, you lose top CPMs. Too high: you delay ad render, hurt LCP.
— Add failsafeTimeout ~3000ms so nothing hangs forever.
— Drop bidders whose timeout rate exceeds 30% — they cost latency without winning.

RPM lift seen: +4-9% from recovering high-CPM bidders that were timing out.

Pros: recovers lost demand. Cons: every added ms is LCP risk; over-tuning chases pennies.

Lift: ★★★☆☆ — Risk: ★★☆☆☆
Best for: anyone running 8+ bidders. Skip on a single-demand AdSense setup.