Myth: first-price auctions killed the need for floors

Myth: first-price auctions killed the need for floors
Common line since the 2019 shift — 'first-price, so floors don't matter.' That advice is leaving money on the table.
— Bid shading lives or dies on floor signals; no floor means the DSP shades you to the basement
— Smart unified floors per audience tier still lift yield 8-15% on premium inventory
— Removing floors doesn't 'free' demand, it just removes the DSP's incentive to bid up
Floors moved from gatekeeping to price-discovery.
Impact: re-introduce per-segment floors before blaming yield on the auction type. (sourced)