"This network gives me 99% fill rate"

"This network gives me 99% fill rate"

Granted: fill rate matters — unfilled impressions are pure waste, and 99% beats 80%.

But fill is trivially gamed. Drop your floors to a penny and you'll fill everything — with garbage remnant that pays $0.10 CPM. High fill plus low yield is a network selling you a vanity metric while quietly clearing your inventory at fire-sale prices to hit the number you brag about.

🚩 Hidden variable: the floor price behind the fill. Fill rate × average CPM is the only thing that pays your bills, and the two trade against each other.

A network at 85% fill holding $3 floors out-earns one at 99% fill clearing at $0.40. Fill rate without yield is theater.

Not saying fill rate is bad — saying the comparison is rigged.