A gadget site set a $2 floor — and watched fill rate collapse to 40%

A gadget site set a $2 floor — and watched fill rate collapse to 40%

A floor is your minimum acceptable bid. Set it too high and bidders simply walk away, leaving slots empty.

What happened: a gadget review site got greedy and set a $2.00 floor everywhere, hoping for premium prices.

What they saw in a week:
1. Fill rate (slots that got filled) crashed from 85% to 40%.
2. Empty slots earned nothing.
3. Total revenue fell 22%, even though winning bids were higher.

They dropped the floor to $0.70 and fill recovered.

Result: revenue returned above the original level.

In plain English: a floor too high empties your shelves. A few rich buyers can't make up for half your ads showing nothing.