Programmatic auctions are undergoing a pricing revolution. Historically, supply-side platforms (SSPs) used second-price auctions, which is where the second-highest price determines how much an advertiser pays for an impression. But over the past year, most SSPs have shifted to first-price auctions, which is where the highest bid determines what the buyer pays. This has given rise to bid shading, which splits the difference between first-price and second-price winning bids. Adam Soroca, head of the global buyer team at Rubicon Project, spoke to eMarketer’s Ross Benes about how advertisers use bid shading to mitigate the difference in prices between different types of programmatic auctions.
