Inventory sold in real time through automated auctions.

The leading trade association for digital advertising. Develops technical standards and best practices, ad formats, measurement guidelines, data standards, that ensure consistency across the industry.

The winning bidder pays exactly what they bid.

The winner pays just above the second-highest bid.

The minimum price a publisher sets for an impression.

A soft floor allows a second-price fallback; a hard floor does not.

A parallel auction where all SSPs bid simultaneously before the ad server is triggered, replacing the traditional waterfall.

The traditional mediation method, where ad networks are prioritized in a fixed, predefined order.

A modern approach that fairly auctions inventory across all networks simultaneously.

The final opportunity for a specific buyer to view the highest bid and optionally outbid it by any amount to win the impression. Typically occurs as the last step in the post-bid round.

Delay in ad load or bid response. Can negatively affect fill rate and user experience.

The minimum bid required to participate in an auction, set by the publisher or platform.