Last month Google rolled out first-price auctions, which—because they are Google—means that now everyone else will follow suit. First-price will be the universal method for the $48 billion programmatic market. To provide some perspective, that’s the same size as organic food sales in the U.S., the cannabis market worldwide and the entire wearables industry.
First-price means the winning advertiser pays exactly what they bid. This, versus second-price, which awards the auction to the highest bidder, means they pay only slightly more than the second highest price that was bid.