How Per-Bidder Floors Fit Into GAM Floor Strategies

Floor prices don’t have to be the same across every bidder within a demand source. Google Ad Manager’s per-bidder floors give publishers the option to set different floor prices for individual programmatic bidders.

This is particularly relevant as antitrust remedies affecting Google’s Unified Pricing Rules change how floor pricing can be structured for indirect transactions. Bidder-level floors give publishers another option to consider as they review how floor prices can differ across demand.

For publishers managing multiple pricing conditions, this adds another variable to consider when deciding how to structure and test their floor strategies.

What the Update Adds

Area	What It Means for Publishers
Bidder-level pricing	A floor can be assigned to a specific programmatic bidder within a GAM pricing rule.
Different floor levels	Selected bidders can have a different applicable floor from the broader pricing setup.
More targeting options	Bidder can be considered alongside other pricing-rule conditions, such as demand source, advertiser, brand, size, and creative type.
Overlapping rules	When multiple applicable pricing rules overlap, the higher applicable price takes precedence.

What Per-Bidder Floors Add

GAM pricing rules can be applied using several targeting options, including demand sources, bidders, advertisers, brands, sizes, creative types, and other conditions. With bidder-specific pricing, publishers can select individual bidders within a demand source and assign a floor specifically to them.

When multiple pricing rules apply to the same impression, the higher applicable price takes precedence. The floor communicated in a bid request does not necessarily reflect every more-specific pricing condition. A more targeted floor can still be applied during the auction when its criteria are met.

Per-bidder pricing applies to supported non-guaranteed demand through pricing rules. It does not apply to Programmatic Direct, including Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals.

Why This Matters for Publishers

Per-bidder floors give publishers another way to differentiate pricing within a broader demand strategy.

A publisher can apply a broader floor across a demand source while setting a different floor for selected bidders within that source. This gives publishers the option to test bidder-level pricing while maintaining broader pricing conditions. 

The results still need to be evaluated against the revenue performance of the inventory being tested. A higher floor does not automatically mean a better outcome, so testing and measurement remain important when changing floor prices. 

Managing the Broader Floor Strategy With Smart PFC

The new bidder-specific setting gives publishers another pricing dimension to work with inside GAM. MonetizeMore’s Smart Price Floor Controller (Smart PFC) covers a different set of dimensions: source, URL, ad unit, country, and device. 

Publishers can use GAM’s bidder-specific pricing for floors tied to individual bidders, while Smart PFC can be used for floor strategies based on the inventory dimensions it supports. Smart PFC also provides centralized management, automation, and A/B testing for those strategies. 

For example, a publisher could test floor changes across different inventory segments in Smart PFC while keeping bidder-specific pricing configured through GAM’s native pricing rules. These address different targeting dimensions: GAM provides bidder-specific pricing, while Smart PFC supports the inventory dimensions described above. 

Smart PFC uses ReCPM as its recommended metric for its floor-price experiments, giving publishers a consistent metric to use when evaluating those tests. 

Takeaways

Per-bidder floors give publishers another way to tailor pricing within GAM. As floor strategies become more granular, testing and measurement can help publishers assess how different pricing conditions perform across their inventory. 

Ready to test different floor-pricing approaches across your inventory? Run floor-price experiments, compare the results using ReCPM, and refine your strategy based on what the data shows. Book a Floor Pricing Audit now.

source https://www.monetizemore.com/blog/per-bidder-floors-gam/