waterfall bidding

Definition

A sequential ad serving method where inventory is offered to buyers in a predetermined order of priority until someone accepts, rather than through simultaneous auction. It's the queue system of programmatic advertising.

Example Usage

We're still using waterfall bidding instead of header bidding, which means we're leaving money on the table but our ad ops team insists it's 'simpler this way.'

Origin

Standard practice in ad serving since the 2000s, increasingly replaced by header bidding in the 2010s

Fun Fact

Waterfall bidding typically takes 100-200 milliseconds per pass, which doesn't sound like much until you realize header bidding can evaluate dozens of bids simultaneously in the same time.

Source: Ad serving and monetization technology

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