Glossary/Programmatic/Floor price
What is a floor price in programmatic advertising?
How floor prices work in programmatic advertising, the difference between hard and soft floors, and how publishers set floors that raise revenue instead of leaving inventory unsold.
Written by Samhub with the help of AI·Updated 12 Oct 2026·5 min readA floor price is the lowest price a publisher will accept for an ad impression. In a programmatic auction, any bid below the floor is rejected, so the impression either goes to a higher bid or stays unsold.
How floor prices work
Hard floors vs soft floors
Most programmatic setups today use hard floors, because first-price auctions make soft floors less useful.
| Hard floor | Soft floor | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Bids below the floor are always rejected | Bids below the floor can still win, at a lower price |
| Best for | Premium inventory and data deals | Testing demand and filling remnant inventory |
| Risk | Unsold impressions if set too high | Lower revenue per impression |
| Common in | Private marketplaces, programmatic guaranteed | Older second-price setups |
16 pages for publishers, with a checklist for data, programmatic and direct sales.
How to set floor prices
Start from your bid data
Look at what buyers actually bid per ad unit, device and country before you set anything.
Set floors per segment
One floor for the whole site leaves money on the table. Set them per placement and audience.
Test and adjust
Raise floors in small steps and watch fill rate and revenue per thousand visits together.
Add audience data
Impressions with audience data are worth more to buyers, so they can carry a higher floor.
Example calculation
A higher floor sells fewer impressions, but it can still raise total revenue when the impressions that do sell earn more.
Revenue = impressions sold × average CPM ÷ 1,000
No floor: 1,000,000 × €1.60 ÷ 1,000 = €1,600
€2.00 floor: 820,000 × €2.35 ÷ 1,000 = €1,927
Illustrative numbers. Fewer impressions sell, but each one earns more.
Floor prices and audience data
Buyers pay more for impressions they can target. When you attach first-party audience data, such as interests, context or household data, you can set higher floors in private marketplace deals without losing the buyers who need that audience.
CPM uplift at Stampen Media after activating first-party audiences with Samhub.
Frequently asked questions
There is no single number. A good floor sits just below what your most valuable buyers already pay, and differs by ad size, placement, device and audience. Start from your own bid data, not a market average.
In programmatic advertising the two terms mean the same thing: the minimum price a seller accepts in an auction. “Reserve price” is the general auction term, “floor price” is the one most ad tech platforms use.
Yes. You can set floors in your header bidding wrapper, in your SSPs and in your ad server. Keep them consistent, or the lowest floor in the chain decides the price.
Review them at least monthly, and around seasonal peaks such as the fourth quarter, when demand and bids rise. Many publishers also adjust floors automatically based on recent bid data.
Yes. Impressions with audience data attached are worth more to buyers who need that audience, so you can set higher floors in private marketplace deals for those segments.
Related terms
Invite-only auctions for premium inventory.
Lets many buyers bid at once before the ad server decides.
Effective revenue per 1,000 impressions.
The share of ad requests that get an ad.
Lowering bids to avoid overpaying in first-price auctions.
The winner pays just above the second-highest bid.
Samhub audiences let you set higher floors and win more data deals, in every channel you sell.
- A walkthrough with your own data
- Built for publishers and media houses
- 30 minutes, no commitment
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