Reference / Glossary / Buying and pricing
Bid Shading
An algorithm inside a DSP that lowers each bid below the buyer's maximum in a First-Price Auction, estimating the minimum price likely to still win. Bid shading recovers some of the savings buyers lost when exchanges abandoned second-price auctions, and its quality varies materially between DSPs.
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Cite this entry:
Agency Echelon. "Bid Shading." Agency Echelon Reference, reviewed September 2026. https://agencyechelon.com/reference/glossary/bid-shading/