The auction model where the winner pays whatever they bid. No safety net of paying a penny more than the runner-up. The shift from second-price to first-price changed bidding strategy fundamentally. Naive bidders who submitted their true max overpaid immediately. Bid shading algorithms exist to walk that number down toward the likely clearing price. Most DSPs apply some version of shading automatically. Most buyers don't know exactly how.
Ad tech glossary
First-Price Auction
Technical definition
An auction model where the winning bidder pays exactly what they bid, as opposed to the second-price model where they pay just above the second-highest bid.
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