The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Programmatic
Bid Density
The number of different bids received for a single ad impression opportunity. More bids mean more competition, which drives up the price and are good news for publishers.
HOW IT WORKS
When a publisher makes an impression available, multiple DSPs and buyers can submit bids. If only 3 buyers bid, the winning price might be low. If 25 buyers compete for the same impression, they drive each other's prices up. Bid density is influenced by the quality of the audience, the floor price, the QPS capacity and how many demand partners are connected.
EXAMPLE
A premium news publisher notices high bid density for impressions from logged-in users in their 35–54 demographic — 40+ bids per impression. For anonymous users with no data, bid density drops to 5–8. The publisher uses this insight to price their authenticated inventory much higher.
RELATED TERMS
Real-time bidding (RTB) | QPS | Floor price | Yield optimisation | Supply path optimisation (SPO)
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Limelight's unlimited QPS and broad DSP integrations maximise bid density for publisher partners, ensuring every impression receives the most competitive possible auction.
