Google to move all auctions in AdSense to first price

In the coming months, advertisers bidding on AdSense will pay what they bid. Until now, AdSense worked in a second-price auction, where the final price paid by the winner was determined by the amount of the second-highest bid.

According to Google, AdSense for Content, AdSense for Video, and AdSense for Games will move to a first price auction, but AdSense for Search, and AdSense for Shopping remain in a second price auction.

So the impact is in display and video formats. Google did not yet announce the date for the transition to first-price auction. On Ad Manager, in 2019, Google transitioned with experiments to see how first-price auctions would change the bidding from advertisers.

Google expects the impact to AdSense publishers’ earnings overall from the move to a first-price auction to be neutral, as when Ad Manager moved to a first-price auction, there was a neutral to slightly positive impact to publisher earnings on average. Google says that because of the dynamic auction environment, it cannot predict how specific AdSense publishers will be affected.

Google Ad Manager and AdMob ad networks are with first-price auctions since 2019. Search, YouTube, and social platforms have second-price auctions.