How Zurla works
Price floors,
in plain words.
A price floor is the lowest bid you accept for an ad. Here’s what floors do, why a fixed floor falls behind live bidding, and how Zurla tests each new floor on a small share of traffic before it keeps it.
ZurlaSports bids look strong. Can we earn more there?
Yes. Buyers there bid well above your price floor, the minimum bid you accept, so I’m testing a higher one against a control group.
- Compared a week of sports bids with your floor
- Raised the floor from $1.80 to $2.20 on 20% of sports pages
- Kept the other 80% as the control · undo in one click
Floor test liveReport on Friday
Last auction · per 1,000 views
sports-feed·native
- Buyerbelow floorwins$2.10
- Buyerbelow floorwins$2.40
- Buyerbelow floorwins$2.80
- Buyerbelow floorwins$3.10
- Private dealbelow floorwins$3.40
Floor $2.20
- Bids over the floor
- 4 of 5
- Winning bid
- $3.40
Set toward your goal · auction took 69 ms
Floor test · sports pages
All sports pages · floor $1.80 Test 20% · floor $2.20 Control 80% · floor $1.80 All sports pages · floor $2.20
Revenue per 1,000 views
Floor on every sports page$1.80
On the test floor · report on Friday20%
Test against control, per 1,000 views+$0.42
New floor kept · per 1,000 views+$0.42
Same floor for every buyer · undo in one click
- A floor for every ad request
- Tested on a share first
- Same floor for every buyer
- Undo in one click
Illustrative data
A plain guide to price floors
The lowest price
you accept.
Every time an ad slot loads, buyers bid for it. The price floor is the minimum bid that can win: bids at or above it compete, the highest one takes the slot, and bids under it sit that auction out.
Floors are quoted like bids, per 1,000 views. A $2.20 floor means a buyer offers at least $2.20 for every 1,000 times the ad is seen.
- Price floorAlso called: reserve price, minimum price
- The lowest bid a slot accepts. It can differ by slot, page, format and country, and it’s quoted per 1,000 views.
- BidAlso called: CPM bid
- What a buyer offers to show its ad, per 1,000 views. In an open auction every buyer bids at the same moment, and the highest bid over the floor wins.
- Fixed floorAlso called: static floor
- One number, set by hand, that stays put until someone changes it, whatever buyers are bidding that hour.
- Live floorAlso called: dynamic floor
- A floor set for each ad request from what buyers are bidding right now. This is how Zurla sets floors.
- Test and control
- A new floor runs on a small share of traffic, often 20%. The rest keeps today’s floor as the control group, so the two can be compared fairly.
- Hard minimum
- A price you set that no floor and no test ever goes under. Tell Zurla once, in plain words, and it holds.
Fixed or live
Bids move all day.
Floors should too.
A fixed floor is one number, set once and checked now and then. Bids change by page, slot, country and hour, so one number sits too high when bids are quiet and too low when they climb. Zurla sets a live floor instead: for this slot, on this page, right now, aimed at your goal.
- Set once, checked now and thenPrices that follow live bidding, ad by ad
- The same number at 6 am and at 9 pmHigher as bids climb, lower as they ease
- Changes go live everywhere at onceEach new floor tested on a share of traffic first
How a floor test works
Every new floor
starts as a test.
Zurla, a large language model made for advertising, never moves a floor everywhere at once. It tries the new floor on a small share of traffic, compares it with the rest, and keeps whichever earns more.
Read the bids
Zurla looks at a week of bids on the slot and sees where buyers bid well above today’s floor.
Pick a test floor
It picks a new floor aimed at your goal, and never one under your hard minimum.
Split the traffic
The new floor runs on a small share of pages. The rest keep today’s floor as the control group.
Compare
Both groups are measured the same way: revenue per 1,000 views, and how often the slot fills.
Keep the winner
The floor that earns more goes to every page in the group. Any change can be undone in one click.
Illustrative data
AuctionsSame rules for every buyerIn the open auction every buyer meets the same floor, Zurla included, and private deals keep the price agreed in the deal. The full rules are on the Auctions page.Where floors are set
Who sets
the floor.
Publishers connect through the Zurla SDK for native and banner ads, or a programmatic integration. Apps use the Zurla SDK for native, banner, interstitial and rewarded ads. Here’s who sets the floor on each, and how.
| Way in | Who sets the floor | How it’s set |
|---|---|---|
| Zurla SDK for websites | Zurla | Per request: a floor for this slot, on this page, right now, aimed at your goal |
| Prebid, hosted by Zurla | Zurla | Per request, the same way as on the SDK |
| Prebid, with floors from Zurla | Zurla | Floor rules through Prebid’s Price Floors module, by slot, size and format |
| Prebid, with Zurla as a bidder | You | Your own floors, which Zurla’s bids meet like any other bidder’s |
| OpenRTB requests to Zurla | You | The bidfloor in each OpenRTB 2.6 request |
| Zurla SDK for apps | Zurla | Per request, by placement, format and country, aimed at your goals; private deals carry the price agreed in the deal |
Everywhere: your hard minimums hold, and every buyer in the open auction meets the same floor.
Floors in Prebid
Keep Prebid. Let Zurla set the floors.
If you run Prebid, point its Price Floors module at Zurla: one setting, and new floors arrive with no code release. Your bidders, timeouts and ad server stay as they are.
- Your hard minimums hold in every floor and every test.
- Your ad server always picks the final winner.
Our floors come from you through Prebid now. Can we keep our own minimum on the sidebar?
Yes. Tell me once and it holds: every floor I send through Prebid’s Price Floors module, and every floor test, stays at or above it.
- Set a hard minimum of $1.00 on the sidebar
- Checked today’s sidebar floors: every one above it
- New floor tests on the sidebar start at $1.00 or more
Hard minimum set$1.00 on the sidebar
Illustrative data · floors from Zurla need the Price Floors module in your Prebid build
Questions
Good to know.
Plain answers about floors, tests and your own minimums.
Does a higher floor always earn more?
No, and that’s why every new floor starts as a test. A floor earns the most when it sits just under what buyers will pay for that slot at that moment. Zurla finds that point by testing on a share of traffic and keeping whichever floor earns more.
How does Zurla pick a new floor?
Zurla is a frontier model, built for advertising. It reads a week of bids on the slot, sees how far buyers bid above today’s floor, and picks a test floor aimed at your goal, never under your hard minimum. You can ask it why, in plain words, at any time.
Is the floor the same for every buyer?
Yes. In the open auction every buyer meets the same floor for a slot, Zurla included, and private deals carry the price agreed in the deal. The full rules are on Auctions.
Can I set a minimum price Zurla never goes under?
Yes. Tell Zurla in the chat, like “never under $1.00 on the sidebar.” It becomes a hard minimum that every floor and every test respects.
How long does a floor test run?
Until the answer is clear. Above, Zurla reports on Friday. You see the test and the control side by side, and you can end a test or undo a floor in one click.
Do floors slow down my pages?
No. Zurla sets the floor as part of the auction itself, and Zurla’s auctions finish in under 100 ms.
Do floors work with Prebid?
Yes. Zurla works with Prebid: point Prebid’s Price Floors module at Zurla and it sets your floors, while your bidders, timeouts and ad server stay as they are. If Zurla hosts your Prebid setup, it sets floors per request, like on the SDK. More on Works with Prebid.
And in apps?
On the Zurla SDK for apps, Zurla sets a floor for every request by placement, format and country, aimed at your goals, for native, banner, interstitial and rewarded ads. More for app developers.
Are the prices on this page real?
Every bid, floor and result here is illustrative, to show how floors work. Your own numbers show up in the chat and in your reports.
Floors that follow your bids.
Tell Zurla your goal in plain words. It sets a floor for every ad request, tests each new floor on a share of traffic first, and any change can be undone in one click.