We've had both wins and frustrations. The CTV and programmatic reach are genuinely excellent, but the interface complexity means mistakes are easy and costly if you're not careful. It's a serious tool that rewards experienced traders and punishes casual ones.
Wide reach across channels
Complex interface, easy to misconfigure
The Trade Desk does what it claims and the targeting depth is impressive. However, unless you're a large account the support is fairly hands-off and you're expected to figure a lot out yourself. We get results but it took a lot of self-teaching to get there.
Deep targeting options
Limited support for mid-size accounts
The Trade Desk gives us granular control over programmatic buys, and the connected TV inventory has been a real strength for our brand campaigns. The platform is powerful and stable. My only gripe is that the reporting interface throws so many metrics at you that new buyers get overwhelmed.
Great CTV inventory, granular controls
Reporting feels cluttered
There's no doubt the platform is best-in-class for programmatic across web, mobile, and CTV. The problem for us is that minimum spends and the seat fees make it hard to justify at our scale. Powerful, but I'm genuinely torn on the value for a smaller advertiser.
Best-in-class programmatic features
High minimums and fees
What keeps us on The Trade Desk is the transparency into where impressions are actually served compared to other DSPs we've tried. Cross-device targeting works well and the data partnerships are extensive. The one downside is that it really needs an experienced trader to get full value.
Transparent supply, strong cross-device targeting
Steep learning curve for newcomers