Programmatic Advertising Insights

The Trade Desk adds the first SKU-level retail data for self-serve advertisers and agencies - with Instacart and Ocado Retail as first mover #RetailMedia partners. TTD has lots of existing retailer sales data partnerships, including Instacart since 2023 - but the new development adds these online grocery platforms’ product catalogues directly within an advertiser’s account, in their seat on TTD. As any advertiser using the product must also be a user of TTD’s conversion API (CAPI), the DSP will be able to see data coming back almost in real time. Naturally there are stringent limitations on how the data can be used. In order to access Instacart’s data, the TTD advertiser must be approved by Instacart, with the data it can see is approved by Instacart on a “case by case basis” according to Ali Miller, VP of Product Development at Instacart. A brand can see the sales of its own product SKUs and create custom audiences related to its brand terms, for instance, but couldn’t directly target competitor brand or its terms. Although one of the audience segments that can be constructed through the new integrations is known 'category buyers who haven’t purchased the brand before'. Which is essentially conquesting, just without targeting specific competitor brands. #retail #media #programmatic #DSP #shoppermarketing #trademarketing #data #SKU #digitalshelf #commercemedia #marketing #advertising #instacart #ocado #TTD Ocado Group Ocado Technology

The End of an Era: Xandr’s Depreciation & What It Means for AdTech  Big news in the #AdTech world—Microsoft is officially sunsetting Xandr, marking the end of a once-dominant force in programmatic advertising. As the industry digests this shift, here’s what it means for DSP dynamics, data strategies, and the broader ecosystem:  1. The DSP Power Shift Xandr’s exit leaves a gap in the *premium programmatic* space, where it was a key player alongside The Trade Desk, Google DV360, and Amazon DSP. Expect:  - More consolidation: Buyers may shift budgets toward remaining DSPs, strengthening TTD and DV360’s dominance.   - Emerging challengers: Smaller DSPs with unique differentiators (retail media, CTV, privacy-centric solutions) could gain traction.   - Microsoft’s next move: Will they double down on their own demand stack or forge new partnerships?  2. Data & Identity Implications  Xandr’s data marketplace and identity solutions were key assets. With its deprecation:  - Publishers & buyers lose a data source*, pushing them toward alternative clean room and ID solutions.   - Microsoft’s first-party data* (LinkedIn, Xbox, Bing) may get repurposed into a new buying platform.   - Contextual & privacy-safe targeting* could see even more adoption as buyers reassess their strategies.  3. The Future of “Premium” Programmatic   Xandr was known for high-quality inventory (AT&T’s WarnerMedia, AppNexus legacy deals). Its absence might:   - Drive more direct deals as advertisers seek trusted supply.   - Accelerate curation & PMP growth*, with publishers leaning into private marketplaces.  Final Thought Xandr’s sunset is another sign of AdTech’s relentless evolution—*scale matters, but differentiation matters more. The DSPs that thrive will be those that combine transparency, performance, and adaptability in a cookie less, fragmented world.  What’s your take? Will this shift benefit the remaining DSPs, or will it open doors for new players? #Programmatic #Advertising #Data #Microsoft  #AdTech #ProgrammaticAdvertising #DigitalMarketing #Innovation #Xandr #MarketImpact

New Update: Amazon DSP campaign and creative APIs are now generally available. This is a build on many of the announcements from #unBoxed2024 What is it? This new feature allows users to create, read, and update their Amazon DSP campaigns, ad groups, targets, and creatives through a programmatic interface. How does it work? These APIs enable technology providers and advertisers to develop custom experiences within their own applications and seamlessly run Amazon DSP campaigns within existing workflows. The new APIs can be used in conjunction with existing audience and deal resources, providing a comprehensive toolkit for end-to-end campaign management. Users can now store Amazon DSP campaign data locally, simplify campaign and creative creation, and automate optimizations to maximize campaign performance. Why should I care? This update is a game-changer for Amazon DSP users. Here's why it matters: 1. Efficiency boost: Streamline your campaign and creative creation process, significantly reducing activation time for new campaigns. 2. Better data control: Store and manage Amazon DSP campaign data locally, giving you more control over your data and analytics. 3. Custom optimization: Automate optimizations across campaign, ad group, and targeting settings, allowing for data-driven decisions on bids and budgets. 4. Seamless integration: Easily integrate Amazon DSP into your existing tech stack, enabling you to track campaigns in your own tools and sync campaign metadata with your data storage solutions. 5. Performance improvement: Experiment with new audiences and quickly remove underperforming ones to maximize campaign performance. 6. Real-time adjustments: Automatically adjust bids and budgets in real-time, ensuring your campaigns are always performing at their best. Bottom line: Whether you're a large agency or tech partner looking to integrate Amazon DSP more deeply into your operations or an individual advertiser seeking to automate and optimize your campaigns, these new APIs offer exciting possibilities to enhance your advertising efforts on Amazon's platform. Want to check it out? You can learn more about these new features at the Amazon Ads website (https://lnkd.in/gESdMWhy). For those ready to dive in, check out the developer guide (https://lnkd.in/gQAPRdcs) and reference documentation (https://lnkd.in/gBV-BbVb) to start leveraging these powerful new APIs in your advertising strategy.

Amazon DSP Is No Longer the Walled Garden You Think It Is For years, The Trade Desk was the go-to for programmatic buyers who wanted flexibility, transparency, and open internet scale. Amazon DSP was dismissed as the “retail data box” powerful, but limited. That’s changing. Fast. Amazon DSP is becoming more open, more integrated, and way more competitive. Here’s what we’re seeing: New 3rd-party integrations that extend reach and measurement More transparent reporting and audience insights outside of just Amazon properties Deeper CTV and Fire TV access, rivaling even TTD’s OTT dominance Stronger automation and optimization tools baked into the tech stack. The narrative that Amazon DSP is only useful for retail media is outdated. Amazon is clearly positioning itself to go head-to-head with The Trade Desk, especially as advertisers prioritize first-party data and streaming TV scale. TTD still leads in open web innovation. No doubt.... But for how long? If you're sleeping on the new Amazon DSP, you’re behind the curve. This isn’t just about picking sides it’s about realizing that Amazon’s ad tech is evolving into a serious contender across the entire funnel. The question now isn't whether Amazon DSP is viable it's how you're going to integrate it into your stack before your competitors do. Thoughts? Let’s hear it. #AmazonDSP #TheTradeDesk #AdTech #Programmatic #CTV #RetailMedia #StreamingAds #DigitalMarketing #MediaBuying #FirstPartyData

I keep getting asked what happens to the DSP when media buying becomes agentic. Google just gave us part of the answer. Google's Buyer Direct lets a publisher create a guaranteed proposal in Google Ad Manager and transact with an agency without routing the buy through a DSP. The agency accepts through Google’s Agency interface. The publisher manages the creative. Reporting and payments stay inside Ad Manager. For most of programmatic’s history, the DSP was in the transaction because the architecture required it. Google has now shipped a supply path where, for guaranteed inventory, it doesn’t. The company with the largest ad server and one of the largest DSPs has built a route that bypasses its own DSP. The ceiling is the ad server. Buyer Direct works for inventory in GAM. It does nothing for FreeWheel, Kevel, retail media networks running their own stacks, DOOH, or audio. In this market that leaves out a meaningful share of premium video. It's also built for people rather than agents. There's no machine-readable product catalogue, no brief going out and structured proposals coming back. It's guaranteed only, so it digitises the insertion order rather than replacing the buying interface.  And while delivery data sits in Google’s reporting, it is not part of a feedback loop that can reshape the buy against the brief. So Buyer Direct is not agentic media buying. It does validate one of the core architectural assumptions behind it: a DSP does not need to sit inside every transaction. Google’s model works within one ad server. The harder problem is making that model work across all of them. That is where open protocols such as AdCP become consequential.

This week marks a turning point in programmatic buying. For B2B companies, the sunsetting of the Xandr DSP translates into a fundamental reshaping of the advertising playing field: -Walled gardens will proliferate as platforms lock down behind authenticated data walls. -Invitation-only PMPs will become the baseline for quality, transparency, and compliance. -The black-box problem deepens…closed ecosystems strip away visibility into performance and audiences. -AI-native channels emerge as the ultimate proving ground, with tools like our Agentbase Outcomes Agent transforming raw signals into real-time, conversational campaigns. These shifts will impact buying teams: Buyers will prioritize data unification. Success hinges on activating first-party account signals (and stitching CRM, web analytics, and intent feeds into a single account profile). Buyers will co-create their tech stack. Vendor relationships will evolve into true co-innovation: expect to co-develop PMP integrations, share APIs, and iterate side by side. Buyers will demand unshakeable vendor stability. Buyers will vet DSP providers not just on functionality, but on financial health, roadmaps, and long-term commitment to B2B. We recognized that retrofitted, consumer-grade DSPs and walled gardens simply can’t proliferate seven-person buying committees or nine-month sales cycles. That’s why we built our own B2B DSP from the ground up: a platform that prioritizes the real decision-makers over anonymous cookies and uses AI to balance spend across enterprise tiers and nurture accounts. Context isn’t an afterthought; it’s the very foundation that guides every campaign from first impression to renewal. If you’re wondering what to do today to adapt, here are 3 steps to take right now. 1) Unify your data by merging CRM, web analytics, and intent feeds into a single, buying engine. 2) Identify the handful of suppliers that most influence your ICP. Negotiate PMP access, guaranteed impressions against your target list, and custom data integrations (e.g., matched audiences). 3) Audit your DSP dependence. If your advertising platform owns a purpose-built B2B DSP, you’ve removed the largest single point of failure. Otherwise, list every buy engine you “rent” and identify black-box risks. Identify a backup activation path (alternative DSP, direct publisher buys, or programmatic partner). Consider this “fire drill”: Could you switch in under 24 hours in an emergency if the supply chain is cut off?

Long read but anyone in ad tech and programmatic should listen to my words: The programmatic spine is bending and close to breaking. Anyone in ad tech knows it's largely held together by IDs. The buy side's foundation relies heavily on user IDs; remove them, and the whole system collapses. Basic DSP functions like conversion pixels, frequency capping, and exclusion segments all depend on user IDs. As a result, most buy-side solutions discard QPS they don't think you'll transact on. If you're using traditional settings like frequency capping, conversion tracking, or audience exclusions, you're missing out on tons of available inventory. the U of Digital newsletter highlights two key shifts: one, ad spend moving from display to CTV, and two, AI search reducing the QPS that DSPs rely on for transactions. The shift to CTV is driven by two factors. First, CTV is a strong channel worth investing in. Second, and less discussed, CTV allows continued ID targeting, keeping the ad tech spine intact. Does this mean display ads are dead? No way. Are they less effective? Nope. But you need to adjust your approach. My data spine is built on content and consumption patterns, not user IDs, so it holds strong without processing the massive QPS that major DSPs need for buying signals. The future of open web display targeting will have far fewer stable IDs but will focus on specific URLs showing strong user intent. Understanding why those URLs matter to an audience is how you win display ads on the open web. There's still massive scale out there; it just doesn't rely on IDs. You’re reaching users at the moment of their specific interest, not chasing weak ID signals, and you face almost zero competition because competitors are tied to user IDs. This is the future of display ads: just as important, if not more, and way more targeted.

Programmatic used to feel simple: pick a DSP, run campaigns, optimize bids. Not anymore. Today, the choice of DSP shapes data access, measurement depth, media reach, and ultimately business outcomes. I recently mapped out a side-by-side view of four major platforms to understand where each one actually wins. Here’s what stood out. DV360 remains the strongest when your strategy leans into the Google stack. YouTube scale, GA4 signals, and cross-channel attribution make it a natural fit for global brand campaigns and full-funnel storytelling. The Trade Desk is where the open web still feels powerful. Strong CTV reach, transparent bidding, and identity solutions give advertisers control beyond walled gardens, especially for performance and advanced targeting. Amazon DSP changes the game when purchase intent matters. Shopper behavior data and onsite-to-offsite measurement make it extremely effective for retail conversions and ROAS-driven campaigns. Flipkart DSP is quietly becoming a serious India-first retail media engine. Deep marketplace signals and strong regional reach make it valuable for brands focused on transactional growth within India. What this really means is simple: There isn’t a universal “best DSP.” The right platform depends on your data strategy, geography, funnel stage, and measurement priority. The comparison framework in the attached visual breaks down: • Use-case strengths • Audience data depth • Geographic advantages • Integration ecosystems • Campaign focus areas • Platform advantages and limitations If you work in programmatic, retail media, or performance marketing, this decision is no longer tactical. It’s strategic. Curious to hear how others are choosing their DSP stack in 2026 and what trade-offs you’re seeing. #ProgrammaticAdvertising #DSP #RetailMedia #AdTech #DigitalAdvertising #PerformanceMarketing #DV360 #TheTradeDesk #AmazonDSP #FlipkartDSP #MediaBuying #CTVAdvertising #DataDrivenMarketing #MarketingStrategy

Everyone’s talking about the wrong DSP story. It’s not Trade Desk vs. Amazon. It’s one vs. many. 👀 Here’s what actually matters: An $80M shift from TTD to Amazon made headlines. Cool. But that’s not the takeaway. The real trend? Advertisers aren’t switching DSPs. They’re stacking them. Why? CTV. Live sports. Premium content. Fragmented inventory. One DSP can’t touch it all. Want full access? You need multiple platforms. Period. Now zoom out: ->TTD is rolling out 10+ new tools. ->Amazon’s doing its thing. ->Others are quietly catching up. Different DSPs unlock different advantages: Inventory. Pricing. Targeting. This isn’t a horse race. It’s an arms race. The winners? Not the ones who pick a side. The ones who build for flexibility. Buy across platforms. Optimize across the stack. Simple. Scalable. Smart. The future isn’t about the best DSP. It’s about having easy access to all of them.

Unlocking Insights from Google Ads and Search Console Data 🚀 We’re privileged to work with customers who trust us with their #SEO and #SEM campaigns. Access to these combined data insights enables us to deliver even greater efficiency and results. Here’s one powerful way we combine this data for actionable insights: A Google Colab script that maps Google Ad conversion data to Google Search Console query data. How it works: 1️⃣ Export Google Ads data: Save your PPC conversion data as google_ads_data.csv. 2️⃣ Export Search Console data: Download the last few months of GSC data as search_console_data.csv. 3️⃣ Upload both files into the script. 4️⃣ Hit Run (the play button). 5️⃣ Download your results. 🎉 Output: The script generates an Excel file (analyzed_results.xlsx) with these sheets: All Data: Full merged dataset. Positions 1-3: Keywords ranking in the top three positions. Positions 4-10: Keywords ranking in positions 4-10. In addition, it creates two key visualizations to guide your strategy: 📊 Position vs. Conversion Value Scatter Plot X-axis: Search position (1-10). Y-axis: Conversion value ($). Highlights patterns between position and conversion value. 📈 Revenue Potential Box Plot X-axis: Search position (rounded). Y-axis: Estimated revenue potential ($). Pinpoints positions with the highest revenue opportunities. Key takeaways: Contrast between revenue from positions 1-3 vs. positions 4-10. Outlier keywords outperforming or underperforming expectations. Focus areas for boosting revenue with minimal cost. This tool gives your campaigns the strategic edge they need to succeed. Want to try it out? Comment "script" and I’ll send you the link. P.S. If you found this useful, hit the share button ♻️ and let your network benefit too!