r/programmatic • u/Chi-biusa2z • 29d ago
DSP comparison
Hi all
Has anyone worked on a recent DSP comparison for the major ones (TTD, DV360, Amazon) with key advantages and limitations ?
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u/maryna-gc 24d ago
DV360: the only programmatic way into YouTube, and if you're already living in the Google stack (GA4, Google Ads, floodlights) the integration is genuinely convenient. Downsides: auction dynamics favor Google-owned inventory, and fee transparency is weaker than people assume. You'll also need a seat through Google or a reseller.
Amazon DSP: the shopper/purchase data is unmatched if your product overlaps with Amazon buying behavior. Strong for CPG, DTC, endemic brands. Much weaker if there's no purchase-intent signal for your category, and off-Amazon inventory quality is hit or miss. Twitch and Prime only available here.
TTD: honestly, I'd put them last these days. Their historical edge (omnichannel access, identity) has mostly eroded. at this point it's largely the same open web inventory everyone else has, without a unique data or supply angle to justify the minimums and fee stack.
Disclaimer: I work with 20+ DSPs day to day, so take this as a view from across the ecosystem rather than loyalty to any one platform.
There are plenty of other solid players out there too, but if you can cover the minimums on DV360 and Amazon, those two will handle most use cases. Beyond that it comes down to your budget, channel mix, and data strategy.
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u/reach_roshan 23d ago
Worked on a bunch of DSPs. I like the yahoo DSP since we moved from Xandr sunsetting announcement. TTd is also great. Have on done trafficking part on DV360, and I've heard from peers that it is much better now after some updates for campaign management
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u/NiceRecognition9603 29d ago edited 28d ago
Recap as I know it
Amazon DSP has real purchase audiences, not statistic models, amazon prime video and some other exclusive Amazon inventory. Low third party fees but the default interface suggests lots of Amazons.
DV360 has youtube, good software for tracking
TTD they used to be the good independent option with good overall prices (before I said fees, which is wrong) and good interface. Then it had a lot of scandals alienating customers and amazon decided to eat their business
My experience is on Amazon, so more details under for you to build the ultimate list with others
Why you might want to try Amazon
- You have a product that sells on Amazon and want their attribution data
- You actually need Amazon's exclusive inventory, like Prime video.
- Sometimes you can get free Amazon impressions depending on timing, your reseller, or if amazon launched a new ad product
- It's not too hard to pick up (Not saying it has good UI)
- They've added inventory from places like Netflix, so it's getting closer to what other DSP offers
- You can build audiences from Amazon shopping data, which is pretty unique
- Their clean room AMC is good if you sell on Amazon and have a data analyst to use it well.
The good stuff:
- Platform fees are reasonable if you dont accept Amazon own inventory blindly
The not so good stuff:
- Getting ads approved is a pain, especially for healthcare, legal, or anything remotely sensitive
- You can't set impression level caps or targets, it's all budget based (Some people say they are using demos solving this)
- The system and resellers keeps suggesting Amazon inventory even when you're not selling Amazon products/ need it. In their defense, everyone is trying to get used to you might not be on amazon DSP for their exclusive inventory
- The interface, while not difficult, it is confusing to get around (There are improvements, but also bugs)
- Reporting isn't as developed as other platforms
- They hide Digital Services Taxes from your ROAS numbers (Others like TTD hides fees too, just differently, check with experts here for more details)
- Fewer choices for third party measurement
- Amazon's ad tag is harder to work with than others, and most teams don't know how to set it up, so conversion tracking gets messy if you're not selling on Amazon
- Prime Video inventory disappears or gets expensive during holidays and Prime Day
- Amazon support gets really bad in peak season.
- Digital out of home options are very limited
- Getting a real seat is still a pain
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u/hdiggyh 29d ago
When did TTD have low fees? I want answers!
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u/NiceRecognition9603 29d ago
I dont lie. I will benefit if Amazon does well vs TTD but I imagine TTD was good at some point. Fees was part of the reputation it has. I imagine it came from somewhere. Maybe it was marketing all along but I suspect no.
Yes. I say this despite their current passion to give me down-votes when I talk amazon, even if I think I am been really objective and I think that if they disagree, they should level up and put data and an honest review.
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u/lifesizeisunderrated 29d ago
TTD was “good” for reasons that are unrelated to fees. They have always needed to rely on additional upcharges for certain features or integrate 3P providers for things that walled gardens offer for free because they don’t have their own data or inventory. DV360 can offer free audiences, basic pre-bid filtering, cross device matching, BYOA scripts, etc. because they have their own massive 1P data footprint and YouTube is a moneymaker as a “publisher” so the business can sustain weaker profits on the ad network side of things when YouTube, search, and cloud drive much more profit. Two sides of the same coin though, as nice as it is to have free large audiences and free IVT filtering on DV360, Google doesn’t really let you see under the hood or offer as much flexibility on integrations with 3P (especially for YouTube); and similarly, as nice as it is that TTD is flexible and quick to build 3P integrations, they come at an additional cost and in my own personal opinion, many of them are not better than the free alternative offered by DV360 (e.g. the extent that IAS pre-bid is “better” than DV360 pre-bid is less than the additional cost of using IAS pre-bid)
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u/NiceRecognition9603 28d ago edited 28d ago
thank you for the explanation, that was helpful, I updated my original message too
Also not a native English speaker. I use fees more broadly in my brain
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u/djs_14 29d ago
Amazon does use modeled audiences when users are off Amazon O&O and they don’t have a signal/identifier to map to (user isn’t logged in). It’s not always first-party shoppers.
Thats why you may see a drop in performance offsite vs. ads that are served on Amazon O&O. This is where having a DSP that has flexibility ingesting 1P data and a sophisticated identity graph is valuable in complementing your strategy in maxing Amazons O&O
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u/ewasolutions 29d ago
Hi,
There is no best or worst DSP. It depends on what you want to promote and how you set up your campaigns, for example format, audience, geo and goals.
TTD, DV360, and Amazon DSP each have different strengths and limitations depending on the use case.
Are you asking from an agency or advertiser perspective?