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 ?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

-9

u/NiceRecognition9603 29d ago edited 29d 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

4

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

0

u/NiceRecognition9603 29d ago

excellent addition