At a glance
Gross media spend on The Trade Desk (TTD), the leading independent enterprise programmatic DSP. Sums spend across all campaigns. TTD is the enterprise gold standard for programmatic: deepest CTV inventory deals, most sophisticated audience tooling (Unified ID 2.0, Kokai/Koa AI bidder), strongest measurement infrastructure. If you’re running enterprise programmatic in 2026 and you’re not on TTD or DV360, you’re an outlier.
| What it counts | Gross spend in account currency from TTD’s API at advertiser level, summed across campaigns. Includes TTD platform fee. |
| Cost basis | Mostly CPM (display, video, CTV, audio, DOOH); CPC for some display. dCPM (dynamic CPM) is TTD’s auto-bidder default. |
| Currency | Account currency, single per advertiser; multi-currency advertisers run separate advertisers under one parent account. |
| Conversion attribution | Click-through and view-through; click default 30 days, view default 1, 30 days configurable. Cross-device attribution via Unified ID 2.0 / The Trade Desk Identity Alliance. |
| Attribution window | 30/1 default; 30/7 for CTV-heavy. TTD has the most flexible attribution window configuration of any DSP; per-campaign customisation is straightforward. |
| Bot / invalid traffic | Pre-bid IVT filtering via IAS, DoubleVerify, MOAT (now Oracle Advertising); MRC-accredited. TTD’s IVT filtering is the strictest in market; expect 1, 3% lower spend than peer DSPs on same inventory because TTD blocks more pre-bid. |
| Time window | T/7D/30D vsP. Real-time updates with up to 30-minute ingest lag (fastest of the major DSPs). |
| Alert trigger | spike >2σ vs 30D baseline. Causes ranked: (a) Koa exiting learning phase, (b) PMP deal kicking in (TTD has the most PMP inventory access of any DSP), (c) seasonal CTV CPM rise (sports finals, awards), (d) cross-device retargeting expansion via Unified ID. |
| Roles | owner, marketing, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your The Trade Desk data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US enterprise homeware brand running TTD as the primary programmatic DSP alongside DV360 and Google Ads. The 30-day window is 02 Apr 26 to 01 May 26.| Campaign | Channel | Spend ($) | Impressions | CPM ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Prospecting (Koa) | Display | 28,200 | 7.4M | 3.81 |
| CTV Premium PMP, Disney+/Hulu | CTV | 42,800 | 1.2M | 35.67 |
| CTV Open Exchange | CTV | 18,400 | 1.4M | 13.14 |
| Video Pre-roll (YouTube via TTD) | Video | 16,200 | 1.8M | 9.00 |
| DOOH (digital out-of-home) | DOOH | 8,400 | 2.4M | 3.50 |
| Audio (Spotify, Pandora) | Audio | 4,200 | 1.1M | 3.82 |
| Retargeting (cross-device via UID 2.0) | Display + Video | 9,800 | 2.6M | 3.77 |
| Total (this card) | $128,000 | 17.9M | $7.15 |
- CTV is 48% of spend at 35.67 CPM) and open exchange (35 CPM is fair enterprise pricing; open exchange at $13 CPM is mid-market quality.
- **DOOH at 3.50 CPM is the right number for awareness-quality outdoor.
- Display at $3.81 CPM is healthy mid-market rate; Koa is finding brand-safe inventory at the efficient frontier.
- Cross-device retargeting via Unified ID 2.0 ($9,800) is the platform’s quiet differentiator. Same user followed across web, mobile app, CTV, audio without third-party cookies. The retargeting CPM is low because UID 2.0 enables tighter audience match; it’s not cheaper inventory, it’s better inventory.
- The 30-day prior was $108,000 spend; up 19% this window. Cause: Koa exited learning phase on the Display Prospecting campaign on 09 Apr 26 plus NBA playoffs CTV CPM lift. Both healthy.
- Compare to MediaMath (if running parallel during migration): TTD typically delivers 5, 15% better CPC on equivalent display inventory and 10, 25% better CTV view-through attribution clarity due to UID 2.0 cross-device match.
- Spend up + impressions up + CPM stable = healthy scaling.
- Spend up + CPM up = bidding into more expensive inventory; check Koa exploration mode.
- Spend up sharply + CTV CPM spike = seasonal premium (sports, awards, holidays); decide whether to throttle or accept.
- Spend down + impressions down sharply = inventory partner pulled back OR Koa bid below floor; rare on TTD given inventory access.
- DOOH spend rising = check if seasonal campaigns (transit, retail) align with intent.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Total Spend |
|---|---|
| TTD Total Revenue | Numerator pair for ROAS. |
| TTD ROAS | Headline efficiency reading. |
| TTD Spend by Campaign | Channel breakdown across CTV, display, video, audio, DOOH. |
| TTD Spend vs Budget | Pacing check; CTV-driven ramp is the main alert source. |
| TTD CPC Trend | Inventory pricing pressure tracker. |
| StackAdapt Total Spend | Mid-market peer; benchmark only. |
| MediaMath Total Spend | Legacy enterprise peer; relevant during migration. |
| Google Ads Total Spend | Different ecosystem. |
| GA4 Sessions by Source | Independent reach check; TTD clicks should map to GA4 utm_source=ttd sessions. |
| Shopify Total Revenue | Truth side. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in The Trade Desk: TTD Platform → Reports → Performance → Spend column at advertiser level for the same date range. Should match this card to within sub-percent rounding once ingest catches up (allow 30, 60 minutes for “today”). Other TTD views that look similar:- Reports → Channel Breakdown: spend per channel (display, native, CTV, etc.). Sum matches account spend.
- Reports → Inventory: spend per supply path. Same total.
- Working Media: spend net of TTD fee. NOT what this card uses; this card uses gross.
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Advertiser TZ vs UTC. Marginal at 30D. |
| Real-time ingest lag | Card slightly low for “today” | TTD updates billable spend every 15, 30 minutes; intra-day catches up quickly. |
| IVT post-correction | Card ≤ TTD initial by 0, 3% | TTD’s pre-bid IVT is already strict; post-bid corrections are smaller than peer DSPs. |
| Fee inclusion | Both gross | This card uses gross (incl. TTD fee). Working Media is a separate UI toggle. |
| PMP deal accounting | None | TTD bills PMPs consistently with open exchange in the same Spend column. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
stackadapt.sta_total_spend | Independent. Many enterprises run TTD primary + StackAdapt for specific channels (audio, native). | Different segment focus; TTD is enterprise, StackAdapt is mid-market. |
mediamath.med_total_spend | Independent; relevant during migration. | TTD has more reliable real-time reporting. |
google_ads.gads_total_spend | Different ecosystem; benchmark only. | Search vs programmatic. |
google_analytics.ga_sessions_by_source | Sessions tagged utm_source=ttd ÷ TTD clicks ≈ 0.88, 0.96 | TTD reach is high-quality; GA4 reconciliation is tighter than peer DSPs. CTV impressions have no GA4 equivalent. |
shopify.total_revenue | TTD-driven Shopify revenue is a subset; cross-device attribution via UID 2.0 makes it harder to UTM-tag. | Multi-touch and cross-device reality means UTM-truth understates TTD’s contribution more than other DSPs. |