At a glance
Spend on TTD placements (publisher domains, app bundles, audience segments, supply paths) that drove zero attributed conversions in the window, including cross-device attributions. TTD’s strict pre-bid IVT and superior cross-device attribution mean the wasted-spend figure is genuinely “wasted”, not measurement-blocked. Acting on this card is more reliable than on peer DSPs.
| What it counts | Spend (account currency) summed across publisher domains, app bundles, audience segments, and supply paths with zero conversions (incl. cross-device) and non-zero impressions/clicks. |
| Cost basis | Whatever the campaign was bidding on (CPM, CPC, dCPM, Koa CPA target). |
| Currency | Account currency. |
| Conversion attribution | Click-through + view-through + cross-device. |
| Attribution window | 30/1 default; 30/7 for CTV. |
| Bot / invalid traffic | Pre-bid filtered (TTD’s IVT is strictest in market). |
| Time window | 30D. |
| Alert trigger | >$0 (any zero-conv placement). Practical: act when wasted spend > 5% of total AND placements have >7 days activity. The 5% threshold is tighter than peer DSPs because TTD’s signal is cleaner; less of the card’s “waste” is measurement noise. |
| 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
The same enterprise homeware brand. Window 02 Apr 26 to 01 May 26. Total spend $128,000.| Placement | Channel | Spend ($) | Impressions | Clicks | Conversions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium publisher rotation | Display | 18,400 | 4.8M | 7,200 | 248 | Convertible |
| nytimes.com | Display | 5,200 | 1.6M | 2,400 | 102 | Convertible |
| Disney+ CTV (PMP) | CTV | 28,400 | 0.7M | n/a | 188 (incl. cross-device) | Convertible |
| Hulu CTV (PMP) | CTV | 14,400 | 0.5M | n/a | 92 | Convertible |
| Lamar DOOH (transit) | DOOH | 4,200 | 1.2M | n/a | 124 (cross-device) | Convertible |
| app: weather widget | In-App | 620 | 800k | 48 | 0 | Wasted, click-fraud suspect |
| regional sports streaming audio | Audio | 480 | 160k | 18 | 0 | Wasted, audience mismatch |
| niche programmatic display segment | Display | 820 | 420k | 620 | 0 | Wasted, 18 days |
| Other (78 placements, all converting) | mixed | 55,460 | 8.6M | 5,398 | 528 | |
| Total wasted (this card) | $1,920 | 1.4M | 686 | 0 | 1.5% of total spend |
- 1.5% wasted spend is exceptional. Healthy DSP runs 4, 8%; under 2% suggests TTD’s pre-bid IVT and Koa’s auto-deweighting are working very well. No structural issue; the named placements are still actionable but small in absolute terms.
- The weather widget app ($620) is the standard click-fraud suspect, blocking is the right action.
- Regional sports audio ($480) is audience mismatch.
- Niche programmatic display segment ($820) at 18 days is borderline; Koa is exploring a long-tail audience segment that hasn’t converted. Wait until day 30 before final action.
- Total potential savings $1,920 is small absolute but worth the housekeeping; on TTD the savings tend to net out close to face value because Koa’s reallocation is more efficient than peer DSPs.
- Compared to MediaMath wasted-spend example ($2,660 / 3.7%): TTD’s pre-bid IVT is doing more work upstream, which is why the surfaced waste is lower. Same brand, same audiences, lower waste percentage on TTD.
- Wasted % rising = inventory degrading; rare on TTD given pre-bid filtering quality.
- Wasted % stable at 1, 4% = healthy; lower than peer DSPs.
- Wasted % spiking on a single placement = audience mismatch; investigate.
- High wasted % on in-app placements = bundle list needs curating; mobile gaming and weather widget are usual suspects.
- Zero wasted spend = over-allowlisted, missed scaling.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Wasted Spend |
|---|---|
| TTD Zero-Conversion Spend | Campaign-level twin. |
| TTD Total Spend | Context. |
| TTD Spend by Campaign | If wasted concentrates on one campaign, the campaign config needs work. |
| TTD CTR by Campaign | Wasted spend correlates with low CTR (click-fraud) or high CTR no conversion (audience mismatch). |
| TTD ROAS by Campaign | Wasted-hosting campaigns show poor ROAS. |
| StackAdapt Wasted Spend | Mid-market peer; bundle overlap analysis. |
| MediaMath Wasted Spend | Migration peer. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in TTD: TTD Platform → Reports → Site/App Breakdown for the same window. Filter to placements with zero conversions; spend column should match this card to within sub-percent rounding. Why our number may legitimately differ from TTD UI:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Advertiser TZ vs UTC. |
| Long-tail conversion | Card slightly high until catchup | Placements may pick up late conversions (especially CTV cross-device). |
| Cross-device attribution toggle | None | Both this card and TTD UI include cross-device by default. |
| View-through window changes | Direction depends | Reflows. |
| IVT credit timing | Marginal | Smaller than peer DSPs because TTD’s pre-bid filter is stricter. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
stackadapt.sta_wasted_spend | Independent. The two DSPs share much of the same SSP inventory; bundles wasted on one often wasted on other. | Different allowlists. |
mediamath.med_wasted_spend | Independent during migration. | TTD typically shows lower waste % on equivalent inventory. |
google_analytics.ga_sessions_by_source | GA4 sessions on wasted placements should not show 100% bounce. | If healthy GA4 engagement, it’s a conversion-tag issue not audience. |