The news: Demand-side platform operator The Trade Desk (TTD) is testing automated buying features that combine data, media, and tech costs into one price while simplifying campaign management, per Digiday. The “Trading Modes” give clients two options to run campaigns.

• Performance Mode uses TTD’s Koa Optimization AI tool to secure the best ad inventory for clients automatically, optimizing campaign elements like pacing and bidding. This mode also combines data, media, and additional features into one CPM.
• Control Mode allows clients to manage campaigns manually and is TTD’s default. Advertisers using Control Mode have access to AI-powered marketplace Audience Unlimited for 12 months.
• Both models are part of TTD’s AI-powered buying system Kokai.

An agency executive told Digiday that TTD is heavily promoting the new solution to attract as many advertisers as possible.

Zooming out: The new modes come at an inflection point for TTD, which is facing scrutiny from clients and broader pressure from walled gardens.

• Holding company Publicis advised its clients in March that it no longer recommends they use TTD, claiming it failed a third-party audit; Publicis said the DSP was opting users into features without consent and improperly charging them.
• Omnicom followed suit, announcing its own plans to conduct a third-party audit of TTD.
• Meanwhile, TTD faces pressure from walled gardens like Meta and Google, which offer integrated adtech stacks and automated, simplified buying.
• Performance Mode seems to directly challenge this by automating inventory selection, bidding, optimization, and pacing using Koa, while bundling features into a single CPM—similar to how Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ trade manual control for streamlined operations. Where TTD’s new tools differ is that the DSP is still preserving a manual alternative in Control Mode.

Implications for marketers: TTD’s new features aim to strike a middle ground between advertisers who want complete control over operations, and others who want simplicity with proven results.