The news: The Trade Desk (TTD) wants to challenge walled gardens’ gap in ad measurement capabilities.
- The DSP is developing an open measurement framework to help marketers understand which media investments are driving incremental business results, CEO Jeff Green said in TTD’s Q3 earnings release.
- Arguing for its own services, Green stated in TTD’s earnings call that platforms like Google effectively grade their own ad performance, while TTD provides more independent measurement because it operates on the buy side and doesn’t own the media it sells.
- TTD is looking to move beyond last-click and last-view attribution to better account for advertising’s influence across the customer journey. Its new formal measurement product will be available beginning in Q4.
Zooming out: The developments point to ongoing tension between walled gardens that control their ad inventory and measurement systems and open web players trying to defend their share of digital ad budgets.