The Trade Desk is changing how advertisers buy — and what they can see

Performance Mode, which The Trade Desk recommends, uses its Koa Optimization machine-learning algorithm to automatically prioritize the best ad inventory for an advertiser and optimize bidding, pacing and other campaign factors accordingly. All these features are turned on by default in this mode, which also bundles media, data and other fee-based features into one CPM. 

Control Mode, by contrast, lets advertisers manage everything manually. As of Feb. 20, it became the platform’s default. Advertisers using this mode can also receive complimentary access to Audience Unlimited – the AI-powered third-party data marketplace normally reserved for Performance Mode users – for 12 months. 

Both modes sit in Kokai – the ad tech vendor’s AI-powered buying system that launched in 2023. To access either, advertisers must commit a minimum of between $20,000 and $30,000. 

“That’s the amount of money that is recommended in order for the algorithm to have enough impressions to learn something specifically,” said Tom Swierczewski, vp, media investment at Goodway Group.

The beta is moving quickly. According to one agency exec, who exchanged anonymity for candor, The Trade Desk’s sales team is pushing hard to get uptake from as many advertisers as possible. They added: “They’ll need as much data as they can get from as many advertisers, as quickly as possible, because it’s all going to be machine learning.”

The move reflects a deeper shift in where programmatic is heading. Buying on The Trade Desk has always offered precision and control but that’s at a cost – literally. Campaigns are complex to set up, data fees accumulate fast and the operational overhead has made it increasingly difficult for agencies to justify clients. Meanwhile, Google and Meta have taken the opposite approach, with Performance Max and Advantage+ trading transparency for ease and, crucially, results.

“I think Google and Meta have proven that by getting more signals into the platform, and trusting the platforms to use their own AI or their own automation, performance can be driven far more effectively,” said one agency exec, who exchanged anonymity for candor.

“The Trade Desk’s program is similar to PMax and Advantage+, while it addresses programmatic buying complexity and high data costs.”

Put another way, this is a bet that different advertisers want different things. Some buyers want granular control over every line item. Others want results without the complexity. Trading Modes tries to serve both, and ensure more spend flows through The Trade Desk either way. That calculus matters more than it used to. Holdcos are pulling back spend on the platform while independents build their own alternatives, leaving The Trade Desk increasingly reliant on converting direct advertisers and mid-market agencies at scale. 

In a statement, a spokesperson from The Trade Desk said: “With Kokai, TTD is introducing new features that help clients make the most of major campaign assets, such as data. In doing so, we’re using AI to unlock the value of a fuller range of potential data elements for any given campaign in a much more cost-effective manner and lower barriers to entry. These features are completely optional, but they offer tremendous value to clients and beta testers are seeing significant performance and value improvements. Clients wanting to stay with a more a la carte model can easily do that.”

It’s also the latest chapter in Kokai’s turbulent evolution since the platform launched in 2023 to considerable fanfare – and considerable friction.

Indeed, Shirley Marschall, an ad tech consultant, said it’s a “logical move” for an independent DSP that can’t compete on price. 

“Amazon and Google can afford to undercut fees,” she continued. “The Trade Desk has to out-feature them instead.”

Whether it can remains to be seen. Marketers are, at least for now, skeptical.  

Amanda Wallingford, programmatic director at The Shipyard said she thinks that performance mode especially will require more human oversight at first, “to ensure it’s behaving as it should.” 

Brainblabs’ head of programmatic, Ben Hakan expanded on the point: a major selling point for The Trade Desk has been the ability to see where every cent goes (breaking out media costs, data fees and tech fees), he added. 

“Programmatic purists are naturally skeptical of this because it obscures the actual value of the media (and TTD’s take rate),” Hakan continued.

Another exec echoed those concerns. 

“The Trade Desk will be able to drive greater profits over time as the automations and AI in each of these two modes get more effective,” they said. “The murkier things become, the more difficult they become to measure and the less advertisers actually benefit from the campaigns they’re running.”

These concerns center on visibility – specifically, what advertisers can and can’t see once fees are bundled. A blended CPM makes it impossible to distinguish how much is going to media, how much to data and how much to The Trade Desk itself, which means advertisers lose the ability to benchmark costs, challenge markups or know whether the platform’ AI is making decisions in their interest or its own. Control Mode exists precisely for that reason: advertisers who want the itemised breakdown can still have it.

That’s the thing about the concerns: they may not matter. Transparency has always been The Trade Desk’s argument for why it’s different. Trading Modes doesn’t eliminate that argument but it does make it optional. And optional principles have a way of becoming inconvenient ones in advertising.

“Despite all the industry noise about transparency, what most advertisers want is an easy button,” Marschall said. “A simplified cost structure and outcome-focused optimisation could be TTD’s version of that. Whether it delivers is a separate question, but the appetite is real.”