The Trade Desk holds its own against Amazon’s growing, but still distant threat

On last week’s earnings call, he told analysts the retail giant is “not a competitor”, arguing it’s “hard for “for them to buy across the open Internet in a truly objective way”.

It’s a fair claim — for now. Amazon’s ad business is growing fast, but it hasn’t yet come at The Trade Desk’s expense. 

Several ad buyers told Digday as much. 

One, at an independent agency, said they haven’t spent a dollar on Amazon. 

Others only go there for what The Trade Desk can’t deliver: Amazon’s exclusive CTV inventory, its first-party commerce data, or its closed-loop attribution. And when they do, it’s mostly additive spend — test budgets, retail media allocations — not money pulled from open web campaigns. 

That leaves The Trade Desk in a comfortable spot. It may not have Amazon’s flywheel of data, content and scale but it does have the independence and cross-platform capabilities that keep advertisers coming back.

Amazon gains, but not at TTD’s expense

At Rain the Growth Agency, spend on The Trade Desk is up 25% this year; on Amazon, it’s flat. Until it becomes the default choice for buying ads outside the walled gardens, the balance holds.

“In many cases, we’re allocated a general programmatic budget, and we may shift a portion of that ‘X%’ to Amazon based on performance and strategy,” said Kendra Tang, programmatic supervisor at Rain the Growth Agency. “That could indirectly impact [The Trade Desk] TTD. However, some clients provide a dedicated Amazon budget upfront, while others look to us for a recommendation.” 

Either way, Amazon’s budgets are still smaller — seven figures — compared to the eight figures flowing through The Trade Desk.

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New Engen had a similar viewpoint. Advertisers there average eight-figure budgets on The Trade Desk; Amazon’s come in closer to six. The growth gap over the past year tells a similar story. 

So far in 2025, spending on The Trade Desk is double what New Engen spent this time last year, said Katie Johnson, senior programmatic director at New Engen. Amazon, on the other hand, has been “stable” (read flat), though she does expect that to rise in the latter part of the year. 

“The Trade Desk continues to lead Amazon in cross-device and advanced reporting capabilities, allowing marketers to understand a consumer’s path-to-conversion, even across search and social channels,” said Johnson. 

“These types of cross-channel insights are important for omnichannel marketers navigating an evolving funnel.”

At Collective Measures, the numbers look different but tell the same story. The Trade Desk’s spend is pacing down this year, though not because of Amazon. Clients are leaning into lower-funnel tactics like paid search. Amazon spending is down 30% over the same period, pressured by tariffs — a dip that could rebound before the year’s end. 

Granted, the examples are small, but they align with a trend that’s been building over the past year: Amazon is looking like a threat to The Trade Desk, just not an immediate one.

Amazon’s growing offering

Amazon remains a long way from matching The Trade Desk, but its momentum is building. This year, it rolled out AI-powered campaign tools and struck new CTV partnerships, all aimed at making it easier for advertisers to tap into and scale across its ad inventory. 

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“Amazon is growing particularly [regarding spending] quickly because the Amazon DSP and data is so strong at driving advertising results, that it is looking outside of its owned and operated publishing assets to extend the impact of its campaigns into third-party apps and websites,” said Stephen Upstone, CEO & founder of ad tech vendor LoopMe.

The more Amazon does this, and pushes off-site, the faster it gains on The Trade Desk. Sure, advertisers have long been able to use Amazon’s data to target people elsewhere, but performance outside its own walls rated matched-on platform results. Closing that gap would strengthen the case for funneling more ad dollars through its ad tech — and in doing so turn more away from The Trade Desk. 

“The game being played are audiences, data, media formats, and inventory,” said Shattuck Groome, chief media officer at independent media agency Mile Marker. “As a media agency we have to make decisions on behalf of clients which also includes social platforms, influencers, and Google. As these walled garden platforms grow and some access becomes limited to TTD, a media planner and buyer will inevitably buy inventory outside of TTD.”

This is why Green was also mistaken about Amazon. While he can accuse walled gardens of marking their own homework, detractors might argue that end-to-end ecosystems ensure better efficiency, data control, and access to premium inventory, aligning with each platform’s ecosystem.

Amazon DSP may be some way off from the number one spot, but it is very serious about taking on its widely perceived number two player, The Trade Desk. Aggressive CTV discounts were only the opening move. The bigger play is positioning itself as the go-to platform for all programmatic buys, not just CTV.

Digiday has contacted The Trade Desk and Amazon for comment and will update this article if they respond.