The Trade Desk shakes up Identity Alliance payouts, with a new focus on incrementality

Historically, Identity Alliance — The Trade Desk’s “graph of graphs” that unifies identity providers such as Experian, ID5, and LiveRamp — has compensated partners based largely on the volume of data applied to campaigns.

Separate sources independently estimated the offering would generate “tens of millions of dollars” each year. But some participants criticized the program as opaque, with limited visibility as to how revenue shares are calculated.

Under the new framework, payments will instead be tied to the incremental value a partner’s identity data provides, i.e., if a data partner contributes unique signals not already captured elsewhere in the demand-side platform’s system. The shift effectively deprioritizes duplicative data and will instead reward differentiation, according to multiple sources familiar with the changes.

“The focus is on paying for what’s actually additive,” said one executive at a data provider, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “If you’re bringing something new, you should earn more. If not, you’ll likely see less.”

Separate sources characterized the changes as abrupt, with one even suggesting partners were given a short timeframe to agree to the new terms, or leave the program altogether. However, to further ease the transition, partners have reportedly been offered a temporary revenue guarantee for several months before the new model is fully enforced — that transition is expected to take place in Q2.

The Trade Desk has also indicated it will introduce new tools, including APIs and scoring mechanisms, to help partners understand how their data is evaluated under the revised model. However, those tools are not yet widely available, leaving some partners uncertain about the near-term financial impact.

“Identity Alliance enables advertisers to reach audiences with precision across channels. As Identity Alliance has evolved with the launch of Kokai, it processes and prioritizes connections in more advanced ways,” read a statement shared with Digiday by a spokesperson for The Trade Desk. “The shift is a result of improvements in our AI and learning capabilities, and expands the accuracy of better understanding audience groups, helping marketers reach more relevant consumers. These changes relate only to how partners are compensated and do not impact how clients use the platform.”

Experian and LiveRamp’s communications teams did not respond to Digiday’s request for on-record comment by press time.

Meanwhile, ID5 CEO Mathieu Roche noted how the shift to quality over quantity was logical. “At ID5, we value our partnership with The Trade Desk as we work together to make sure advertisers have access to the best match rates at scale,” he added.

While some in the ecosystem view the move as a logical evolution toward efficiency — reducing redundant data costs and improving signal quality — others see it as another example of DSPs tightening control over the economics of the open web.

The timing is notable. The changes come amid broader tensions between The Trade Desk and major agency groups, as well as increasing scrutiny over transparency and margins across the programmatic supply chain.

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For advertisers, the implications are less immediate but potentially significant. A shift toward incrementality could improve signal quality and measurement accuracy — but may also reshape pricing dynamics and the mix of identity providers underpinning campaigns.

The Trade Desk posted revenues of almost $3 billion last year, but the DSP’s Q1 revenue guidance ($678 million) seemingly disappointed investors, prompting a further notable decline in its stock price, with market analysts noting fluctuations in its take rates over the years.

“[The Trade Desk] CEO [Jeff] Green still categorized the 2025 take rate as being ‘1-2 percentage points’ from the traditional range on the sell-side follow-up call,” wrote Daniel Salmon, of New Street Research, noting how value-added features fees have helped sustain these numbers. “TTD’s [sic] take rate has fallen between 19.4% and 21.1%, so this marks a 50-basis point delta above the highest previous take rate, and 100 basis point delta to the average take rate since IPO of 20.1%.”

Meanwhile, a separate source, who declined to be named to maintain relationships and is familiar with The Trade Desk’s value-added features, such as Audience Unlimited, as well as Identity Alliance, noted a growing cynicism among partners over how platform updates, notably Kokai, determine which partners to use. “They’ve been pushing this way for some time. Basically, what they’re saying to partners is, ‘If you can provide incrementality, then we’ll use it,'” they added.