The Trade Desk is partnering with commerce tech firm Koddi to sell onsite retail media ads for the first time, kicking off with delivery app Gopuff. The move aims to unify the fragmented retail ad market and puts TTD in direct competition with established leader Criteo.
Corralling the chaos: For years, the retail media market has been a messy collection of hundreds of individual networks, forcing advertisers to juggle multiple dashboards and siloed data. This partnership allows media buyers to use the same TTD software they use for channels like streaming and audio to purchase onsite ads like sponsored product listings.
Shots fired: The partnership fires a shot across the bow of established players like Criteo, as first noted by Adweek. For advertisers, it means they can finally use one platform to prove whether a big-budget video campaign actually led to a sale on a retail site, closing the loop between brand awareness and the final purchase.
The programmatic push: The move taps into clear advertiser demand, as research from Koddi shows over 95% of media buyers are interested in buying this kind of inventory programmatically. By bringing retail media into the same programmatic workflow as other digital channels, TTD is betting it can simplify the process and expand its share of the booming commerce media market.
Meanwhile, the competition isn't sleeping, with Criteo recently inking a deal to become the first onsite retail media partner for Google's Search Ads 360. The broader industry is in a race to build ad solutions for the "other 90%" of retail that happens outside of Amazon, which still commands the lion's share of ad budgets despite a smaller share of actual consumer spending.
