The Trade Desk's Sell-Side Settlement | AdExchanger

"When The Trade Desk started paying more attention to the sell side of the ad tech business, they wanted to improve inventory quality and prune out resellers. Their initial sell-side projects, like OpenPath in 2022 and the S&P500+ in 2024, were controversial. Publishers worried about how being anointed (or not) would affect their business. And recently, The Trade Desk made another contentious decision."

"CEO Jeff Green announced plans to build a branched-off version of Prebid that contains its beloved signal, the Transaction ID (which Prebid pulled in its current form from its wrapper). More details will come at the Prebid Summit next week, but publishers see the move as creating more work for them. And, ultimately, they wonder if a wrapper operated by a price-minimizing buyer could be good for a price-maximizing publisher."

"Publishers have a history of being gaslit by ad tech platforms who proclaim to have their best interests at heart, only to be secretly operating auctions differently from their stated practices or running projects to boost their profits and market share at the expense of their customers. For publishers who are seeing the Google ad tech antitrust trial play out, hearing an ad tech leader say they're not moving into the sell side while announcing a sell side project feels like doublespeak."

The Trade Desk moved into sell-side efforts to improve inventory quality and eliminate resellers after earlier controversial projects like OpenPath (2022) and S&P500+ (2024) raised publisher concerns about favoritism. CEO Jeff Green announced plans to build a branched-off Prebid wrapper containing The Trade Desk's Transaction ID, a signal previously pulled from Prebid's wrapper. Publishers expect increased operational work and question whether a buyer-operated wrapper will serve publisher revenue interests. Historical distrust runs deep because ad tech platforms have sometimes run auctions or projects that prioritized platform profits over publisher outcomes. More details are expected at the Prebid Summit.

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