Smaato vs. The Trade Desk

Strong Google Exchange Bidding partner when comparing to other companies in EB.

Incentivized

We are a large company, but The Trade Desk seems like it would also work well for small companies. In our limited deployment, we focused on the USA market and Digital Marketing, but we see this platform working for global markets, multi-language, and across all paid search engines. They provide great user engagement and dashboard reporting to help us manage each campaign in real-time. The Trade Desk seems to do all of these things well and would work for most companies. I have yet to see a campaign and/or executive initiative that The Trade Desk can't handle. We have had a favorable experience and believe it has met every objective we have.

Incentivized

• Fill - the ad requests we send to Smaato have seen a great requests-to-impression ration.
• Revenue - We've seen a lift in overall revenue thanks to the high CPM bids we get from Smaato.
• Payments are always on time and they have a responsive financial team that is helpful in answering any questions.
• Customer service - They are very fast to respond to any issues. The set up was streamlined thanks to their professional customer service.

Incentivized

• Manage multiple client accounts for Display Advertising
• Manage multiple clients' Display Advertising across an array of Display Platforms
• We were also able to manage clients' Video and Native Advertising Campaigns

Incentivized

• Inventory can be a bit pricey in competitive markets like the US.
• Reporting dashboard is limited, needs work.
• They don't offer a lof of transparency about margins over media cost.

Incentivized

• They are not very transparent in terms of margins and fees.
• They need to get more video inventory, there is not enough.
• The reporting they provide is a bit limited.

Incentivized

Smaato has a UI where you can control your line items on the traffic you want to receive. That is a key unique selling point that other SSPs don't offer. Most of the items that you will need like reporting can be done on a self serve manner and that is a big plus, specifically for changes that need to happen really fast and you don't need to deal with account managers that may take some time to answer emails.

Incentivized

easy to understand dashboards and the self started ability to get going on your own terms. It's great to target niche groups across the world while still being able to report at a high level to C-suite. Wish it drove more conversions, but display can be a struggle there. Overall, would use it again.

Incentivized

Smaato's account management team is very professional. They are quite fast in terms of customer support, which is very helpful. One item that stands out is that they are willing to understand what you need for each campaign and what is the best way to move forward. They don't just jump quickly into trying to upsell more of Smaato's products (audiences, data) like other SSPs do.

Incentivized

We noted no issues with our limited interaction with support. The software operated just as expected and we found that we were able to navigate needs on our own. We understand that The Trade Desk offers excellent support, so we believe it will be a good resource to us in the future.

Incentivized

Smaato has better anti-fraud controls than most exchanges. Even if the inventory ends up being a bit pricey, I am more comfortable running campaigns on Smaato because I know there won't be any issues with the clients claiming refunds for invalid traffic. I believe that as the industry matures, other SSPs will follow suit and prices will increase along with the board.

Incentivized

We compared The Trade Desk against a number of competing programmatic media buying platforms including Google's DV360, Centro's Basis platform, Adobe Advertising Cloud, and the Simpli.fi platform. In the end, we felt that The Trade Desk provides the most tools, options, advanced technology, and access to third-party solutions than anything other DSP/DMP on the market. TTD has leaned into forming a long-term relationship with our agency, and they continue to provide great strategic service.

Incentivized

• We have seen prices a bit high, thus reducing profitability
• However, the vast reach has allowed us to get more budgets and fulfill them so the net effect is positive.
• We have been able to run campaigns that targeted the same user on mobile and desktop by running with Smaato and that has allowed us to get more budgets from specific clients.

Incentivized

• Positively impacting ability to delivery in-view KPI campaigns across ad types (display, high impact, preroll).
• Slightly higher pricing structure requires a bit more conservative bidding in this platform compared to others.
• The customer service has been top notch. Adding to the confidence in building a lasting partnership. Access to product betas and offering product feedback are of interest to our organization.

Incentivized