The Trade Desk's revenue fell in Q3 2026. What it means for Amazon DSP buyers

The Trade Desk, the independent demand-side platform, reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $736 million on November 9, 2026. That's down 0.5% from $739 million a year earlier, according to the company's results release, and PPC Land reports it's the first year-over-year decline since the company listed in 2016.

The outlook is weaker. The Trade Desk guided fourth-quarter 2026 revenue to at least $755 million. It reported $847 million in Q4 2025, so the floor sits about 11% below Q4 2025.

Amazon's advertising business grew 11% to $19.6 billion in the same quarter, and Amazon guided high-teens growth for Q4. If you're a brand deciding how to split 2027 programmatic money between Amazon DSP and an independent platform, the two quarters together are worth a closer read.

Key facts#

What The Trade Desk reported on November 9, 2026#

The Trade Desk's third-quarter 2026 revenue was $736 million, against $739 million in Q3 2025. The company had grown revenue 18% in the same quarter a year earlier. Net income fell to $38 million from $116 million, and adjusted EBITDA fell to $266 million at a 36% margin, from $317 million at 43%.

Jeff Green, The Trade Desk's co-founder and CEO, said in the release that Q3 results were "well ahead of our expectations entering the quarter, but we are still operating below the level of growth we expect from ourselves." The board added $731 million to the share repurchase authorization, bringing the total available to $1 billion.

On the earnings call, CFO Nate Olmstead said about 3 percentage points of Q3 revenue growth came "from business with a strategic partner that we do not expect to recur." He also told analysts, "We're not expecting the normal seasonal uplift Q3 to Q4."

How The Trade Desk's revenue has moved through 2026#

The Trade Desk's quarterly revenue growth slowed from 14% in Q4 2025 to 3% in Q2 2026 and below zero in Q3 2026, based on the company's results releases. The Q4 2026 guidance floor would make it the second quarter of decline in a row.

Amazon's advertising services revenue grew 11% as reported, 12% excluding currency, to $19.6 billion in Q3 2026, according to Amazon's third-quarter release. Amazon tied the slower growth to "timing anomalies primarily related to Prime Day," which fell in the second quarter of 2026 for most large countries, and said it expects "year-over-year advertising revenue to grow in the high teens in fourth quarter 2026."

The Trade Desk revenue growth, Q3 2026

-0.5%The Trade Desk revenue growth, Q3 2026$736M, reported November 9, 2026

Amazon advertising revenue growth, Q3 2026

+11%Amazon advertising revenue growth, Q3 2026$19.6B, reported October 29, 2026

The Trade Desk Q4 2026 guidance floor vs. Q4 2025

~-11%The Trade Desk Q4 2026 guidance floor vs. Q4 2025Our arithmetic: $755M against $847M

Amazon doesn't break out Amazon DSP revenue. Its advertising services line covers "sponsored ads, display, and video advertising" together, so this isn't a like-for-like comparison of two DSPs. It does show where advertiser money grew in the quarter.

What The Trade Desk said about Amazon#

Jeff Green set The Trade Desk against closed platforms on the call: "Unlike the walled gardens of Amazon and Google and other user-generated content platforms, we are not grading our own homework." He said "our take rate has remained pretty consistent" and that The Trade Desk breaks out its prices rather than folding them into media costs. He also said "retail and commerce data are becoming increasingly valuable in an AI world."

PPC Land's coverage of the quarter describes Amazon's DSP as undercutting The Trade Desk on fees, according to its earlier reporting. Green's take-rate comments came in reply to an analyst question about pricing, not about Amazon specifically.

Our read: run the DSP comparison you've been putting off#

Sell Through's read is that one weak quarter doesn't make an independent DSP the wrong choice, and Amazon's growth doesn't make Amazon DSP the right one by default. The useful thing about a quarter like this one is that both sides want your budget, so it's a good time to ask for what you need in writing.

For a brand that sells mostly on Amazon, Amazon DSP's advantage is the data: shopping and purchase signals, and sales reporting that closes the loop on Amazon. Its limit is the same thing: the reporting is about sales on Amazon. An independent DSP buys more of the open web and connected TV and lets you bring retail data in from several retailers, but you'll work harder to tie spend to Amazon sales.

What we'd do before 2027 budgets lock:

• Put total cost on one page. Compare platform fees, data fees and any minimums for each DSP you use, as a share of media spend.
• Test for incremental sales, not attributed sales. Each platform's own attribution is built on its own data. Holdout tests or Amazon Marketing Cloud analysis are where the real answer comes from.
• Check what retail data each DSP can use. Ask each partner which retailers' data, including Walmart's, they can apply to your campaigns and at what cost.

We set up and run Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud for brands as part of our Amazon DSP and AMC work. For how this fits next to other retail media results for Q3 2026, see our read of Criteo's Q3 2026 retail media numbers and the quarterly figures on our retail media statistics page.

What to do this week#