• by Wayne Friedman , November 9, 2022

Although other TV and connected TV (CTV) advertising platforms are having a difficult time of late producing strong revenue, demand-side advertising platform The Trade Desk posted another healthy round of ad business.

Third-quarter revenue showed 31% gains to $395 million, even as net income shrank 73% to $16 million.

The company's fourth-quarter projection estimates the company will see similar results -- another 24% hike to at least $490 million.

The Trade Desk says customer retention remained over 95% during the third quarter, as it has for the past eight consecutive years.

The Trade Desk says more than 80% of the largest U.S. retailers are doing business on the DSP, adding that CTV -- a major platform for the demand-side platform -- is increasingly becoming the first spend for advertisers.

The Trade Desk sees partner ad inventory shifting to biddable from fixed-price inventory. It says NBCU's Peacock has seen “significantly” higher CPMs due to advertisers spending more due to higher return-on-ad-spend.

Still, possible recessionary concerns could have an effect on business, says Michael Morris, analyst at Guggenheim Securities. It is lowering the company's 2023 revenue due to “ongoing macro-pressures” as well as the return of higher office expenses.

The Trade Desk's big push -- its Unified ID 2 privacy-focused, identifier that advertisers and digital advertising platforms can use to establish identity without third-party cookies -- will be tagged on more than 50% of data inventory on the platform by early 2023.

Next month, Disney+’s advertising-option launch will allow advertisers to leverage first-party data using the identity graph.