CTV is no longer a nice-to-have, and picking the right DSP is key to building a winning strategy.
Brands looking to build and sustain meaningful growth recognize the value of CTV as a key channel in their marketing strategy. According to eMarketer’s December 2025 CTV forecast, US CTV ad spending will increase nearly 14.5% in 2026 to reach $37.95 billion.
Many brands want to start growing their CTV investments, but it’s difficult to distill the complexity of what they’re buying and where they should buy it. Let’s start there, then look at some of the DSPs that are the new cornerstones of CTV strategy.
Defining CTV and DSPs
CTV vs OTT
These terms are often used interchangeably, but have different meanings for media buyers.
- OTT (Over-The-Top) defines how the content is delivered. OTT reaches audiences across the internet “over-the-top” instead of directly through cable or satellite.
- CTV (Connected TV) defines where the content is delivered. CTV activations are a part of OTT, but they focus specifically on reaching audiences on their connected TV devices vs. other environments like desktop, mobile, tablet, or Digital Out of Home (DOOH) screens
Defining DSP & Its Advantages
A DSP (Demand Side Platform) is an adtech platform that uses algorithmic real-time bidding (RTB) signals to dynamically purchase ad inventory that reaches the right audience in the right place at the right time. DSPs aren’t the only way to buy CTV inventory, but they offer media teams the most flexibility, control, and insight to help optimize investment that drives growth and cross-channel impact.
Choosing the right DSP partner hinges on your brand’s current tactic mix, existing tech stack, and measurable outcomes. To find that fit, we define and differentiate a DSP’s strengths across these core pillars:
- Audience: Who is being reached?
- Which audience segments are native to the platform, and what are their capabilities for ingesting 1st- or 3rd-party audience data for targeting or bidding optimization?
- How advanced is their CTV identity graph, and does your audience hold strong individual and household match rates?
- Creative: What is the audience seeing?
- What creative capabilities are available with the platform that go beyond standard pre- and midroll video?
- Do they offer access to and creative support for converged formats like pause ads, shoppable units, or interactive units?
- Inventory: Where is the media serving?
- What inventory is accessible through the DSP marketplace, and is there an ability to import inventory directly from publisher partners?
- Does the DSP or parent company own inventory that can only be accessed directly or through their DSP?
- Measurement: What are the campaign outcomes?
- What measurement and attribution insight is native to the platform, and what integrations or API connections do they have with external 3rd-party vendors to help align with cross-channel insights and optimizations?
- Cost Structure: How much should I invest?
- Are there investment minimums, or added value opportunities with scaled investment on a platform?
- Can teams activate through self-serve or through managed service models?
Top DSPs for CTV Activations
Display & Video 360 (DV360)
- Advantage: Direct access to YouTube & YouTubeTV inventory to create a unified CTV/video approach that is supported through the Google Marketing Platform’s (GMP) suite of integrated measurement products.
- Control reach and frequency across YouTube, CTV, Audio, Video, and Display
- Dynamic platform integrations with Google platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) for enhanced bidding and cross-media measurement capabilities
- Native brand/search lift studies and cross-media reach reports (CTV, YouTube, Linear TV)
- Use Case: Brands that use GMP products heavily and have been ramping YouTube investment on Google Ads, but are looking to expand into CTV and programmatic testing to validate incrementality and holistic impact across video tactics
The Trade Desk (TTD)
- Advantage: TTD offers the gold standard for advertisers focused on scaling CTV across the open internet outside the walled gardens with an agnostic, robust, and transparent approach to targeting and measurement.
- Provides detailed insight into incremental reach and cross-network frequency of CTV campaigns against linear activations
- Most diverse list of API access for dynamic 1st and 3rd party audience uploads from advertiser DMPs or audience partners
- Supports privacy-conscious targeting and measurement through their UID2 solution and AI-driven bidding and optimization capabilities through Koa AI
- Access to a vast marketplace of 3rd party measurement and brand lift offerings, including offline and retail measurement
- Use Case: Brands that want to take advantage of a robust hands-on-key CTV activation experience that lets them focus on KPIs and data capture through scalable access to premium inventory, precise targeting capabilities, and transparent performance reporting data.
Amazon DSP (ADSP)
- Advantage: Direct programmatic access to CTV inventory through Amazon-owned inventory properties (Prime Video, Fire TV & Twitch) as well as a huge network of third-party publishers where brands can layer on Amazon’s robust proprietary 1st party shopping and behavior audiences.
- Access to a large, unique, and unduplicated CTV viewing audience with Prime Video inventory, including programmatic guaranteed (PG) deal creation
- Build custom audiences with Amazon shopping, behavior, and product categories to reach qualified audiences that index well with your active customer base
- Leverage the Amazon Marketing Cloud to uncover new performance and cross-channel impacts from CTV activations through clean room analysis
- In addition to Fire TV, new integration with Roku devices unlocks measurable and matchable reach to an additional ~80 million U.S. CTV households
- Use Case: Strong fit for both endemic (brands selling on Amazon.com) and non-endemic brands (brands not actively selling on Amazon.com) that can benefit from targeting through Amazon’s 1st party data, and are looking to expand reach to incremental CTV households through Prime Video and Fire TV
StackAdapt
- Advantage: Easy-to-use platform that seamlessly integrates CTV campaigns with other cross-channel activations to provide a holistic picture of programmatic campaign impacts. Brands can activate quickly through self-serve or managed service options that help lean teams thrive with dedicated account managers and ongoing creative support.
- Curate and reach qualified custom intent audiences derived from valuable 1st and 3rd party signals, as well as contextual audiences through their proprietary natural language processing (NLP)
- Fully cross-channel ID-Graph (including DOOH) to help frame CTV’s impact across all tactics of an integrated campaign
- Creative builder tools to help generate new creative variations, as well as compatibility with a wide range of CTV ad formats
- Use Case: Best for growing brands with lean teams that want to activate cross-channel campaigns hands-on keyboard or through managed service, but still want full autonomy with guaranteed access to premium CTV supply and customizable and transparent measurement solutions.
Honorable Mention – Turnkey Self-Serve DSPs
- Yahoo
- MNTN
- Simplifi
- Viant
Ultimately, there’s no single right answer for which DSP is the best for CTV activations. Each one has distinct advantages in the marketplace that enhance or amplify a brand’s strengths and growth strategy.
Programmatic CTV provides advertisers with a data-driven, audience-first approach to reach incremental households at scale, but it’s only one piece of Wpromote’s approach to building a robust converged video strategy. Partnering with the right DSP for CTV unlocks valuable inventory performance insights that can help inform and validate media planning approaches to access premium digital or linear video inventory that can only be accessed directly or through upfront contracts.
At Wpromote, we help brands break down these silos across video activations, unlocking a sustainable playbook that accelerates growth. Each component, including CTV, plays a role in our philosophy to help challenger brands bridge the gap between brand and performance.
