ATD – Agency Trading Desk
An Agency Trading Desk or ATD is used by ad agencies and bundles technology and processes to optimize digital advertising campaigns and the related budgets.
Technically an agency trading desk combines tools such as DSP – Demand Site Platform, Adserver and, if necessary, a DMP Data Management Platform. The main task of the agency trading desk is to provide a technical infrastructure to optimize ad campaigns for the agency’s clients. Supported pricing models can be among others CPM, CPV, CPC, CPI, CPA, CPL, CPO or CPS.
In parallel, agency trading desks process data that is used for targeting and also link reporting and billing across third-party data providers and various advertising networks, exchanges, and publishers. An agency trading desk is a direct expression of data-driven, user-centric marketing.
In the advertising sector, a distinction is made between agency trading desk, advertiser trading desk and publisher trading desk.
- Agency Trading Desk: Is used by agencies, which take over the complete campaign management for their clients, from the inventory purchase to the reporting as well as the optimization of campaigns with all affiliated processes.
- Advertiser Trading Desk: Large companies with huge advertising budgets at times operate their own trading desks. These are usually big brand companies with consumer goods. A direct integration into the company’s infrastructure and CRM avoids friction losses and guarantees its own data integrity and control.
- Publisher Trading Desk: With the publisher trading desk the publisher automates the inventory trade on his page and is able to sell inventory directly or programmatically, resulting in higher revenue and ad placement control.
