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TTD's Global Growth Surges: Can it Outpace the U.S. Expansion?
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Key Takeaways
The Trade Desk's international revenue growth outpaced North America, reaching 14% of total spend.
Global CTV and retail media adoption are fueling TTD's expansion and higher returns on ad spend.
The Kokai platform and OpenPath tools are driving efficiency, transparency and stronger client results.
The Trade Desk, Inc. (TTD - Free Report) is showing accelerating global momentum as international revenue growth outpaces its U.S. performance, underscoring the company’s success in expanding its footprint beyond its core market. In the second quarter of 2025, international operations accounted for roughly 14% of total spend but grew faster than North America, fueled by strong adoption of connected TV (CTV) and retail media platforms overseas. Although North America still accounts for 86% of spend, the company expects its operations outside North America to remain a significant driver of overall growth through the rest of this year and well into the future. In the first quarter, TTD’s international growth outpaced North America for the ninth straight quarter, with EMEA and APAC driving expansion beyond its 12% global share.
CTV remains a major driving force for the company, demonstrating strong performance across international markets. On the last earnings call, management emphasized that programmatic CTV remains the “most effective and highest return on ad spend” channel, reinforcing The Trade Desk’s leadership in the CTV space. Video, including connected TV, represented a share in the high 40% range of total business and continued to grow its contribution during the quarter. Additionally, partnerships with leading global publishers, retailers and streaming platforms such as Disney, NBCU, Roku, Netflix, LG and Walmart are providing a strong foundation for the company’s international expansion.
TTD’s Kokai platform, powered by Koa AI, is delivering significant performance gains. Clients are reporting more than 20-point KPI improvements, and spending on Kokai is growing 20% faster than among non-users. Meanwhile, OpenPath is streamlining the digital advertising supply chain, enhancing transparency for publishers and boosting advertiser confidence, which translates into higher efficiency and revenue. The company expects third-quarter revenues to reach at least $717 million, representing 14% year-over-year growth.
Per a report by Precedence Research, the global digital ad spending market is projected to reach a hefty $1,483 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of 9.47% from 2025 to 2034. With global advertising spend projected to rise, especially across CTV and retail media, The Trade Desk is well-positioned to translate its accelerating international momentum into a more balanced and diversified global revenue base.
However, the company is grappling with macroeconomic uncertainty, which could prove a drag on advertising budgets. Rising inflation, supply-chain disruptions along with tighter marketing budgets are also likely to adversely impact ad spend. In the last reported quarter, total operating expenses rose 17.8% year over year to $577.3 million. The increase was primarily driven by ongoing investments aimed at enhancing platform capabilities, especially within platform operations.
Moreover, intense competition in the ad tech landscape is a major concern. Big players such as Google, Amazon, as well as smaller players like Magnite (MGNI - Free Report) and PubMatic (PUBM - Free Report) , continue to put pressure on TTD’s market positioning.
Who’s Rivaling TTD in the Race for Digital Ad Leadership?
Magnite is a supply-side platform (SSP) that helps publishers manage and sell their ad inventory across various formats like streaming, online video, display and audio. The company is strengthening its CTV business through partnerships with Roku, Netflix, LG, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount. MGNI moved its combined CTV platform (which includes streaming and ad serving) to general availability under the SpringServe brand. Management added that this unified platform offers a competitive advantage and internal efficiency gains for MGNI, supporting both share capture and margin expansion. CTV contributions excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 14% year over year in the second quarter of 2025.
PubMatic’s growth is fueled by CTV and emerging revenue streams, including Activate, sell-side data targeting and commerce media, as clients increasingly rely on the platform for improved performance, transparency and control over their digital advertising strategies. It strengthened relationships with the world’s largest streamers, with CTV now accounting for nearly 20% of total revenues. The recent addition of a top-five U.S. streamer brings market penetration to 26 of the top 30 global streamers. Recently, PubMatic partnered with dentsu to launch large-scale pause ad campaigns across premium CTV inventory. The move follows PubMatic’s 50% CTV growth and reach across 26 of the top 30 streaming platforms.
TTD Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Shares of TTD have gained 5.4% in the past month compared with the Internet – Services industry’s growth of 10.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of forward price/earnings, TTD’s shares are trading at 41.98X compared with the Internet Services industry’s 25.96X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TTD’s earnings for 2025 has been marginally revised downward over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
TTD currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
Image: Bigstock
TTD's Global Growth Surges: Can it Outpace the U.S. Expansion?
Key Takeaways
The Trade Desk, Inc. (TTD - Free Report) is showing accelerating global momentum as international revenue growth outpaces its U.S. performance, underscoring the company’s success in expanding its footprint beyond its core market. In the second quarter of 2025, international operations accounted for roughly 14% of total spend but grew faster than North America, fueled by strong adoption of connected TV (CTV) and retail media platforms overseas. Although North America still accounts for 86% of spend, the company expects its operations outside North America to remain a significant driver of overall growth through the rest of this year and well into the future. In the first quarter, TTD’s international growth outpaced North America for the ninth straight quarter, with EMEA and APAC driving expansion beyond its 12% global share.
CTV remains a major driving force for the company, demonstrating strong performance across international markets. On the last earnings call, management emphasized that programmatic CTV remains the “most effective and highest return on ad spend” channel, reinforcing The Trade Desk’s leadership in the CTV space. Video, including connected TV, represented a share in the high 40% range of total business and continued to grow its contribution during the quarter. Additionally, partnerships with leading global publishers, retailers and streaming platforms such as Disney, NBCU, Roku, Netflix, LG and Walmart are providing a strong foundation for the company’s international expansion.
TTD’s Kokai platform, powered by Koa AI, is delivering significant performance gains. Clients are reporting more than 20-point KPI improvements, and spending on Kokai is growing 20% faster than among non-users. Meanwhile, OpenPath is streamlining the digital advertising supply chain, enhancing transparency for publishers and boosting advertiser confidence, which translates into higher efficiency and revenue. The company expects third-quarter revenues to reach at least $717 million, representing 14% year-over-year growth.
Per a report by Precedence Research, the global digital ad spending market is projected to reach a hefty $1,483 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of 9.47% from 2025 to 2034. With global advertising spend projected to rise, especially across CTV and retail media, The Trade Desk is well-positioned to translate its accelerating international momentum into a more balanced and diversified global revenue base.
However, the company is grappling with macroeconomic uncertainty, which could prove a drag on advertising budgets. Rising inflation, supply-chain disruptions along with tighter marketing budgets are also likely to adversely impact ad spend. In the last reported quarter, total operating expenses rose 17.8% year over year to $577.3 million. The increase was primarily driven by ongoing investments aimed at enhancing platform capabilities, especially within platform operations.
Moreover, intense competition in the ad tech landscape is a major concern. Big players such as Google, Amazon, as well as smaller players like Magnite (MGNI - Free Report) and PubMatic (PUBM - Free Report) , continue to put pressure on TTD’s market positioning.
Who’s Rivaling TTD in the Race for Digital Ad Leadership?
Magnite is a supply-side platform (SSP) that helps publishers manage and sell their ad inventory across various formats like streaming, online video, display and audio. The company is strengthening its CTV business through partnerships with Roku, Netflix, LG, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount. MGNI moved its combined CTV platform (which includes streaming and ad serving) to general availability under the SpringServe brand. Management added that this unified platform offers a competitive advantage and internal efficiency gains for MGNI, supporting both share capture and margin expansion. CTV contributions excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 14% year over year in the second quarter of 2025.
PubMatic’s growth is fueled by CTV and emerging revenue streams, including Activate, sell-side data targeting and commerce media, as clients increasingly rely on the platform for improved performance, transparency and control over their digital advertising strategies. It strengthened relationships with the world’s largest streamers, with CTV now accounting for nearly 20% of total revenues. The recent addition of a top-five U.S. streamer brings market penetration to 26 of the top 30 global streamers. Recently, PubMatic partnered with dentsu to launch large-scale pause ad campaigns across premium CTV inventory. The move follows PubMatic’s 50% CTV growth and reach across 26 of the top 30 streaming platforms.
TTD Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Shares of TTD have gained 5.4% in the past month compared with the Internet – Services industry’s growth of 10.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of forward price/earnings, TTD’s shares are trading at 41.98X compared with the Internet Services industry’s 25.96X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TTD’s earnings for 2025 has been marginally revised downward over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
TTD currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.