A 15-person New York agency spent last summer clearing The Trade Desk’s $100,000 monthly spend bar. It still pays 17% to the DSP, plus another 12% to Mogl, the reseller it was meant to outgrow once it hit that number.
“They won’t let us go direct and they won’t change the fees. So we told them, ‘We’re not running with you,’ and we only have very little spend on them now,” said an exec with knowledge of these negotiations. They didn’t say how much the agency is currently spending via The Trade Desk.
Smaller agencies are told resellers are the way in. Spend enough and a direct seat follows, with a lighter fee load to match. But 10 media buyers who spoke to Digiday on background describe something closer to a toll booth with no exit. Buys on The Trade Desk and Amazon’s DSP carry two sets of fees, and the route to shedding one of them keeps shifting for the little guys.
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