The Trade Desk reported on February 25, 2026, full-year revenue of $2.896 billion for fiscal year 2025, an 18% increase from $2.445 billion in 2024, according to the company's financial results filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fourth-quarter revenue reached $847 million, up 14% from $741 million in the same period a year earlier - a further deceleration from the 22% growth rate that had already shaken investor confidence when it was disclosed in February 2025.

The results came at a critical juncture for the Ventura, California-based demand-side platform. A year marked by platform transitions, executive departures, and significant organizational restructuring ended with the company restoring growth momentum after a turbulent start in early 2025. Yet the headline numbers, while showing sequential improvement quarter by quarter, confirm a meaningful deceleration from the 26% full-year growth recorded in 2024.

CEO Jeff Green, speaking on the company's earnings call on February 25, offered context on the growth rate. "Q4 was a solid quarter for The Trade Desk," he said. "When Q4 2025 is compared to Q4 2024, revenue grew approximately 19% year-over-year, when excluding political. On an absolute basis, not adjusting for the irregular nature of political spend, revenue grew 14% Q4 over Q4. This quarter capped off a year in which we grew revenue to record levels, we maintained strong profitability margins as we scaled and continued to invest in innovation that we believe will define the next decade of digital advertising."

Full-year and quarterly financial details

For all of 2025, the company posted GAAP net income of $443 million, compared with $393 million in 2024. Net income margin for the full year was 15%, essentially flat with the prior year's 16%. The fourth quarter alone delivered $187 million in net income, up from $182 million in Q4 2024, with a 22% net income margin.

Adjusted EBITDA, The Trade Desk's preferred profitability measure, reached $1.196 billion for the full year, compared with $1.011 billion in 2024. The adjusted EBITDA margin held steady at 41% for both years. In Q4, adjusted EBITDA came in at $400 million versus $350 million in Q4 2024, maintaining a 47% margin in both periods. On a per-share basis, GAAP diluted EPS was $0.39 for Q4 2025, against $0.36 in Q4 2024. For the full year, GAAP diluted EPS reached $0.90 versus $0.78 the prior year. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.59 in Q4 2025, flat with the $0.59 recorded in Q4 2024 - one of the few notable year-over-year comparisons that showed no improvement at the quarterly level. For the full year, non-GAAP EPS reached $1.77, versus $1.66 in 2024.

Gross spend on the platform - the total amount advertisers committed through The Trade Desk - reached $13.4 billion in 2025, up from $12 billion in 2024. According to Interim CFO Tahnil Davis on the earnings call, "For the full year 2025, we delivered revenue of $2.9 billion, representing 18% year-over-year growth. Spend was approximately $13.4 billion." Davis also confirmed the fourth-quarter breakdown: "In Q4, we delivered revenue of $847 million, representing 14% year-over-year growth. Excluding political spend related to last year's U.S. elections, revenue increased approximately 19% year-over-year."

Channel breakdown

The channel composition of the business shifted meaningfully toward video and audio in the fourth quarter. According to Davis, "CTV grew at a faster rate than the overall business throughout 2025, including during Q4 despite lapping strong political CTV spend in the quarter. Video, which includes CTV, represented around 50 percent of our business in Q4 and continues to grow as a percentage of our channel mix. Mobile represented around 30 percent share of the business during the quarter, while display represented a low double-digit share. Audio represented around 6% of the business and grew year-over-year at a rate higher than any other channel in Q4."

Geographically, the United States represented approximately 84% of Q4 revenue, with international at around 16%. According to Davis, growth in the international business continued to outpace North America, with strong momentum in both EMEA and APAC reflecting investments in those regions over several years.

CPG and auto: a drag on the numbers

One of the clearest themes in Green's prepared remarks concerned the uneven performance across verticals. Consumer packaged goods and global auto companies together represent more than a quarter of The Trade Desk's business, and both faced acute pressure in 2025. "Beginning in Q2 2025, CPG and auto companies began navigating a mix of category headwinds such as tariff uncertainty and uneven volumes, in addition to persistent inflationary pressures as more consumers deal with cost-of-living challenges," Green explained on the call. "And those trends have continued into the beginning of this year. On their own earnings calls, several global brands have talked about pulling back advertising budgets driven by the month-to-month volatility caused by these macro forces."

The pattern extended to the CAGNY (Consumer Analyst Group of New York) conference in late February, which Green referenced directly: "In the CPG sector, just last week at CAGNY, many of the large global brands spoke about consumer pressure, slower volume recovery, and ongoing input cost volatility, reinforcing what we are seeing in our data."

Green was careful to distinguish between macro weakness in specific verticals and the broader health of the open internet advertising market. He noted that when CPG and auto companies are excluded from year-over-year comparisons, the underlying business was performing considerably better than the headline growth rate suggested. Tech, travel, pharma, and communications were described as strong-performing categories across the year. "When these companies are excluded from our year over year comparisons, our business and the open internet is doing much better than the averages alone would suggest," Green said.

Davis confirmed that the soft CPG and auto trends had persisted into the first quarter of 2026: "Among verticals that represent at least 1% of our business in Q4, as Jeff mentioned, CPG and to a lesser extent Auto were our softest verticals, and those trends have continued into Q1."

AI strategy and Kokai

Almost 100% of clients were running through Kokai by the time of the earnings call, according to Green, who framed the platform's AI capabilities as central to The Trade Desk's competitive positioning. "We think Kokai is the most advanced AI-fueled buying platform ever pointed at the open internet," he said on the February 25 call. "Kokai broke advertising into the basic elements of an advertising campaign and enabled every unique function in the valuation process to be enhanced with AI. From identity probabilities, to valuing impressions, to predicting performance, to forecasting spend, to predicting the right clearing price, to detecting auction manipulation or even fraud, to generating creatives, or supply path optimization, or surfacing insights which could once easily be buried in a mountain of data."

Green also addressed directly the argument that AI would eventually disintermediate platforms like The Trade Desk. "There is an emerging narrative that AI will compress software value or disintermediate platforms altogether. That might be true of some SaaS businesses, especially those that deal in generic process or low-grade data. However, for platforms that have earned the trust of their clients and partners, and that have amassed data that is scaled, unique, refined, and actionable, they are in the perfect position to leverage advances in AI to add more value." He continued: "To be very clear, the complexity of the global advertising market is not a weakness for The Trade Desk. It is a moat."

The platform processes 20 million ad opportunities every second, each associated with thousands of data variables. Green described the scale of the dataset as a key differentiator, arguing that agentic AI would ultimately benefit companies with the deepest and most objective data pools - not those without data that hope an AI framework becomes their business model.

Client examples cited in the remarks underscored the performance claims. Ikea used Kokai's AI-fueled omnichannel optimization and saw its cost-per-acquisition decrease 17%, while gaining new insights on channel effectiveness across the customer journey. Best Western saw its booking rate double when using Kokai to target live sports opportunities, achieving an 89% improvement in incremental reach.

Audience Unlimited and retail data

Green described Audience Unlimited as one of the company's biggest product innovations. The feature introduces a flat-cost structure for data, addressing what Green characterized as a longstanding failure in the programmatic data marketplace. "There has been a massive underutilization of third-party data and retail data in particular since the advent of programmatic about 20 years ago," he said on the call. "I have argued that the data marketplace is anemic for one primary reason - there is no price discovery for data. The cost has been really complicated for marketers, so generally they don't use it."

Audience Unlimited, which uses agentic AI to surface the right data segment at the right moment, provides an all-in cost structure designed to eliminate that friction. The company reported positive early results and indicated broader rollout would continue through 2026.

Retail data also reached record spend levels in 2025. According to Green, retailers in The Trade Desk's data marketplace collectively represent more than half of global retail sales, with the vast majority transmitting data via UID2. Cheerios ran a display campaign in the UK using retail data for audience targeting on Kokai and saw 88% more conversions alongside a 7-times improvement in cost-per-acquisition. Nestlé now plans to activate retail data across most future campaigns, including audio and additional channels.

Supply chain and the Ventura Ecosystem

The company's supply chain efforts intensified during 2025, culminating in the launch of the Ventura Ecosystem on February 24, 2026 - the day before the financial results were published. The ecosystem ties together OpenPath, Unified ID 2.0, OpenAds, and OpenPass into a shared CTV marketplace. V, the smart TV operating system powering more than 50 million connected devices, and Nexxen signed on as the first collaborators.

Green described Deal Desk as another key innovation in this area. According to the prepared remarks, roughly 90% of deal IDs historically never scaled, "either because they were set up poorly, hard to troubleshoot, or simply didn't perform." Deal Desk centralizes how buyers create, manage, and analyze deals while using AI to forecast performance relative to the open market. "So far, deals that are set up and managed through Deal Desk are performing meaningfully better than those managed the legacy way," Green said. "More suppliers are signing up for Deal Desk every week." The two largest SSPs in Germany recently announced integration with Deal Desk.

CTV's trajectory remains strong. "The shift from traditional insertion orders and programmatic guaranteed toward true biddable CTV continues to accelerate, particularly in live sports and premium episodic content," Green noted. NBCUniversal enabled programmatic access to the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games through DSPs including The Trade Desk, a signal of where major rights holders are directing incremental programmatic inventory.

CPM economics and the walled garden debate

A notable passage in Green's remarks involved an unnamed agency executive who raised a direct cost comparison. According to Green, the VP of Strategy at a large agency noted that "even though a large ecommerce walled garden may trumpet 1% or no fees, at the end of the day the effective CPM that we pay is higher than comparable campaigns on The Trade Desk. We're paying more to get less functional reporting and we are spending a lot more on data than we would have to on a comparable The Trade Desk campaign."

Green framed simplification as the central strategic task for 2026. "Our goal is not, nor has ever been, cheap reach - which ultimately slows growth because it's ineffective," he said. "Efficacy is not a problem for the open internet. Simplicity currently is." The Trade Desk's billing reforms are intended to make it easier for agency strategists to compare the platform's effective CPM against walled garden alternatives in internal presentations to CMOs and CFOs.

The supply-demand argument also featured in the prepared remarks. Green described 2025 as a year in which more advertising supply was added globally than in any prior year, putting buyers in a stronger negotiating position. "When there is more supply than demand, it is a buyer's market. This puts our clients in an incredibly powerful position. This makes the objectivity we have, by not owning inventory, much more valuable than ever."

To illustrate the point, Green cited a benchmark test conducted by one of the world's leading appliance manufacturers, which compared The Trade Desk against the Amazon DSP for CTV ad performance. According to Green, The Trade Desk enabled the advertiser to reach 70% more unique households at 30% lower total cost, with The Trade Desk's platform performing six times better in delivering campaign goals. The company attributed the result to objective decisioning across the open internet rather than prioritizing owned and operated inventory.

Cash, buybacks, and balance sheet

The Trade Desk's cash position shifted substantially during 2025 as share repurchases accelerated. Cash and cash equivalents ended the year at $658 million, down sharply from $1.369 billion at the end of 2024. The company used approximately $423 million to repurchase Class A common stock in Q4 2025 alone. For the full year, buybacks totaled approximately $1.4 billion at an average price of $52.60 per share.

As of December 31, 2025, approximately $150 million remained under the prior repurchase authorization. The board then approved an additional $350 million, bringing the total available for future repurchases to $500 million. Net cash provided by operating activities for the year was $992.7 million, compared with $739.5 million in 2024. Capital expenditures on property and equipment reached $197 million, roughly double the $98 million spent in 2024.

Go-to-market reorganization and JBPs

Green used a portion of the call to describe the go-to-market overhaul executed across 2025. The company reorganized around a brand-first, more integrated coverage model, with unified teams now responsible for both business development and spend activation. Overlapping coverage between advertiser and agency teams was eliminated. "We increased the number of advertisers where we have direct relationships," Green said on the call.

Joint business plans emerged as a key metric of the new model's progress. Exiting 2025, JBPs accounted for well over half of The Trade Desk's business, with the JBP pipeline having more than doubled over the past year. "For our largest advertisers and their agencies, JBPs create shared goals, clear accountability, and a multi-year innovation roadmap," Green explained. The company now maintains more than 180 active JBPs with major clients.

Green's self-assessment of 2025 was candid. "2025 was a year of meaningful change at The Trade Desk. We upgraded our leadership team. We reorganized how we go to market. We sharpened our operating discipline. We shipped the most impactful product release in our history and made important strides in CTV, retail media, and improving the overall supply chain of the open internet. At the same time, we navigated a challenging environment in the CPG and automotive categories, while still delivering strong growth and profitability."

Leadership context

The February 25 call was the first earnings call led by Tahnil Davis as Interim CFO, having assumed the role on January 24, 2026, following Alex Kayyal's departure after just five months. In her opening remarks, Davis said: "My focus during this transition is on continuity and clear objectives. I am here to support the ongoing operations and strategic priorities for the overall business. I am incredibly fortunate to work alongside a world-class finance organization and I'm confident our team will continue to support growth at The Trade Desk in the near term and beyond."

Davis is the company's third CFO in less than a year, following Laura Schenkein's departure in August 2025. The organizational backdrop of 2025 also included approximately 39 employee layoffs in December, and the earlier challenges surrounding the Kokai platform's user adoption difficulties that ran through the first half of the year.

Customer retention and industry recognition

Customer retention remained above 95% for the twelfth consecutive year, according to the press release. The company also cited several industry recognitions for 2025 and 2026: Fortune 100 Fastest Growing Companies for 2025, Forbes America's Most Successful Mid-Cap Companies for 2026, Time America's Growth Leaders for 2026, and Gartner Customers' Choice for Ad Tech Platform for 2025. The company also joined the S&P 500 on July 18, 2025, the first independent advertising technology company to do so in roughly 20 years.

First-quarter 2026 guidance

For Q1 2026, The Trade Desk projected revenue of at least $678 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million. The $678 million floor represents approximately 16% year-over-year growth against Q1 2025. CPG and auto headwinds, Green noted, were continuing into the first quarter, and Davis confirmed this in the channel and vertical breakdown.

Green's closing remarks on the call struck a longer-term posture. "As we enter 2026, our focus is very clear. We will continue to drive performance and innovation through Kokai and our AI roadmap. I don't think there's any company in our industry that's better positioned to take advantage of advances in AI. We will deepen our relationships with the world's largest advertisers and agencies through more rigorous account planning, joint business plans, and sector-based expertise. We will push forward the structural shifts happening in CTV, retail media, and cleaner supply chains." He closed with a characteristically direct statement: "Bottom line, AI enhances the power of choice and it is best used by the trusted and the objective. The open internet should get the first dollar, not the last. And the best days of The Trade Desk are ahead of us."

Why this matters for the marketing community

The Trade Desk's results carry weight for the marketing community because the company operates as the primary large-scale independent alternative to the walled garden ecosystems of Google, Meta, and Amazon. Its $13.4 billion in gross platform spend provides one of the clearest publicly available benchmarks for how much money is flowing through independent programmatic channels. When CPG companies pull back budgets and growth decelerates as a consequence - even while tech, pharma, and travel brands spend more freely - it reveals the degree to which programmatic outcomes depend on client-side business conditions that no technology platform fully controls.

For agencies and brands using The Trade Desk, the Q2 2025 results demonstrated how the company's stock responds to deceleration even when earnings exceed expectations. The 14% headline Q4 growth rate - which adjusts to 19% excluding political - will likely be scrutinized against prior guidance of at least $840 million. The company had guided to at least $840 million for Q4 2025 and delivered $847 million, a narrow beat that keeps the guidance-meeting streak intact after the February 2025 miss ended 33 consecutive quarters of success.

The product pipeline - Audience Unlimited, Ventura Ecosystem, Deal Desk expansion, and the ongoing Kokai AI development - represents where engineering investment is concentrated heading into 2026. Each of these initiatives has direct implications for media buyers. Audience Unlimited changes the economics of data activation on the platform. Deal Desk alters how private marketplace deals are set up and measured. The Ventura Ecosystem expands the addressable CTV inventory pool available through programmatic channels. And Kokai's continued evolution as the sole interface for all clients means that familiarity with the platform's AI-driven features is no longer optional for traders seeking to optimize campaign performance.

Timeline

Summary

Who: The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTD), a demand-side platform for programmatic advertising headquartered in Ventura, California, led by CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Green and Interim CFO Tahnil Davis.

What: The company reported Q4 2025 revenue of $847 million (14% year-over-year growth, or 19% excluding political spend) and full-year 2025 revenue of $2.896 billion (18% year-over-year growth). Full-year GAAP net income was $443 million. Gross platform spend reached $13.4 billion. Full-year adjusted EBITDA was $1.196 billion, with a 41% margin. The board approved a total of $500 million available for future share repurchases. Q1 2026 guidance targets revenue of at least $678 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million.

When: The results were announced on February 25, 2026, covering the three months and fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, accompanied by a Form 8-K filed with the SEC on the same date. The earnings call prepared remarks were delivered on February 25, 2026, by Jeff Green and Tahnil Davis.

Where: The Trade Desk operates globally from its headquarters in Ventura, California, providing programmatic buying technology across connected TV, display, mobile, audio, and other digital channels. In Q4 2025, the United States represented approximately 84% of revenue, with international markets at 16%.

Why: The results are significant for the marketing community because The Trade Desk is the largest publicly traded independent DSP and a primary proxy for the health of open internet programmatic advertising. The 2025 fiscal year was a year of recovery and structural change following the company's first earnings miss in 33 consecutive quarters in February 2025. While 18% full-year growth represents a deceleration from 2024's 26%, sequential quarterly improvement from Q1 through Q4 - alongside near-total Kokai migration, new products including Audience Unlimited and Deal Desk, and the launch of the Ventura Ecosystem - provides the operational context investors and marketing professionals need to assess where the platform is headed in 2026.

Share this article
The link has been copied!