Viant Technology surpasses Q3 earnings estimates with CTV growth

Viant Technology Inc. exceeded Wall Street expectations on November 10, 2025, reporting third quarter earnings per share of $0.06 against forecasted $0.05. Revenue reached $85.6 million, with connected television advertising emerging as the primary growth driver for the Irvine, California-based programmatic advertising company.

The earnings announcement included confirmation that Molson Coors Beverage Company designated Viant as its advertising platform for programmatic campaigns across the United States beginning in 2026. This multi-year partnership represents what Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and CEO of Viant, described as validation of the company's addressability solutions and AI-powered autonomous advertising capabilities.

Connected television accounted for 46% of total advertiser spend on Viant's platform during the third quarter, reaching an all-time high for both absolute dollars and platform share. Nearly half of this CTV spending flowed through the company's Direct Access program, which provides efficient pathways to premium publisher inventory including Disney+, Paramount+, NBCUniversal, Tubi, and Samsung.

The financial results showed contribution ex-TAC growing 12% year-over-year to $53 million, reaching the high end of guidance. When excluding political advertising from the prior year election cycle and the departure of a seasonal advertiser due to a corporate merger, revenue increased 19% and contribution ex-TAC increased 22% on a pro forma basis. Larry Madden, CFO of Viant, characterized these adjustments as reflecting "strong underlying business performance."

Adjusted EBITDA increased 9% year-over-year to $16 million for the quarter, exceeding the guidance midpoint despite temporary headwinds. The company delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of 30% as a percentage of contribution ex-TAC. Madden noted that excluding acquisition-related expenses from IRIS.TV and Lockr, organic non-GAAP operating expenses increased only 7% year-over-year.

Viant's addressability solutions gained traction throughout 2025 through strategic partnerships. The company's Household ID, which identifies approximately 95% of U.S. households across roughly 80% of biddable ad inventory, continued seeing strong utilization among advertisers. IRIS_ID, the content targeting solution acquired through the November 2024 purchase of IRIS.TV, more than tripled its presence across the CTV bidstream within one year.

The Molson Coors partnership centers on Viant's intelligence layer combining Household ID and IRIS_ID technologies with AI-powered bidding capabilities. According to the earnings materials, Molson Coors manages a diverse product portfolio spanning core power brands, premium brands, and value brands, each serving distinct customer demographics. Viant's system will enable the beverage company to activate first-party data for targeted audience reach while measuring campaign outcomes.

Chris Vanderhook, co-founder and COO of Viant, emphasized during the earnings call that major U.S. advertisers increasingly recognize the need for independent platforms. "Google directs spend to YouTube, Amazon directs spend to Prime Video, and the Trade Desk directs spend through OpenPath, all to extract more margin for themselves and ultimately to the detriment of the advertiser," Vanderhook stated. "At Viant, we pride ourselves in directing spend to ad inventory that drives the highest return on ad spend for the advertiser."

The company's ViantAI product suite reached new implementation milestones during the third quarter. AI Bidding, which automates approximately 85% of platform ad spend, delivered contribution ex-TAC growth that more than doubled year-over-year with accelerating growth rates for the fourth consecutive quarter. Viant launched AI Bidding 3.0 ahead of schedule, expected to deliver additional media cost reductions for clients.

Revenue from advertisers using IRIS_ID more than doubled sequentially versus the prior quarter. The contextual targeting solution enables advertisers to target CTV inventory at the video level with scene-level precision. When utilized on Viant's platform, advertisers observed an average 48% increase in conversion rates versus control groups.

Streaming audio generated record advertiser spend during the third quarter, reflecting expanding demand within what the company characterized as a proliferating secular growth channel. Video advertising, inclusive of CTV, reached a record 62% of total platform spend. All emerging digital channels, comprising CTV, streaming audio, and digital out of home, collectively represented approximately 56% of total platform spend in Q3, up from 50% in 2024 and 43% in 2023.

The company reported strong performance across most customer verticals, with the top six verticals of healthcare, retail, consumer goods, public services, business services, and automotive leading growth. On a trailing 12-month basis through Q3, Viant saw a 39% increase in customers generating over $1 million in contribution ex-TAC. Contribution ex-TAC across the top 100 customers grew 18% year-over-year on a trailing twelve-month basis.

For the fourth quarter 2025, Viant expects revenue between $101.5 million and $104.5 million, representing 14% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Contribution ex-TAC guidance ranges from $62 million to $64 million, reflecting 16% year-over-year growth. The company anticipates adjusted EBITDA between $22.5 million and $23.5 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 37% at the midpoint, representing more than 500 basis points of improvement over the prior year period.

Madden indicated that political advertising headwinds would pressure Q4 revenue growth by approximately 600 basis points and contribution ex-TAC growth by approximately 500 basis points. Excluding these impacts, the guidance implies 20% revenue growth and 21% contribution ex-TAC growth at the midpoint. The political headwind will no longer affect comparisons starting in the first quarter of 2026.

The broader CTV advertising market continues expanding rapidly, with projections showing connected television's share of media budgets doubling from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025. Industry research indicates 72% of marketers plan to increase programmatic advertising investment during 2025, creating favorable conditions for platforms offering sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities.

Viant maintained a strong balance sheet with $161 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt outstanding as of September 30, 2025. The company purchased 4.8 million shares of Class A common stock from May 1, 2024 through November 7, 2025, for a total of $59.6 million, including $37.9 million year-to-date. Approximately $40.4 million remained available under the authorization as of November 7, 2025.

The fourth phase of ViantAI, called AI Decisioning, remains on track to launch by year-end 2025. This component combines AI Bidding, AI Planning, and AI Measurement and Analysis with dynamic spend deployment capabilities. Management described AI Decisioning as designed to enable advertisers of any size to deploy spend across effective digital channels including CTV and streaming audio through a self-service "do-it-for-me" solution.

Tim Vanderhook summarized the quarter's achievements: "Viant delivered record third quarter results, with revenue, contribution ex-TAC and adjusted EBITDA all exceeding the midpoint of our guidance. We believe we are well-positioned to accelerate top-line growth, fueled by strengthening CTV demand, broader adoption of our proprietary addressability solutions, Household ID and IRIS_ID, and new brand partnerships enabled by ViantAI."

Timeline

• November 2024 - Viant acquires IRIS.TV, a global content data platform for CTV
• February 2025 - Viant completes Lockr acquisition to enhance first-party data collaboration capabilities
• July 2025 - LG Ad Solutions integrates with Viant to advance addressability across 45 million connected devices
• August 2025 - Viant integrates with Wurl for scene-level CTV targeting using BrandDiscovery and IRIS_ID
• November 10, 2025 - Viant reports Q3 2025 earnings with record CTV advertiser spend and announces Molson Coors partnership

Summary

Who: Viant Technology Inc., a programmatic advertising platform provider, announced earnings results and a new partnership with Molson Coors Beverage Company.

What: The company reported third quarter 2025 earnings per share of $0.06 and revenue of $85.6 million, exceeding analyst expectations. Connected television advertising reached 46% of total platform spend, an all-time high. Viant secured Molson Coors as a client for a multi-year programmatic advertising partnership beginning in 2026.

When: The earnings announcement occurred on November 10, 2025, covering the quarter ended September 30, 2025. The Molson Coors partnership will commence in 2026.

Where: Viant operates its programmatic advertising platform across the United States, with headquarters in Irvine, California. The Molson Coors campaigns will deploy across the open internet throughout the U.S.

Why: The earnings results matter because they demonstrate growing adoption of advanced addressability solutions in connected television advertising. The Molson Coors partnership validates independent demand-side platforms that prioritize advertiser objectives over owned inventory monetization. For the marketing community, these developments signal maturation of CTV measurement capabilities and autonomous advertising platforms that combine first-party data activation, household-level targeting, and contextual intelligence for improved campaign performance.