DV360 vs The Trade Desk: An Honest Comparison for Indian Buyers

What is the main difference between DV360 and The Trade Desk?

The main difference is ownership, and what comes with it. DV360 belongs to Google, so it brings YouTube and Google's audience signals. It also sits inside a company that runs a large sell-side business, Google Ad Manager, and owns YouTube. The Trade Desk is independent. It only works for buyers and doesn't own or sell media of its own.

Neither is better in every case. Some buyers see Google's reach as the advantage. Others prefer a platform with no media of its own to favour. For an Indian plan the question is usually more practical: do you need YouTube and Indian OTT deals in the same plan? If you are new to Google's platform, start with our guide to what DV360 is.

How do DV360 and The Trade Desk compare side by side?

Which has better inventory for Indian campaigns?

For most India-only plans, DV360 has the edge, and YouTube is the main reason. YouTube is bought through Google's own tools, so a plan built on The Trade Desk has to run YouTube separately, in Google Ads or DV360. You can see how each YouTube format is priced on our YouTube advertising page.

Indian OTT and news inventory is the second reason. We buy JioHotstar, ZEE5, SonyLIV, Sun NXT, aha and leading news publishers through Programmatic Guaranteed and private deals in DV360, and our premium inventory page lists what is available. On The Trade Desk, check with each publisher whether it will set up the deal there for your dates.

The Trade Desk's strengths sit elsewhere. Connected TV is a major focus, backed by OpenPath, which connects buyers directly to publishers, and by Ventura, its own TV operating system. It is also a strong option when one team buys the same campaign across several countries. Say an Indian SaaS company advertises in the US, the UK and Singapore: one platform with consistent data and reporting across all three markets is a real advantage.

How do data, targeting and identity compare?

DV360 is built around Google's own signals. Affinity and in-market segments, your first-party lists, lookalikes and conversion data from Floodlight and Google Analytics 4 all sit in one account, and in some markets retail media networks add commerce audiences too. Our guide to targeting audiences in DV360 shows how those layers fit together.

The Trade Desk leans on openness. It has a large marketplace of third-party data providers and Unified ID 2.0 (UID2), an open-source identity framework built on hashed and encrypted email addresses and phone numbers. Kokai can also build audiences from a seed, a sample of your best customers.

For Indian campaigns, keep one thing in mind. Third-party data depth varies a lot by country, so strong first-party data, such as CRM lists and site visitors collected with consent, matters on either platform.

How do AI and optimisation compare?

Both platforms automate bidding, and both now pitch AI heavily.

In DV360, automated bid strategies cover performance goals, such as conversions or clicks, and brand goals, such as viewable impressions or reach on connected TV. Custom bidding lets you score impressions with your own rules, and Google has started using Gemini models to curate deal packages in Marketplace.

The Trade Desk launched Kokai in 2023, with its Koa AI spread across bidding, budgeting and planning. Kokai Zuma, released in August 2026, adds AI agents, a conversational Koa assistant and AI-driven frequency optimisation. Some of these features are still in beta, so ask what your seat can actually use.

Our advice is the same for both. Vendor performance claims are not independent tests. Run a split test with a clear KPI before you move a large budget.

How do fees and minimums compare?

Both charge a platform fee on top of media, but they structure it differently.

Google charges a DV360 fee as a percentage of media cost, at rates set by contract. There is a higher rate for exchange inventory, which covers open auction, preferred deals and private auctions, and a lower rate for YouTube and Programmatic Guaranteed. Google doesn't publish the rates. The Trade Desk's public filings describe its main revenue as a platform fee based on a percentage of client spend. It doesn't publish a standard rate either.

On either platform, data, verification and any managed-service fee are extra. Neither publishes a minimum spend, and a direct seat usually comes with a commitment. Through a DV360 partner seat such as ours, the minimum is agreed upfront, and managed services and PG deals usually need a higher commitment than self-serve. Our DV360 pricing guide and our post on the DV360 minimum budget go into the numbers.

Whichever way you lean, ask any provider these questions:

1. What is the platform fee, and how is it calculated?
2. Are data, verification and service fees shown as separate lines?
3. Is there a minimum monthly or annual spend?
4. Who owns the seat, the audiences and the reporting history?
5. Will you see placement-level reports?

How do you get access to each in India?

DV360 access comes through a direct contract with Google, an advertiser account or child seat under a partner's seat, your agency's seat, or a managed service. Agencies that want their own space without a direct Google contract can take a DV360 child seat under our partner seat, with billing in ₹ and GST invoices. Our guide to getting a DV360 account in India covers the paperwork.

The Trade Desk has no public sign-up either. Access is by contract with The Trade Desk, most often through agencies that hold a seat. It is a self-service platform, so your own traders run the campaigns, with The Trade Desk's account team in support.

Which should you choose?

Can you run DV360 and The Trade Desk together?

Yes. Many large agencies do. Split the work clearly, by channel or by market, so the two platforms don't bid against each other for the same open-web impressions.

Here is an illustrative split for a consumer tech brand with a ₹40 lakh quarterly budget across India, the UK and the UAE. The India CPMs come from our planning ranges. The international figure is only a placeholder, because those rates depend entirely on the market.

Impressions are budget divided by CPM, multiplied by 1,000. Frequency caps don't carry across platforms, so agree one frequency goal per market, use the same naming and KPIs on both, and build one report that brings them together. For a wider view of the options, see our comparison of the best programmatic advertising platforms and our DV360 vs Amazon DSP guide.

Next step

If YouTube and Indian publisher deals sit at the centre of your plan, DV360 is usually the simpler choice. Talk to our team about the right setup, whether that is your own seat, a child seat for your agency or a managed campaign.