September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Marketing › Programmatic · September 2026 Edition

Programmatic and display advertising

Asked as “programmatic advertising platform”, and as “demand-side platform for display ads”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
61%
Clear leader
61StackAdapt13AdRoll11The Trade Desk15others

61% of first choices, clear leader.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01StackAdapt61%7%54endorsed leader
02AdRoll13%10%10accepted challenger
03The Trade Desk11%41%56criticized challenger
04Choozle4%23%13accepted challenger
05Demandbase Advertising2%29%17criticized challenger
Show the nine products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14DV3600%59%22criticized challenger
13MediaMath0%50%10criticized challenger
12Adobe Advertising0%29%14criticized challenger
06Google Display & Video 360 Lab in the set0%24%29accepted challenger
08Amazon DSP0%24%34accepted challenger
11Simpli.fi0%10%10accepted challenger
07Basis0%7%15accepted challenger
09Hey Sid0%0%11accepted challenger
10LinkedIn Campaign Manager0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Google Display & Video 360 is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each

One product takes 61% of first choices here, so the chart would put thirteen markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Five products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Eight of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Qwen 3.7 Flash and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
The Trade Desk
41%
23 of 56 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid DV360/Trade Desk/Amazon DSP: High mins ($25K–$50K/month), fees make them unviable below that.” Grok 4.20, budget prompt
DV360
59%
13 of 22 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Platforms to AVOID with Limited Budgets ... Requires $25,000-$50,000/month minimum” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Amazon DSP
24%
8 of 34 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Amazon DSP: High CPMs, limited B2B advantage outside retail” Mistral Small, direct prompt
Google Display & Video 360
24%
7 of 29 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“Walled gardens (e.g., Google, Meta) that trade transparency for closed-loop reach—you can't independently validate their inventory” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 259 links across 118 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Improvado10 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Vibe.co10 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Directive Consulting10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Reddit6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · 6sense6 answers · 6 citations · 4 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Epom5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Basis4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best programmatic advertising platform”, “programmatic advertising platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
StackAdapt stackadapt.com61%3938,10016726,512$18,665393
AdRoll adroll.com
AdRoll 13%, AdRoll ABM 2%
15%2042,9005052,27318
The Trade Desk thetradedesk.com11%35127,1001,14068,569$8,11318
Choozle choozle.com4%48720122,161$13513
ad:personam adpersonam.io4%100528
Demandbase Advertising demandbase.com2%6242,53134
Google parent site
Google Ads 2%, Google Display & Video 360 0%, Google Ad Manager 0%
2%201550,00015,818
Basis basis.com0%5827,10018,0599,941$14115
Amazon DSP amazon.com0%13922,2001,4981,681,997,879$106,1251155
Hey Sid heysid.com0%15702245215

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 15 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (directiveconsulting.com, improvado.io, reddit.com, vibe.co). The first result for “best programmatic advertising platform” is mediajel.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best programmatic advertising platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which demand-side platform for display ads would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top programmatic advertising platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best programmatic advertising platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a programmatic advertising platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which programmatic advertising platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5StackAdapt
Three alternativesAdRoll ABM, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
against: The Trade Desk
The Trade DeskChanged
Two alternativesAdobe Advertising, DV360
no first choiceStackAdapt
One alternativeAdLib
no first choiceagainst: Amazon DSP, DV360
GPT-5.4 miniAdRoll ABM
Two alternatives6sense, Demandbase Advertising
against: StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptChanged
Four alternativesDV360, Demandbase Advertising, Google Marketing Platform, The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Five alternativesAmazon DSP, Google Ad Manager, Google Display & Video 360, Magnite, PubMatic
against: MediaMath, Yahoo DSP
AdRoll
One alternativeMicrosoft Advertising
against: The Trade Desk
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashStackAdapt
Three alternativesAdRoll ABM, Choozle, Metadata.io
against: 6sense, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Two alternativesDemandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Five alternativesAmazon DSP, Basis, Google Display & Video 360, Simpli.fi, StackAdapt
AdRoll, StackAdapt
Four alternativesAdLib, SmartyAds DSP, Version2, Vibe.co
against: Choozle, DV360, The Trade Desk
StackAdapt
Two alternativesBasis, Simpli.fi
against: Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
against: Google's Performance Max
Perplexity SonarStackAdapt
Four alternativesBasis, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Four alternativesDemandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, ZoomInfo Marketing
Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Four alternativesAdobe Advertising, Amazon DSP, Basis, StackAdapt
against: MediaMath
StackAdapt
Three alternativesAd Geeks, Epom DSP, Vibe.co
no first choiceagainst: Amazon DSP, Basis, Simpli.fi, StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
Grok 4.20StackAdapt
Four alternativesDemandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
against: Amazon DSP, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Two alternativesBasis, MediaMath
against: Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Five alternativesAmazon DSP, Google Ad Manager, Magnite, PubMatic, StackAdapt
against: Adform DSP, Adobe Advertising, MediaMath, Xandr/Microsoft
AdRoll
Two alternativesGoogle Ads, Vibe.co
against: Amazon DSP, Choozle, DV360, StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
One alternativeDV360
against: Adobe Advertising
against: Amazon DSP, Criteo, Google Ad Manager, Google Display & Video 360, Google Performance Max, Magnite, Microsoft Invest, PubMatic
Mistral SmallStackAdapt
Two alternativesAdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
against: 6sense, Amazon DSP, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Two alternativesBasis, Hey Sid
against: The Trade Desk
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Advertising, MediaMathAdRoll, ad:personam
Three alternativesChoozle, StackAdapt, Vibe.co
against: Ad Geeks, DV360, The Trade Desk
no first choiceagainst: Cheetah Mobile, DO Global, Kika Tech
DeepSeek V4 FlashStackAdapt
Four alternativesAdRoll ABM, Demandbase Advertising, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
against: DV360, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
One alternativeThe Trade Desk
against: 6sense, AdRoll, Demandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360
Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Five alternativesAdobe Advertising, Amazon DSP, Basis, Epom DSP, StackAdapt
against: Xandr/Microsoft
AdRoll
Four alternativesAdwave, StackAdapt, Vibe.co, ad:personam
against: Choozle, DV360, The Trade Desk
no first choice
Six alternatives6sense, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
against: 33Across, Colossus, Criteo, Epsilon, GumGum, MediaMath, Microsoft Invest, Nexxen, Ogury, OpenWeb, Smart AdServer, Sonobi, Sovrn, Teads, TripleLift, Zeta Global
Llama 4 MaverickStackAdaptStackAdaptHeld
Three alternativesAdform DSP, Choozle, Simpli.fi
no first choiceStackAdapt
Four alternativesAdRoll, Basis, Choozle, The Trade Desk
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashThe Trade Desk
Three alternativesDemandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360, Zeta Global
against: Adobe Advertising
StackAdaptChanged
Two alternativesHey Sid, Microsoft Advertising
against: DV360, The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Three alternativesAmazon DSP, Criteo, Google Display & Video 360
ad:personam
Three alternativesAdRoll, Adwave, StackAdapt
against: DV360, The Trade Desk
StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
Two alternativesAmazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360
against: Google Display & Video 360, Index Exchange, Meta Ads, Meta Audience Network, PopAds, PropellerAds, Taboola, Teads, Zeropark
Kimi K2StackAdapt
Two alternativesAdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
against: 6sense, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, Microsoft Invest, The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Four alternativesAdRoll ABM, Choozle, N.Rich, Simpli.fi
against: Demandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
Amazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Two alternativesBasis, StackAdapt
against: Microsoft Invest
Google Ads
Four alternativesChoozle, SmartyAds DSP, StackAdapt, ad:personam
against: Amazon DSP, DV360, The Trade Desk
StackAdapt
Five alternativesBasis, Blasto DSP, Google Display & Video 360, MediaMath, The Trade Desk
against: Google's ecosystem, X
GLM 4.7 FlashXStackAdapt
Three alternativesAdRoll ABM, Amazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360
against: The Trade Desk
StackAdaptHeld
Three alternativesGoogle Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, The Trade Desk
Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk
Five alternativesAdLib, AdRoll, Amazon DSP, Simpli.fi, StackAdapt
Choozle
Four alternativesPropellerAds, RollerAds, Simpli.fi, StackAdapt
no first choiceagainst: Adform DSP, Amazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360, Meta Ads, Microsoft Invest, StackAdapt, The Trade Desk
MiniMax M2.5StackAdapt
Three alternativesGoogle Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, The Trade Desk
Demandbase AdvertisingChanged
Two alternativesStackAdapt, The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Four alternativesAmazon DSP, Basis, Google Display & Video 360, StackAdapt
against: Xandr/Microsoft
AdRoll, Choozle
Two alternativesBasis, StackAdapt
against: DV360, The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Four alternativesAdobe Advertising, Amazon DSP, DV360, StackAdapt
against: Google Display & Video 360, Meta Ads
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:16yes910 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:46yes15 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:47yes1327 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:10yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:30yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:35yes08 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:57yes039 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:39yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:13no037 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:22yes029 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:55yes025 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:19yes09 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:44no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:49yes44 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:23yes621 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:00yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:54yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:33yes08 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:56yes027 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:14yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:24yes033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:34yes033 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:08yes043 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:37yes031 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:02yes810 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:40no09 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:00yes1722 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:07yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:29yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:07yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:25yes038 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:21yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:34no046 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:47yes040 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:39yes022 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:29yes018 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:18yes88 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:06yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:44yes2922 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:13yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:07yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:54yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:24yes017 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:45yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:09yes032 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:52yes031 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:26yes045 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:47yes014 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:38no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:56no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:43yes925 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:19yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:33yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:07yes09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:52yes035 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:47yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:00yes050 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:54yes0248 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:17yes077 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:50yes015 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:31yes1510 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:47yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:35yes1328 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:27yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:16yes011 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:30yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 05:04yes046 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:41yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:27no043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:48yes049 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:58yes032 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:41yes023 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Adform read as Adform DSP
Adobe read as Adobe Advertising
Adobe DSP read as Adobe Advertising
Demandbase read as Demandbase Advertising
Epom read as Epom DSP
Google read as Google Display & Video 360
Google Display/Video 360 read as Google Display & Video 360
LinkedIn read as LinkedIn Campaign Manager
Meta read as Meta Ads
Unresolved, counted raw
Adform Studio
Cheetah Mobile
DO Global
Google's ecosystem (DV360, Google Ads)
Independent DSPs
Kika Tech
MediaMath SOURCE
Microsoft Monetize
Version2 (ORION)
Yahoo Ad Tech / Viant
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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