# Programmatic and display advertising: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "programmatic advertising platform" and as "demand-side platform for display ads", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/programmatic-and-display-advertising/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/programmatic-and-display-advertising/index.md

**Standing:** StackAdapt leads with 61% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [StackAdapt](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/stackadapt/index.md) | 61% | 7% | 54 |
| 2 | [AdRoll](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adroll/index.md) | 13% | 10% | 10 |
| 3 | [The Trade Desk](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/the-trade-desk/index.md) | 11% | 41% | 56 |
| 4 | [Choozle](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/choozle/index.md) | 4% | 23% | 13 |
| 7 | [Demandbase Advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/demandbase-advertising/index.md) | 2% | 29% | 17 |
| 9 | [Google Display & Video 360](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/google-display-video-360/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 29 |
| 10 | [Basis](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/basis/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 15 |
| 11 | [Amazon DSP](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/amazon-dsp/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 34 |
| 12 | [Hey Sid](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hey-sid/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 13 | [LinkedIn Campaign Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/linkedin-campaign-manager/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 14 | [Simpli.fi](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/simpli-fi/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 18 | [Adobe Advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adobe-advertising/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 14 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 91 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- GPT-5.4 mini: AdRoll ABM; alternatives 6sense, Demandbase Advertising
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Choozle, Metadata.io
- Perplexity Sonar: StackAdapt; alternatives Basis, DV360, Demandbase Advertising, The Trade Desk
- Grok 4.20: StackAdapt; alternatives Demandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Mistral Small: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Demandbase Advertising, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Llama 4 Maverick: StackAdapt
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: The Trade Desk; alternatives Demandbase Advertising, Google Display & Video 360, Zeta Global
- Kimi K2: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Amazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360
- MiniMax M2.5: StackAdapt; alternatives Google Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, The Trade Desk

## Sources the answers cite

20 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- improvado.io: 10 answers, 16 citations
- vibe.co: 10 answers, 11 citations
- directiveconsulting.com: 10 answers, 10 citations
- getadlib.com: 8 answers, 9 citations
- reddit.com: 6 answers, 8 citations
- syntermedia.ai: 6 answers, 7 citations
- 6sense.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- taqtics.com: 6 answers, 6 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/the-top-5-programmatic-platforms-leading-the-way-in-2026 (10 answers)
- https://improvado.io/blog/top-programmatic-platforms (10 answers)
- https://vibe.co/blog/how-to/programmatic-advertising-platforms (10 answers)
- https://6sense.com/blog/best-b2b-programmatic-advertising-platforms (6 answers)
- https://taqtics.com/answers/programmatic-advertising/programmatic-advertising-platforms (6 answers)
- https://aidigital.com/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms (5 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-demand-side-platforms (5 answers)
- https://getadlib.com/blog/top-programmatic-advertising-tools (4 answers)
- https://heysid.com/resources/best-programmatic-advertising-platforms-for-b2b (4 answers)
- https://admanage.ai/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms (3 answers)

## Warned against

- The Trade Desk: 23 of 56 labels negative. "Avoid DV360/Trade Desk/Amazon DSP: High mins ($25K–$50K/month), fees make them unviable below that." (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- DV360: 13 of 22 labels negative. "Platforms to AVOID with Limited Budgets ... Requires $25,000-$50,000/month minimum" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Amazon DSP: 8 of 34 labels negative. "Amazon DSP: High CPMs, limited B2B advantage outside retail" (Mistral Small, direct prompt)
- Google Display & Video 360: 7 of 29 labels negative. "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)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.