# Programmatic and display advertising for small business buyers: 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/programmatic-and-display-advertising/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** StackAdapt leads with 32% of first choices; verdict contested. 47 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) | 32% | 2% | 53 |
| 2 | [AdRoll](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adroll/index.md) | 21% | 4% | 28 |
| 3 | [LinkedIn Campaign Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/linkedin-campaign-manager/index.md) | 11% | 10% | 21 |
| 4 | [Choozle](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/choozle/index.md) | 9% | 9% | 23 |
| 5 | [Google Ads](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/google-ads/index.md) | 4% | 12% | 17 |
| 6 | [Hey Sid](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hey-sid/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 12 |
| 8 | [The Trade Desk](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/the-trade-desk/index.md) | 4% | 71% | 49 |
| 13 | [DV360](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/dv360/index.md) | 2% | 68% | 28 |
| 14 | [Meta Ads](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/meta-ads/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 17 | [Amazon DSP](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/amazon-dsp/index.md) | 0% | 26% | 27 |
| 68 | [Demandbase Advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/demandbase-advertising/index.md) | 0% | 50% | 10 |
| 70 | [Google Display & Video 360](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/google-display-video-360/index.md) | 0% | 76% | 17 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 70 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: DV360, LinkedIn Advertising; alternatives The Trade Desk
- GPT-5.4 mini: LinkedIn Campaign Manager; alternatives Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Choozle, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Pontiac Intelligence
- Perplexity Sonar: StackAdapt; alternatives Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Grok 4.20: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll, Google Display & Video 360
- Mistral Small: The Trade Desk; alternatives Brandzooka, Choozle, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, StackAdapt
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll, Choozle, Google Ads, Hey Sid
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Hey Sid; alternatives Google Search Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, StackAdapt
- Kimi K2: Hey Sid; alternatives AdRoll, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, StackAdapt, Vibe.co
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: AdRoll ABM; alternatives AdLib, DemandScience, RichAds, RollerAds
- MiniMax M2.5: The Trade Desk; alternatives LinkedIn Campaign Manager, StackAdapt

## 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: 11 answers, 15 citations
- getadlib.com: 9 answers, 15 citations
- reddit.com: 9 answers, 14 citations
- vibe.co: 9 answers, 9 citations
- aidigital.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- epom.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- smartyads.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- adgeeks.agency: 6 answers, 9 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://improvado.io/blog/top-programmatic-platforms (9 answers)
- https://vibe.co/blog/how-to/programmatic-advertising-platforms (9 answers)
- https://aidigital.com/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms (7 answers)
- https://adgeeks.agency/news/best-programmatic-advertising-agencies-for-small-businesses-in-2026 (6 answers)
- https://reddit.com/r/programmatic/comments/1kze7w7/dsp_for_small_business_recommendation (6 answers)
- https://6sense.com/blog/best-b2b-programmatic-advertising-platforms (5 answers)
- https://adwave.com/resources/best-programmatic-advertising-platforms (5 answers)
- https://heysid.com/resources/best-programmatic-advertising-platforms-for-b2b (5 answers)
- https://smartyads.com/blog/top-self-serve-programmatic-dsps-agencies (5 answers)
- https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/the-top-5-programmatic-platforms-leading-the-way-in-2026 (4 answers)

## Warned against

- The Trade Desk: 35 of 49 labels negative. "Platforms to avoid/be cautious of: The Trade Desk (TTD)... High Spend Minimums: The Trade Desk often requires commitments starting around $100,000 per quarter." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Google Display & Video 360: 13 of 17 labels negative. "Platforms to avoid/be cautious of: ... Google Display & Video 360 (DV360)... DV360 often requires $25,000+ per month." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- DV360: 19 of 28 labels negative. "What to Avoid - Enterprise DSPs directly (DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP direct)" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Amazon DSP: 7 of 27 labels negative. "Skip Trade Desk/Demandbase/Amazon DSP: $20K+/month, too complex/expensive for small B2B." (Grok 4.20, direct 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.