Targeting

The Trade Desk API gives you flexible, layered control over who sees your ads and under what conditions. You can target based on audience identity, geography, contextual signals, or curated inventory—and layer these approaches to reach the right people at the right time.

Audiences

At the core is audience building: you define groups by combining data elements and data groups, using first-party segments (ideally from a seed), third-party segments, or alternative signals like location and contextual data. Included and excluded elements let you fine-tune scope, and multiple ID counting methodologies ensure accurate reach measurement across frameworks including UID2s.

Inventory and other targeting signals

Beyond audiences, you have broad control over inventory and context. Publisher lists and Blue Lists let you manage which sellers and publishers deliver your ads, and the SP500+ marketplace provides a curated pool of vetted, trusted sellers at no extra cost. For location-based approaches, geofence targeting reaches users based on physical presence without relying on IDs, while geo-interest expansion extends CTV campaigns to co-located viewers with similar interests. If you prefer to move away from ID-based targeting entirely, contextual targeting analyzes the content being consumed rather than the person consuming it, using standard categories or custom keyword-driven criteria.