The Trade Desk: Tips and best practices

The Trade Desk: Tips and best practices#

Understanding cost field configuration and formatting#

Cost column specification#

Cost column = Advertiser Cost (Advertiser Currency).

Advertiser Cost (Advertiser Currency) refers to the amount that an advertiser pays to run their ad campaigns while Advertiser Cost (Partner Currency) refers to the amount that The Trade Desk charges a partner to run the advertiser’s campaign. These two columns will most often match 1:1 unless clients run ads in a region (e.g., Oceania) which includes multiple countries.

Number formatting requirements#

Cost columns (Advertiser Cost, TTD Cost etc.) use German number formatting (e.g., 16,25) and need converting to English formatting (e.g., 16.25) before importing to Extract & Present.

Ensure proper number format conversion for:

  • Calculations and visualizations

  • Data consistency across reporting platforms

  • Accurate financial analysis

Understanding report limitations and data availability#

Dynamic fields structure#

In The Trade Desk, dimensions and metrics are dynamic and part of reports; they cannot be selected individually. You can only select the report (preconfigured in TTD UI) you want to pull, and only the dimensions and metrics available in that report will be retrieved.

This is why a list of supported fields does not exist for The Trade Desk—fields are report-specific and defined within The Trade Desk’s UI configuration rather than being individually selectable.

Historical data constraints#

You can only fetch the time period that is already available in the TTD report. If the report was created in the UI today and includes data for yesterday, in Adverity you can fetch data only for yesterday. However, the amount of time available to fetch can be customized by the client for a report in the UI and larger periods of time can be made available.

Key limitation: Any custom reports setup in The Trade Desk UI are available to pull in Adverity. Reports must be setup and scheduled to update yesterday’s data in TTD UI before we can access them in Adverity. The data starts building from this moment onwards and you cannot fetch historical data.

The same limitation applies for template reports unless the user sets them up in UI to update a larger time period.

Authentication setup requirements#

For The Trade Desk connection, the client will need to ask TTD to setup an API user for them. The UI login credentials will not work for authorizing the connection in Adverity.

This is different from most other connectors where UI credentials can be used for API access.

Available granularity levels#

The connector supports the following levels of granularity:

  • Account

  • Campaign

  • Ad Group

  • Creative

Implementing naming convention versioning#

Naming convention versioning is applied based on the date when a campaign started. Depending on the reporting required, campaign start dates might not be available to add to that report and a workaround would need to be created as follows:

Workaround process#

  1. Create datastream with all dimensions and metrics required for reporting

  2. Create additional datastream with just campaign names and campaign start dates

  3. Join campaign start dates to the main datastream and apply versioning

This allows for proper campaign versioning even when start dates are not available in the primary report.

Data processing and validation#

Report availability timing#

Reports must be:

  1. Setup in The Trade Desk UI

  2. Scheduled to update with yesterday’s data

  3. Active before Adverity can access the data

The data collection begins from the moment the report is properly configured in TTD, not retroactively.

Template report configuration#

The same limitations apply for template reports unless the user sets them up in UI to update a larger time period.

Template reports must also be configured to update regularly with the desired data timeframe before they can be accessed through Adverity.

Performance considerations#

Data freshness vs. completeness trade-off#

  • Fresher data may require more frequent report setup and scheduling in TTD UI

  • Historical completeness depends on when reporting was initially configured

  • Balance between data recency needs and setup complexity

Report complexity management#

  • More complex custom reports may take longer to generate in TTD

  • Consider splitting complex reports into smaller, focused datastreams

  • Monitor report generation times and adjust scheduling accordingly

Connector limitations#

  • Any custom reports setup in The Trade Desk UI are available to pull in Adverity. Reports must be setup and scheduled to update yesterday’s data in TTD UI before access is possible in Adverity. Data starts building from this moment onwards and historical data cannot be fetched

  • Same limitation applies for template reports unless the user configures them in UI to update a larger time period

  • Dimensions and metrics are report-specific and cannot be individually selected

  • UI login credentials cannot be used for API access; dedicated API user required

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