Trade Desk Posts $736 Million Q3 Revenue, Guides $755 Million

Trade Desk reported third-quarter revenue of $736 million, down 0.5% from a year earlier but above the outlook the company issued in August. Political advertising and demand from medical and health clients drove the beat, and a one-off transaction with a strategic partner added roughly 3 percentage points to revenue growth.

Even excluding that benefit, the underlying business performed meaningfully better than expected, Chief Financial Officer Nate Olmstead said. For finance teams tracking ad-tech economics, the quarter signals stabilization rather than recovery — and management itself framed it that way.

CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Green said the quarter marked progress in efforts to improve execution, but acknowledged that growth remained below the company's expectations. The company is reorganizing its commercial operations, investing in measurement and artificial intelligence, and concentrating resources on its largest opportunities to restore more durable growth.

What does the guidance imply?

For the fourth quarter, Trade Desk forecast revenue of at least $755 million and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of at least $280 million. Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA came in at $266 million, a 36% margin.

Olmstead said the outlook reflects current business trends and does not assume every positive indicator will immediately convert into revenue. The company expects sequential growth, but not the typical seasonal step-up from the third quarter to the fourth.

Political advertising represented a mid-single-digit percentage of third-quarter business and should account for a slightly larger share in the fourth quarter, Olmstead said. Green called the 2026 midterm election the company's largest political cycle yet.

The seasonal unwind matters for modeling. Olmstead cautioned that revenue typically falls from the fourth quarter to the first; in election years, the sequential decline has historically run about 25% on an absolute basis.

Medical and health, personal finance, travel and political advertising were the strongest verticals. Consumer packaged goods and automotive faced pressure, which Olmstead partly attributed to inflation and higher interest rates.

Where do the cost cuts land?

Third-quarter net income was $38 million, or $0.08 per diluted share; adjusted net income was $155 million, or $0.33 per diluted share. Operating expenses totaled $643 million, including $44 million in restructuring charges tied primarily to severance and employee benefits.

The company previously announced a reduction of roughly 15% of its global workforce. Olmstead said the actions should generate more than $100 million in gross savings in 2027, with part of that reinvested in the business. He expects expense growth to moderate meaningfully next year compared with 2026, with cost reviews spanning platform operations, software, outside services and facilities.

Trade Desk ended the quarter with about $1.6 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. It repurchased no shares during the quarter but added an authorization bringing the amount available for future buybacks to $1 billion.

Which products carry the growth thesis?

Green said Trade Desk will formally launch an open measurement product later in the fourth quarter. It is designed to help advertisers assess advertising's contribution across the customer journey rather than relying on the last click or view before a transaction. He expects the product to support growth next year.

The company also launched Zuma, an upgrade to its Kokai platform, during the quarter, improving workflows and embedding more AI into the user experience. In tests across 62 campaigns, an upgraded Koa model improved cost per acquisition by a median of 21% versus the prior model.

More than 100 advertisers have tested Audience Unlimited, a product intended to simplify third-party audience data, with several hundred campaigns live. Green said recent campaigns using it cut cost per acquisition by more than 30% and cost per thousand impressions by roughly 14%.

Joint business plans (structured partnership agreements with brands and agencies, replacing traditional master service agreements) rose more than 30% year over year through the third quarter. Green said customers under those plans continued to grow meaningfully faster than those on conventional contracts.

What changes in leadership and pricing?

Green announced that Co-Founder Dave Pickles, who stepped down as chief technology officer in 2023 and has since served as a long-term adviser, will substantially expand his role. Green described Pickles as the architect of the platform and said his technical experience could help the company move faster.

On the take-rate pricing model (the share of ad spend Trade Desk retains), Green said the rate has stayed relatively consistent over the company's decade as a public company. He said Trade Desk would be open to lowering it if that produced more growth, but argued customers should evaluate the platform's total cost and outcomes rather than its stated price alone.