The Trade Desk launches deal desk to streamline ad deal performance

The Trade Desk has introduced Deal Desk, a new feature on its Kokai platform that allows advertisers to manage direct deals and upfront commitments with publishers. It provides transparency on deal performance, quality, and pacing, and highlights alternative options if a deal underperforms.

Digital advertising deals account for a large share of programmatic spend, but many underperform due to limited visibility into impression quality and pacing. Deal Desk uses AI to give advertisers and publishers better insights into deal performance, enabling more effective optimisation.

“The Trade Desk is committed to improving the supply chain for digital advertising on the open internet, and improving deal performance is a vital element of this work,” said Will Doherty, SVP, inventory development, The Trade Desk. “Deals have not kept pace with advances in AI and transparency that savvy media buyers and sellers have come to expect. Deal Desk represents a long overdue innovation for our industry and will help advance the strategic relationships between advertisers and their premium publisher partners.” 

Deal Desk offers new features that help advertisers assess deal performance using Deal Quality Scores and find better value when needed. Publishers can propose detailed deals and get insights through the same scores. The platform automates deal activation and prioritisation, and includes tools for expanding or cancelling underperforming deals to improve results.

Initial publishers who have adopted Deal Desk for their private marketplace deals include industry leaders such as Disney. 

“As more buyers shift toward biddable activation, we’re focused on ensuring they have the tools, access, and flexibility they need to drive results,” said Jamie Power, SVP of addressable sales, Disney. “We continue to put our advertisers first, and our relationship with The Trade Desk reflects our commitment to meeting advertisers where they are and evolving how we transact to deliver greater efficiency and performance.” 

Deal Desk will be available for beta testing in Q3 2025.