Glossary
What is Trading desk?
Also called: agency trading desk, ATD
A trading desk is a buy-side team, usually linked to an agency, that runs programmatic buying for advertisers through DSPs.
हिंदी में पढ़ेंA trading desk sits on the buy side. It is a team of specialists, often part of an agency, that plans and runs programmatic campaigns for advertisers. The desk uses one or more DSPs to bid on impressions, sets targeting and budgets, and reports results back to the brand.
On the ad tech map, money flows from the advertiser to its agency, sometimes through a trading desk, into a DSP, then through SSPs and exchanges to the publisher’s ad server. Each hop keeps a fee. Not every budget takes this route: some advertisers buy directly from publishers.
Trading desks are among the authorised buyers that can bid on AdSense inventory, alongside ad networks and DSPs. For a publisher, a trading desk is a potential buyer, for example for private marketplace or preferred deals, not a company that sells your inventory. Knowing which side a company works for helps you read pitches and pick partners.
Example
A brand gives its agency $10,000. The agency's trading desk loads it into a DSP, which buys impressions at an average $3.00 CPM. Before fees, that budget buys about 3.3 million impressions ($10,000 ÷ $3.00 × 1,000).
Why it matters to publishers
Trading desks control a share of programmatic budgets. Knowing they sit on the buy side helps you read the ad tech map and talk to the right people about deals.