If quality and performance are a battle, performance might be winning.
A month ago, we reported that the performance-lovin’ AppLovin expanded internationally for the first time. Since then, its stock has climbed more than 35%. Over the same period, The Trade Desk—continuing to tout its beloved Sincera deal—has dropped more than 12% after a massive drop in late August.
Let’s look at the side-by-side:
The contrast highlights an increasingly clear split in the market. Quality matters, of course, but it isn’t enough on its own (Erez, don’t kill us!). Performance is what drives growth, and increasingly, companies are orienting around it. Even verification vendors that once leaned mostly on quality are now positioning performance at the center of their offerings. Relatedly, Scope3’s layoffs suggest that a quality-only story may no longer resonate. (Especially this late into a company’s lifecycle.)
Why This Matters:
It’s the economy, stupid. Macroeconomic headwinds are forcing advertisers to prioritize results—plain and simple.
A recent Gartner report found that marketing budgets, as a share of company revenue, are likely to remain flat in 2025. The market is signaling loudly that performance is the priority—performance over everything. Further to that point, another study found that half of all global advertisers are focused on performance in 2025.
Experts React:
A new Reddit thread about TTD’s India expansion, which points to high fees, raises some obvious questions about value if performance doesn’t follow. Both TTD and AppLovin are pushing internationally, but performance may prove the more compelling export when it’s all said and done.
Our Take:
Quality will always be an important part of the adtech story—and more quality is always better. Advertisers need to trust where their dollars go, after all, and the industry can’t ignore that. But quality alone isn’t enough to win in a market that’s increasingly unforgiving/harsh.
Right now, companies leaning too heavily on quality risk missing what buyers actually want: quality, yes, but above all, measurable performance. In today’s environment, the story that resonates is ROI, powered by AI to make it even more compelling. It’s not about abandoning quality. If anything, it’s about elevating it as one piece of a broader performance-driven narrative.
