Wave, everyone. Please!
OK, let’s analyze this analyst report. Analyst firm, Forrester, has released its latest Forrester Wave for Q1, focused on “omnichannel advertising platforms,” or essentially DSPs. The company evaluated Amazon Ads, Basis, Google, Yahoo DSP, Viant, StackAdapt, and The Trade Desk.
Ultimately, Amazon Ads was the sole “Leader” in the ranking, with Google in second place and Yahoo DSP in third. The top five was rounded out by The Trade Desk and StackAdapt.
Why This Matters:
It’s easy to treat these rankings as a curiosity (and sometimes as a car crash). But they influence real spending decisions—often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If not, millions over time.
What’s also fascinating is the report reinforces a few key storylines we’ve seen over the past year:
Example – Amazon Ads is surging. Its DSP continues to gain traction in both adoption and product development. The company announced a Tubi deal just a week ago.
Agentic AI is becoming a differentiator. Forrester’s scorecard included an agentic AI ranking, with Amazon Ads, Google, and Viant scoring 5s (Viant’s diss track, clearly, influenced judges), Yahoo DSP at 3, and The Trade Desk and StackAdapt at 1.
Finally, The Trade Desk faces pressure, landing outside the top three.
Experts React:
There has been a wave of reactions since the report dropped Friday. Here are some of the more notable takes from X (sorry, LinkedIn users):
Our Take:
The adtech crowd can be overly harsh on these rankings, in our view. But they’re not really built for insiders. Are we wrong?
They’re designed for buyers evaluating partners or considering a switch. In that context, they’re useful—and they do carry weight.
(Other other thing: the report seems to make clear that differentiation is shifting from just access to inventory toward how platforms apply AI to planning, activation, and optimization. That’s where the next wave of competition is probably forming. And any buyer is paying attention to that.)
AdTechRadar is owned by Chris Harihar, who leads PR at Mod Op. Yahoo DSP is a Mod Op client.
