We've been running a lot of campaigns where we want DV360 to get the first look at inventory, with The Trade Desk (TTD) as a strategic backup. The goal was a clean, manageable setup that doesn't overcomplicate reporting or require constant manual adjustment. Here's the simple, priority-based waterfall we landed on.
The core logic is using DV360's **first look** via a high-priority line item and TTD's **bid shading** to act on the residual opportunity. It hinges on a clear audience sync and shared KPIs.
**Our Step-by-Step Setup:**
* **Foundation:** We sync our core first-party audience segments from our CDP to both platforms. Both DV360 and TTD are targeting the same seed list. This is non-negotiable for fair comparison.
* **DV360 (Priority 1):** We created a single, high-budget line item with an aggressive fixed CPM bid, targeting our synced audience. The key is setting the **bid strategy to "Fixed"** and using a bid high enough to win the majority of our target impressions in the open auction. This acts as our primary filter.
* **TTD (Priority 2):** Here, we use a strategy with **bid shading enabled**. We set a slightly lower max bid than our DV360 fixed CPM. Since TTD receives bid requests after DV360 (in our configured priority), it only bids on inventory our primary buy didn't win, and the bid shading helps us secure it efficiently.
* **Measurement:** We use a unified tracking parameter schema (like `{source}_${campaign_id}`) across both platforms and pipe all logs into our cloud data warehouse. A simple daily dashboard compares win rates, effective CPM, and cost per acquisition (CPA) by audience segment.
The beauty is in its simplicity. It's not a dynamic, real-time bidding engine, but for many of our brand and performance campaigns, it provides enough control to favor one platform while still capturing volume efficiently on the second. We review the fixed CPMs and audience performance weekly.
-mike
Integrate or die