Programmatic advertising is entering a new era where outcome-based decisioning isn’t just possible, it’s expected. The Trade Desk’s integration with Attain marks a major step forward, giving advertisers real-time sales signals, full-funnel visibility, and frictionless incremental lift measurement. The Outcome spoke with Trina Dhar, Manager, Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk, about what this unlocks today, and where the future of outcome-driven media is headed.

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Trina, how do you evaluate a purchase data partner, and what criteria matters most to The Trade Desk?

We look for partners that can provide deterministic, permissioned data, broad retail coverage across categories and verticals, and near real-time data freshness. Strong data governance and clear consumer permissions are also essential. 

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From where you’re sitting, where do you see the biggest opportunity for impact within the partner ecosystem?

From a measurement lens, incremental lift measurement is a critical KPI for clients, and partnering with Attain has enabled a first-of-its-kind solution for third-party incremental lift measurement. Clients can easily set up and access reporting all within The Trade Desk platform, with no extra contracts or separate billing. This provides a super seamless setup experience for advertisers.  

Looking ahead, we want to expand this approach to additional partners to broaden the roster of incremental lift options, from sales lift to location lift and beyond. Since The Trade Desk is a global company, we also aim to scale our measurement solutions internationally so that clients everywhere can measure true outcomes with confidence.

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Can you say more about what this partnership unlocks for advertisers?

This integration completes the full-funnel journey: clients can now plan, activate, optimize, and measure campaigns using purchase data.

We chose Attain for several reasons, but primarily because clients demanded it. Many already trust Attain’s verified sales data and incremental lift methodology. The broad vertical coverage across CPG, retail, QSR, insurance, and subscriptions also made the integration highly relevant. And finally, Attain’s ability to collaborate and move quickly helped us launch this solution fast.

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How does sales conversion feedback steer The Trade Desk’s bidding algorithm through Koa AI [The Trade Desk’s artificial intelligence engine] compared to traditional metrics like CTR or viewability?

Sales conversion feedback ensures optimization is tied to true business outcomes such as purchases and revenue rather than surface-level metrics like CTR or viewability.

Koa AI uses these sales conversion signals to prioritize impressions most likely to drive purchases and efficiency. This helps clients dynamically shift spend toward audiences, creatives, and placements that generate measurable ROI.

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How are advertisers using these verified sales conversions as seeds for new audience discovery? Can you give examples of verticals or use cases?

Advertisers can use verified conversions as seeds to discover new audiences that resemble their highest-value customers. I like to think of seeds as a North Star, helping clients identify audiences that look like their best customers.

Through the Attain partnership, data for seeds can be unlocked two ways: via Attain’s Conversion API (CAPI) integration using sales data, or via Attain’s purchase-based audiences. Both allow advertisers to discover accurate, high-value audiences.

The benefit is precision. Rather than relying on generic demo or web traffic data, advertisers can target based on real purchase behavior.

For example, in CPG and retail, brands use verified purchases to reach shoppers in-market for new products. In travel and hospitality, advertisers can use verified bookings to find similar travelers for future trips. Across categories, it’s a powerful way to uncover incremental audiences and conversions using our Seeds feature.

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Insights have historically been hard to access in programmatic. How is The Trade Desk helping to solve for that? 

Attain’s purchase insights give advertisers a holistic view of purchase behavior, showing not just who converted, but why. This helps advertisers tailor targeting and creative to real customer motivations, uncover cross-category insights for smarter media recommendations, and anticipate demand shifts. In short, it helps them plan smarter and react faster.

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Looking across verticals, where are you seeing the strongest sales optimization results today?

We’re seeing strong results across all of those categories. But what’s really standing out is not just vertical nuance, it’s the real-time reallocation of spend.

Clients are shifting budgets mid-flight toward creatives, tactics, and channels that deliver verified sales, ensuring every dollar works harder. They’re also testing and scaling creatives proven to convert to true sales outcomes.

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What’s been the most surprising unlock for clients you’ve seen so far?

Advertisers are discovering new customer segments based on real purchase behavior, including   segments they didn’t even know existed. This helps them expand their reach while staying relevant and outcome-focused. And with the new Incremental Lift measurement integration, they’re optimizing toward both total and incremental sales growth, which is a major unlock.

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Looking ahead, how will The Trade Desk make sales data even more actionable?

We want advertisers to make informed, outcome-based decisions at every stage of the campaign lifecycle.

Conversion data is already actionable for planning, audience discovery, optimization, and full-funnel measurement. Next, we’re focused on expanding our global measurement footprint, integrating new outcome signals, and making outcome-based buying the default standard across the open internet.