Top 10 DSPs That Define Programmatic Buying in 2022

Demand side platforms in 2021 aren't what they used to be just a couple of years ago — the evolution of digital advertising constantly brings new functionalities, ad formats, and capacities to the table.

Let's review a list of demand-side platforms to compare the most popular options for ad management and ad buying.

DSP companies

In case you aren't quite aware of what is DSP — the demand-side platform is a technological platform that links advertisers and agencies to the publishers who are willing to sell their ad space, typically on a per-click or per-impression basis.

How do they serve advertisers?

The key point of DSP is to simplify and automate the media-buying process for demand-side partners of the programmatic ecosystem. The real-time bidding algorithm is what typically fuels the automation on DSP demand side platforms, by supporting online auctions.

On the other side of the spectrum is the supply side offering their ad inventory through SSP. If we simplify the whole algorithmic media trading process to the core here's how demand-side platforms DSPs interact with supply-side platforms in order to buy impressions from publishers in real time.

How programmatic platforms work

1) Cookies collected and passed to SSP

The user visits the website/app while their cookies are automatically collected by the source and passed to the SSP (that sends a request to demand-side platforms DSPs).

2) DSP bids

The demand side platform DSP analyzes information about the user and matches it with targeting criteria that advertisers brands and agencies set up on DSP (the geolocation of the user, their IP, age or/and gender, OS, device type, brand, etc.).

If it's a match, then the demand-side platform takes part in the auction and competes for this particular impression with the rest of the DSP demand-side platforms.

3) The ad is served

The advertiser whose demand side platform offered the highest bid wins and the impression is served to this particular user. The whole real-time bidding RTB process takes no more than a few milliseconds (while the page is loading). This way the ad finds the viewer at the right time and place.

How DSPs are different from ad exchanges and ad networks

Let's see how DSPs demand-side platforms are different from multiple ad exchanges represented on the market today.

Ad networks

Typically a key function of ad networks and ad exchanges is to aggregate the digital advertising inventory from publishers and align it with the advertiser's demand.

Publishers of blogs, news sites, mobile apps, and websites collect their ad slots that advertisers can buy. Multiple ad exchanges may offer different traffic. For instance, last time in the article we reviewed the best push network options for advertisers and affiliates.

The other options may work specifically with display video, display mobile, native advertising, CTV ad campaigns, and so forth. Some think there's an ongoing battle called DSP vs ad network.

The only difference is that the DSPs are designed only for the demand side. The network may also have real-time bidding RTB functionality, however, it can be joined by both demand and supply-side.

Ad exchanges

What is an ad exchange? An ad exchange is an open marketplace designed for both supply and demand side partners. Along with ad networks, they were the first online advertising platforms that popped into the scene.

Just like DSP demand side platforms, exchanges can also be used for buying digital advertising space based on targeting criteria.

The difference

The key difference here is that ad exchange is used by everyone, advertisers and publishers, while DSP demand side platforms serve the interests of advertisers.

Since the demand-side platform DSP is an advertising platform designed for advertisers only, it leaves room for DSP companies to compete through more refined dashboard customization and a broader set of useful demand-side functionalities.

As well, advertisers can serve marketing and advertising campaigns on DSP demand side platforms through trading desks.

2 types of DSPs to look for

There are two types of demand-side platforms DSPs available on the market. One type belongs to the managed service category and the other one is completely suitable for self-service.

Both types of DSPs have their pros and cons. It's worth mentioning that top DSP companies usually offer options to satisfy the needs of both categories of advertisers.

Here's a quick look at each type of these demand-side platforms.

Self-serve DSPs

With self-serve DSP, advertisers can manage their campaigns individually through the dashboard. Benefits include complete control over your campaigns and the fact that you don't need to spend money on campaign management.

Still, this approach involves a lot of effort and time for campaign and ad management.

What makes it special

With self-serve demand side platforms DSP, advertisers must make campaign optimization decisions themselves: such as bids, budgets, and targeting.

In order to be successful with this type of advertising platform, an advertiser needs a skilled team of media buyers or sufficient expertise in programmatic advertising.

Managed demand-side platforms

To use this type of account, an advertiser has to commission control of their campaigns to the service team which is usually hired and assembled by a certain DSP technology company.

It can be used both by newbies in programmatic advertising and by advertisers who just don't have the time and resources for managing ad campaigns on their own.

Why you might need it

In this case, the DSP technology company provides an experienced account manager for the client to manage the ad spend, targeting, optimization, and everything that comes with a campaign. In some cases, companies commission it to trading desks.

Trade desk professionals can also configure and run campaigns on DSPs on behalf of advertisers who don't have time or experience for self-service.

Top DSP platforms of 2022 and what makes them popular

When it comes to top DSPs in 2020 and 2022 we can pinpoint the general trend: these are mostly marketing platform providers that became popular relatively recently.

Some of them were popular for quite a long time and there is a fraction of award-winning DSPs that recently strengthened their presence in the market thanks to the innovations.

Google platform

For instance, the Google marketing platform was among the first companies that pioneered the niche. Then joined Facebook, Amazon advertising platform (Amazon DSP), and the rest.

Together with the Google marketing platform, these platforms account for 70% of advertising traffic. Indeed, advertising giants are here to offer very strong demand side capabilities as their advertising software is reliable and time-proven.

Alternative DSPs as market drivers

What's happening behind the curtains — smaller DSP companies are catching up with such giants as Google marketing platform very quickly.

Alternatives that appear on the market every year have serious competitive advantages, they compete with giants through innovations, the ability to adjust to the rapidly changing ecosystem, flexibility, and individual approach to clients.

These demand-side platforms can be very similar to Google's marketing platform, still, each of those best demand-side platforms we have on the list has its own unique characteristics, the number of clients, formats, and pricing models they function according to.

Traffic specialization

Demand side platforms may specialize in self-serve mobile campaigns, desktop, CTV campaigns, or else.

The price per impression or click will normally be dependent on many factors such as geo, resolution of the chosen ad format, traffic type, placement details, and advertising vertical (business, IT, finance, health, lifestyle, news, sport, and so on).

Alternative DSPs also effectively compete by offering lower prices or traffic across multiple ad verticals (that are restricted on most programmatic advertising platforms).

DSPs are booming (stats)

In 2021 the global market of demand side platform DSP solutions was booming and it is expected to boost with a CAGR of 30.0% ($29680 million) by 2025 as featured in the GlobeNewswire report.

More is yet to come

Nevertheless, the list of demand-side platforms is getting updated non-stop. Solid alternative DSPs that serve programmatic ads pose serious competition. Before we start to review the top DSPs of the year, let's see which important features and technologies a demand-side platform DSP is expected to have to be called best these days.

4 features of the best DSP

Each demand side platform DSP may have plenty of features and useful functionalities on board.

A single platform can also leverage a great variety of ad-buying advancements. We also tried to analyze and find out what advertisers look for in the demand side platform in 2022, here's what we found:

Cross-platform and cross-device digital advertising capabilities

• One person typically has several devices each of which can function on different OS — mobile phone, laptop, PC. As CTV and OTT enormously grow, advertisers also strive to capture previously unexplored Smart TV audiences on demand-side platforms. Media buying on any marketing platform today should utilize AI, machine learning, and first/third-party data-driven advanced attribution algorithms that run cross-platform and cross-device advertising campaigns.

Healthy traffic and a safe advertising ecosystem

• If you look for the best DSP platforms, you'll need to look at how many ad exchanges the DSP has access to, because it means greater reach. However, working with more traffic sources also entails more risks of advertising fraud unless a demand-side platform DSP has traffic protection scanners and filters in place. If demand-side platforms have proper anti-fraud control it will directly affect the effectiveness of advertising campaigns as impressions will only be seen by real people (not bots).

Lots of ad formats and profound analytics

• These days it is a must for a demand-side platform DSP to support all formats, at least those that are very popular, such as native, display mobile ad, video, rich media, social media, etc. The more formats an online advertising platform can serve, the more opportunities are here to effectively embrace various channels. The reporting on DSPs should be generated on-demand and include details of all primary variables used for targeting.

Compliance with international and local privacy regulations

• In light of the recent transformations related to privacy and user data protection, it becomes necessary for the demand side platform and media buyers to be compliant with regulations and laws. DSPs use cookies and data management platforms that can be restricted by international regulations, GDPR and CCPA, and local ones. The best way is to ask your technology company whether it is compliant and what mechanisms they use to ensure this compliance.

10 Best demand-side platforms of 2022

The list of top DSPs in 2022 can be arranged according to various criteria — capabilities to target audience, reach, formats, analytics, data management, and more.

We've selected the most popular DSPs, those that operate according to cost-per-impression models (in both self-service and managed service categories).

How we compared

While analyzing and comparing top demand side platforms DSP we also used builtwith.com and similartech.com to fetch the freshest results and traffic info (dated 18 February 2021).

 

SmartyAds DSP

SmartyAds DSP is a leading full-stack programmatic advertising solution that has all essential functionalities for managing and raising profitable ad campaigns (founded in 2013, headquarters: New York City, New York).

This software platform has been gradually augmenting the number of traffic sources so that it now serves 366 847 impressions daily. The average CTR indicator is 5,48%, and the CPM is around $1,01. This platform also has strong traffic protection mechanisms and is GDPR/CCPA compliant.

Main features

• Cross-device omnichannel delivery. SmartyAds DSP supports formats that suit all popular ad mediums: mobile, in-app, and CTV ecosystems. The ad formats are specifically suited for all device types.
• The abundance of ad formats. The number of digital ad formats that SmartyAds DSP supports is overwhelming: native, rich media, display mobile, video, banner, CTV, custom, and IAB format sizes and resolutions are also supported.
• Real-time bidding, direct, and PMP deals. Real-time bidding enables the broadest reach across countries. Advertisers who want to fetch exclusive and premium ad space can be traded directly with publishers or private marketplace auctions.
• 30+ options to target audience. Advertisers can address audiences according to their geolocation, language, age, gender, OS, device type, and other conditions to make ad serving relevant and personalized. The top verticals are Arts & Entertainment, Technology & Computing, Hobbies & Interests, Society, Business, News, Edu, Health & Fitness.
• Automated reporting. The stats regarding campaign performance can be generated on-demand in convenient reports.

Is it right for you?

We've attributed SmartyAds to the top DSP platforms because it really has plenty of things to offer for advertisers. It will be a great choice for advertisers and agencies that look for a great global advertising reach, yet it is also good for those who want their options open for PMP and direct deals.

Their traffic comes from top-tier countries like the United States, India, Israel, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, the UK, and so on. It has a people-based approach meaning that apart from a self-served platform it can offer managed service.

Criteo

Criteo belongs to the top DSP platforms because of its popular service called Criteo dynamic retargeting. This industry-leading solution serves ads across the globe and offers a platform for CPC and CPM-based campaigns. This marketing platform yearly serves more than 1,2 billion ads. It is renowned for its strong display mobile, tablet, desktop, and display video capabilities. The platform features 725 daily active users, and 35B daily browsing and buying events. 

Main features

• Lots of ad formats. Display, mobile ads, tablet, desktop, banner ads, and display video campaigns (native video). Additional formats on offer include social, native, in-app ad formats, tablet formats, and CTV.
• Omnichannel reach. The single platform can deliver the ads across the most popular channels, including desktop, mobile, in-app, web mobile, and CTV ecosystems. The ads are dynamically optimized and suited to the platform and screen of the gadget.
• Strong and precise targeting. Dynamic retargeting demand side platform DSP enables you to re-engage your customers on various devices and channels with various targeting options (IP, OS, geo, device type, traffic type, time of day, connection type, and more).
• Real-time reporting. You can generate on-demand reports according to the campaign performance criteria you choose.
• Premium publishers. Criteo's open Commerce Marketing Ecosystem connects to myriads of premium-class publishers across the globe (with RTB and non-RTB deals).

Is it right for you?

Criteo is a solid data-driven solution for advertisers who want to run CPC and CPM-based campaigns. It was founded in 2005 and by this time has accumulated a lot of valuable traffic.

It is specifically good if you are looking for great display advertising capabilities and traffic sources. Aside from Criteo's dynamic retargeting platform they also have Criteo Direct. The countries that they work with include top-tier areas like the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, and Australia. As well, they serve ads in Brazil, Poland, Netherlands, Mexico, India, and so on.

Centro (Basis)

Centro's Basis is the largest SaaS-based DSP advertising software that designed a self-serve platform for advertisers who strive to buy digital inventory through real-time bidding RTB and programmatic direct deals. The Basis was founded in 2001 (Headquarters: New York City, New York), and to this day it has a strong focus on omnichannel campaign delivery. This marketing platform is pretty much universal in its ability to serve all kinds of ad campaigns, plus, it counted over 2000+ active private deals. Basis features 1.836,034 daily impressions and 180 data points for targeting. 

Main features

• Direct deals and RTB. A single interface opens a gateway to over 2000+ active private deals and real-time bidding RTB opportunities: advertisers can target audiences across all supply sources within the real-time bidding RTB ecosystem.
• Smart workflow automation. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms at the core of the software platform automatically measure and optimize campaigns: from bid formation to prices and ad delivery.
• Variety of available ad formats. Social media, native advertising (native video), video advertising, display mobile, display video, CTV, audio programmatic. They are served in all resolutions (size, width, etc).
• Data-driven smart targeting. This marketing platform has 25,000+ audience segments that become available for targeting.
• Smart analytics. The in-built reporting system analyzes campaign performance according to the most important indicators in real time. As well, the reports can be saved and downloaded for further use.

Is it right for you?

Centro's Basis is one of those demand side platforms that will suit you if you strive to buy ad inventory in both RTB and direct, avoiding auctions. Aside from all the features listed above the platform also has traffic safety guarantees and protection mechanisms in place.

It functions according to the CPM pricing model and thus, will better suit those advertisers that plan to run branding campaigns. Their top verticals according to similartech.com include Sports, Vehicles, Science & Education, and Finance. Top countries: US, UK, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, and others.

Xandr Invest

Xandr Invest is a popular ad-buying platform that was created by AT&T in 2018 (previously called AppNexus, a global ad tech company, headquarters: New York City, New York). This demand side platform DSP has a strong focus on desktop and mobile video and programmatic TV ad inventory (including OTT and CTV).

With this platform, advertisers can reach up to 90% of Smart TV households. The platform is positioned as a premium-class software that enables advertisers to achieve great advertising outcomes through access to exclusive inventory, data management, powerful statistics, and precise targeting.

Main features

• Data-driven strong targeting. Whilst targeting advertisers can count on extensive 2,500+ audience segments that have been accumulated by Xandr based on their gathered top-class first-party data.
• The abundance of cross-channel ad formats. Display mobile, display video 360, in-app, OTT, CTV, programmatic audio, mobile, and native (native video). All these formats are impeccably rendered in all necessary environments and can be served in all suitable resolutions.
• Real-time attribution for campaigns. This platform has a strong reporting system that generates stats in digestible and visualized bites so that performance is delivered at glance.
• Targeted ads across segments. Xandr is one of the top demand side platforms because it operates based on valuable proprietary first-party data. You can find audiences based on geo, browser history, operating system, language, contextual targeting, retargeting, etc.
• Brand safety and protection. Xandr's traffic is thoroughly monitored and scanned to prevent ad fraud and invalid traffic. All impressions are 100% viewable thanks to integration with traffic safety providers.

Is it right for you?

Xandr's Invest is one of those demand side platforms DSP that will be a perfect choice in case you look for top-notch quality traffic as it works with global reputable publishers worldwide and uses its own first-party data audience segments. Their support has a people-based approach as they can guide advertisers through all stages of campaign management. With this capability, this online advertising platform can offer unique audience targeting options. As well it will be a great choice for desktop, mobile video, and CTV advertisers as the platform have enough traffic in these segments.

Adelphic

Adelphic started conquering the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem in 2010 when Viant launched its demand-side platform with cross-channel capabilities.

The platform offers features and controls that help advertisers aptly find their audiences online and address them with relevant and individualized targeted messages. What's unique about them is that they also offer data-driven single-user ID identification for targeting (instead of cookies).

Main features

• Portraits of real customers. You can target audiences according to their portraits that the system assembles across channels and devices and unifies into single IDs suitable for the most precise targeting.
• Omnichannel reach. Adelphic makes digital advertising available through RTB deals that span channels and all popular formats, including programmatic TV.
• Universal ad formats. When it comes to formats, Adelphic supports display mobile, video, programmatic audio, digital out-of-home, CTV, in-app, mobile, custom, and many others.
• Flexible and individual pricing. The platform offers to craft individual transparent pricing contracts with clients (based on their objectives and budget capacities).
• Custom reporting. Real-time reporting provides insightful attribution across channels. Custom reporting tools are available in the system.

Is it right for you?

Adelphic is a very powerful self-serve platform with a variety of functions for setting cross-channel campaigns. It is also one of those demand-side platforms that are very convenient for advertisers who look for cookieless targeting capabilities based on unified choss channel user IDs. This solution also stands out in the demand-side platform list as it offers relatively new programmatic advertising formats. If you search for such rare formats as audio programmatic, CTV, and digital out-of-home, this can be the best choice.

Adform

Founded in 2002 in Denmark, Adform is here to offer a full ad tech stack for advertisers, agencies, and brands that look for advanced programmatic digital advertising capabilities.

This DSP offers plenty of useful tools and perks, from quick campaign approval to automated campaign optimization, that makes your campaigns very profitable. As well, you can count on a pretty broad reach — find audiences across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices and top-quality traffic from their third-party vendors — Bid Switch, Oath Xandr, Pubmatic, OpenX, Rubicon, Teams, etc.

Main features

• KPI-driven system. The system has 14 in-built algorithms each of which is designed to facilitate advertising KPI achievement. There is a bidding optimization which means that the bid sum is adjusted so that it singles out only relevant impressions at the optimal price.
• Ad formats for all channels. Display and video digital advertising, mobile and in-app, OTT and CTV — there are lots to choose from if you want to enrich your media mix.
• Real-time reporting. The reports can be generated in real-time and on-demand — just choose the performance criteria and make a report.
• Broad reach. RTB connection and integration with the largest traffic partners ensures that advertisers reach and buy the best inventory across the globe.
• Only healthy traffic. The platform generates only healthy, 100% viewable traffic that is free from bots and other ad fraud threats. Top countries include the US, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, and Finland.

Is it right for you?

The peculiar feature of Adform is that this digital advertising platform offers automatic campaign optimization as well as automatic bidding-improving. It is one of those demand-side platforms that can be a good choice especially if you want to obtain good-quality traffic in high volumes and across the channels. The stable traffic flow is guaranteed by connection to RTB and renowned ad tech vendors and partners.

The Trade Desk

This self-serve digital advertising platform was founded in 2009 and by this time it managed to gather a strong and reliable network of 225+ partners among which are featured Hulu, Disney, ABC, Spotify, Pandora, FOX, and ESPN. With cross-channel capabilities, this DSP encourages advertisers to launch ad campaigns on a multitude of devices and screens, including cord-cutting CTV.

Main features

• RTB, PMP, guaranteed, and direct deals. Connection to RTB ensures the broadest reach and quick automated inventory purchasing. Direct, PMP, and guaranteed deals are also available.
• Great selection of ad formats. Currently, the platform has a focus on cord-cutting video advertising enabled by programmatic TV. Aside from CTV, there are native (native video), display mobile, social media ads, and programmatic audio. In the dashboard, advertisers can select the right width, height, and SD resolutions.
• Full-funnel attribution. The reporting system allows advertisers to analyze digital advertising performance from the impression to conversion stages. The reports are visualized, customized, and generated in real-time on demand.
• Expert dedicated support. This platform has a people-based approach — an expert support team is on board to assist advertisers and advise them regarding how to adjust their campaigns for success.
• Top-notch quality traffic. Traffic quality monitoring systems along with proven supply-side names and partners are key factors that guarantee traffic quality and great volumes.

Is it right for you?

This is a platform that can suit both programmatic advertising professionals and newbies (since it has a people-based approach — employs experts to the support team).

It has all the necessary functionalities and tools to help advertisers achieve great media trading results: RTB, cross-channel reach, and strong analytics and data management. What sets it apart from the rest of the best DSP platforms is advanced customer support and a variety of deals to choose from — RTB, direct, PMP, and guaranteed programmatic.

StackAdapt

StackAdapt DSP belongs to the fastest growing ad tech companies, namely — ranks 6th in Deloitte's Technology and comes 23rd in Fast 500 in North America. When it was founded (in 2013) the main purpose of the platform was to empower advertisers and agencies with a strong software that automates media purchasing and optimizes the bidding on the go. This DSP has an extensive network of partners, 500+ publishers, and 23 vertical coverage.

Main features

• Functionality for ad campaign planning. The platform has a creative studio to test campaigns before the launch, as well as a ‘planner' to get access to the potential of data-driven campaigns. The ad previewer enables advertisers to evaluate the performance beforehand.
• Cross-channel ad formats. With all available ad formats, advertisers can launch video ad campaigns, native (native video), desktop, tablet, CTV, and mobile (for mobile marketers).
• Real-time campaign optimization. The bids are automatically adjusted by smart algorithms to hit the most valuable impressions at suitable ad slots.
• Campaign effectiveness measurement. Real-time MA and AI-powered reports can be scheduled and customized to deliver precise results regarding performance.
• The broadest reach of verticals. The ad platform provides traffic across more than 23 popular verticals, including B2B, finance, government, healthcare, retail, and travel.

Is it right for you?

StackAdapt is one of those demand-side platforms that fall within this demand-side platform list because it has all the distinctive features of well-equipped modern software for ad buying. It is connected to the best global supply-side platforms via RTB and is integrated with worldwide traffic partners to ensure that they satisfy the needs of advertisers. This platform can be especially good for experienced advertisers and brands as this self-serve software has advantageous tools for campaign testing, planning, and analysis.

AcuityAds

AcuityAds was founded in 2009 in Toronto. This DSP is notoriously well-fitted to optimize the advertiser's budget costs while delivering holistic ad campaigns to the viewers.

It operates based on machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms that made decision-making regarding each impression optimal. With advanced campaign controls, the platform allows advertisers to amplify their reach and achieve KPI results easily.

Main features

• Intuitive dashboard. The dashboard is designed to simplify ad campaign setup and maintenance. Simple drag-and-drop logic turns complicated processes into simple tasks.
• Advanced visualized experience. Aside from ad broadcasting, the platform is suited to deliver digestible insights to advertisers. How the ads are delivered regarding customer journey — it is possible to map up and create the alternate journey based on them.
• Consumer valuing tool. The platform implemented advanced technology that evaluates each potential customer toward the business goal (to define relevance and eliminate waste).
• Media mix assessment. How your ad investments perform, how they impact your audiences, and how they are allocated — all these things get visualized by the platform.
• Advanced performance evaluation. Actionable performance stats can be generated on demand in real time.

Is it right for you?

AcuityAds is well-adjusted to serve self-service programmatic campaigns. The dashboard is clear and straightforward with drag-and-drop logic, still, it has lots of useful functions for sophisticated campaign management and navigation. This option belongs today to the top DSP platforms because it offers unparalleled reach to advertisers, as well as intelligent mechanisms that make ads relevant and adjust ad messages throughout the customer journey.

MediaMath TerminalOne

MediaMath TerminalOne DSP was founded in 2007 in New York. It has one of the largest networks of supply partners and is actively used by more than 4,000 advertisers in New York and worldwide.

Overall, MediaMath is listed as a company that is trusted by two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies. The main feature that distinguishes this solution is that they pride itself in brand safety and transparency.

Main features

• Lots of cross-channel ad formats on offer. Display mobile, video, connected TV, programmatic audio, mobile formats, DOOH, and native. All creatives are automatically fitted to the screen and dynamically optimized with DCO technology.
• Strong targeting. The ads can be delivered in accordance with geo, site list, day part, technology category, and video/audio targets.
• Customer segmentation. The platform features a deep customer segmentation tool that ties together the first-party data and third-party data from partners of MediaMath. This functionality helps to create meaningful and relevant audiences for your programmatic campaigns.
• Brand image protection. The platform ensures that brand image is protected during the programmatic buying: privacy, fraud controls, and placement verification are in place.
• Precise analytics and data management. The platform has an in-built analytics and data management system that delivers performance stats on demand in easy-to-understand and convenient reports.

Is it right for you?

MediaMath is one of those demand-side platforms that can offer plenty of options to advertisers when it comes to formats. Like no other platform it optimizes creatives of various sizes and formats and even serves digital out-of-home ads. Apart from this distinctive feature, it can be right to say that it will suit both experienced advertisers and newcomers since they also have a strong support team.

What will define the best DSP platforms in the future?

Demand-side platforms list featured here counts the most popular options and the functions that may come in handy for advertisers in 2022. At the same time, the digital marketing and advertising scene are slowly leaning towards transparency and greater security.

Why demand-side platforms change

The massive introduction of an in-house programmatic advertising process encouraged businesses to create their own real-time bidding solutions.

Still, digital marketing, advertising, and media buying require substantial resources, and bringing them in-house is something that big brands like Kellogg, IBM, or Unilever can afford. To simplify independent programmatic advertising technology development ad tech brought white-label business concepts to the table.

White-label demand-side platforms

While label DSP is the same programmatic advertising technology as regular DSP. An advertiser in this case buys the entire pre-built core of the platform, slightly customizes it, labels and gears on the market as a new solution.

Such a model enables brands to build their own programmatic advertising technology in a week. The coding, designing, testing, and licensing parts of the equation are solved.

WL DSP from SmartyAds

Such demand-side platforms are ready to be launched in less than a month and there are no risks to end up with crude programmatic advertising solutions that fail to meet high-quality criteria. No need to rely on third-party service providers.

Award-winning white-label solutions like SmartyAds DSP have all complex processes "under the hood" and don't require specific tech knowledge.

It has a strong RTB bidder, profound targeting capabilities, traffic navigation tools, and an intuitive easy-to-navigate purchasing interface that makes media buying efficient and profitable.

These are the benefits that you will receive in case you start off your own advertising solution based on SmaryAds DSP.

To sum up

Best DSPs of 2022 are those that provide advertisers and media buyers with the broadest reach and essential functionalities for launching, managing, and analyzing their programmatic ad campaigns. Today media buying algorithms on these platforms are based on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and smart targeting data management.

Grow your campaigns on SmartyAds DSP!