The Trade Desk is giving brands a new way to serve contextual sponsored product ads. The ad tech firm announced a new integration with startup Shopsense AI on Thursday to bring sponsored product ads to publisher content across the open internet.
The deal, made through The Trade Desk’s OpenPath supply integration, lets advertisers place shoppable product listings directly next to relevant editorial content—like a Nike shoe ad beside a marathon training article or a cookware link under a recipe video.
“For The Trade Desk, [this integration] creates a bigger surface area on the inventory side, creating a higher relevancy to a different kind of commercial opportunity,” said Will Doherty, svp of inventory development at The Trade Desk. This effectively turns impressions across omni-channel platforms like CTV, web, and audio into shoppable media placements, he added.
The move follows The Trade Desk’s recent expansion into retail media. ADWEEK previously reported that advertisers will be able to programmatically buy sponsored product ads on delivery app Gopuff through The Trade Desk in a deal facilitated by commerce adtech firm Koddi. The Shopsense integration extends that strategy beyond retailer environments and into premium publisher inventory.
This integration dovetails with an increase in consumer tolerance for commerce-driven media. A December 2024 Bain & Company study found that 45% of consumers don’t mind sponsored ads if they’re relevant, and 40% say well-executed ads can actually help their shopping experience.
Shopsense, founded in 2023 by former Amazon executives, uses a mix of generative AI and machine learning to analyze images, text, and video on publisher pages and extract commerce intent. The system identifies products in content—such as sunglasses on a celebrity or a team jersey in a game recap—and converts them into “targetable parameters” advertisers can buy against, including search queries, Amazon product IDs, or Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs, a unique number that identifies a product or service), according to Bryan Quinn, president and co-founder of Shopsense.
Shopsense works with media companies including Disney, Fox, Paramount, Vox Media, BuzzFeed, and People Inc. The integration with The Trade Desk allows clients to activate relevant sponsored ads on those publisher sites.