# Programmatic and display advertising: what AI models recommend, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "programmatic advertising platform" and as "demand-side platform for display ads", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/programmatic-and-display-advertising/

**Standing:** StackAdapt leads with 61% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | StackAdapt | 61% | 7% | 54 |
| 2 | AdRoll | 13% | 10% | 10 |
| 3 | The Trade Desk | 11% | 41% | 56 |
| 4 | Choozle | 4% | 23% | 13 |
| 5 | Demandbase | 2% | 29% | 17 |
| 6 | Google Display & Video 360 | 0% | 21% | 28 |
| 7 | Basis | 0% | 7% | 15 |
| 8 | Amazon DSP | 0% | 24% | 34 |
| 9 | Hey Sid | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 10 | LinkedIn Campaign Manager | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 11 | Simpli.fi | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 12 | Adobe Advertising | 0% | 31% | 13 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- GPT-5.4 mini: AdRoll ABM; alternatives 6sense, Demandbase
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Choozle, Metadata.io
- Perplexity Sonar: StackAdapt; alternatives Basis, DV360, Demandbase, The Trade Desk
- Grok 4.1 Fast: StackAdapt; alternatives Demandbase, Google Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Mistral Small: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Demandbase, Hey Sid, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Llama 4 Maverick: StackAdapt
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: The Trade Desk; alternatives Demandbase, Google Display & Video 360, Zeta Global
- Kimi K2: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: StackAdapt; alternatives AdRoll ABM, Amazon DSP, Google Display & Video 360
- MiniMax M2.5: StackAdapt; alternatives Google Display & Video 360, Hey Sid, The Trade Desk

## Sources the answers cite

20 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- improvado.io: 8 answers, 14 citations
- vibe.co: 8 answers, 8 citations
- syntermedia.ai: 6 answers, 7 citations
- directiveconsulting.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- taqtics.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- reddit.com: 4 answers, 5 citations
- getadlib.com: 4 answers, 4 citations
- 6sense.com: 3 answers, 3 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://improvado.io/blog/top-programmatic-platforms (8 answers)
- https://vibe.co/blog/how-to/programmatic-advertising-platforms (8 answers)
- https://directiveconsulting.com/blog/the-top-5-programmatic-platforms-leading-the-way-in-2026 (6 answers)
- https://taqtics.com/answers/programmatic-advertising/programmatic-advertising-platforms (6 answers)
- https://getadlib.com/blog/top-programmatic-advertising-tools (4 answers)
- https://6sense.com/blog/best-b2b-programmatic-advertising-platforms (3 answers)
- https://aidigital.com/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms (3 answers)
- https://business.quora.com/marketing-advertising-resources/best-b2b-programmatic-display-platforms?hs_amp=true (3 answers)
- https://heysid.com/resources/best-programmatic-advertising-platforms-for-b2b (3 answers)
- https://improvado.io/blog/b2b-programmatic-advertising-strategies (3 answers)

## Warned against

- The Trade Desk: 23 of 56 labels negative. "Avoid DV360/Trade Desk/Amazon DSP: High mins ($25K–$50K/month), fees make them unviable below that." (Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt)
- DV360: 13 of 22 labels negative. "Platforms to AVOID with Limited Budgets ... Requires $25,000-$50,000/month minimum" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Amazon DSP: 8 of 34 labels negative. "Amazon DSP: High CPMs, limited B2B advantage outside retail" (Mistral Small, direct prompt)
- MediaMath: 5 of 10 labels negative. "And stay away entirely from MediaMath (bankrupt)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.