Independent agencies press DSPs to turn scale into lower fees

By Priya Raman

Digiday reported that a 15-person New York agency still pays a combined 29% through The Trade Desk and reseller Mogl after clearing the DSP’s $100,000 monthly spend bar last summer. Mogl was the reseller the agency expected to outgrow at that level.

Digiday quoted an executive familiar with the negotiations: “They won’t let us go direct and they won’t change the fees. So we told them, ‘We’re not running with you,’ and we only have very little spend on them now.” The agency did not disclose how much it currently spends through The Trade Desk.

The promised path to lower fees keeps moving

Smaller agencies often hear that reseller spending is the route to a direct DSP seat and lighter fees, according to Digiday. Ten media buyers described a different result: purchases carry both DSP and reseller fees, while the path away from resale keeps shifting.

Amazon and The Trade Desk both told Digiday that their platforms are available to all advertisers. Amazon’s spokesperson said the company has no minimum spend threshold, although some advertisers prefer a service partner for setup, strategy and optimization. The Trade Desk said direct seats come with commitment levels agreed with each client.

A Trade Desk spokesperson said: “Should clients want to work with The Trade Desk without a direct agreement for whatever reason, they are welcome to use our certified resellers, such as Goodway Group and Mogl, and still see the benefits of our Kokai Zuma platform.”

What does a direct DSP seat change for small agencies?

For small agencies, a direct relationship can remove intermediary fees and provide more negotiating power and control over fee structures, Digiday said. Independent agencies have long treated larger DSP budgets as a route to greater leverage, but resale costs and limited support can dilute that leverage.

At an unnamed 25-person agency in Washington state, the current reseller charges 10% on top of Amazon’s 15% platform fee and offers little support. The executive told Digiday: “We are having to pay some more of those platform and tech fees to go through the reseller without a lot of support there.”

The Washington agency is seeking a direct Amazon relationship, although Digiday said its expectations and Amazon’s expectations for a deal remain unclear. The agency says a committed-spend threshold is the route to a direct seat.

“It’s basically just a committed spend,” the executive said. “And we’re in conversations with them right now to try to eliminate that middleman fee.”

A second agency sees changing guidance

A roughly 20-person agency in Texas faces a similar issue. It buys Amazon inventory through an unnamed reseller and is negotiating for a direct seat. Its executive called the experience “shifting sand” and told Digiday:

“From even three or four months ago with Amazon DSP, they were pushing everybody to reseller, and then they said ‘minimum,’ and now they’re saying ‘you don’t have to have that minimum’,” the Texas executive told Digiday.

Amazon reiterated that it does not require a minimum for direct DSP access. It said advertisers needing setup, strategy or optimization help can use a service partner, which can include a third-party reseller. Digiday’s two agency accounts place that policy alongside reseller guidance about spending commitments.

Scale has not guaranteed bargaining power

Digiday described growing tension between independent agencies and major DSP platforms over the past year. Publicis had a public fallout with The Trade Desk in March over a lack of fee transparency. Independent agencies have also complained about The Trade Desk’s fees and its perceived preferential treatment of holding companies.

The Trade Desk’s defense, as presented by Digiday, is that higher upfront costs reflect performance. On an August 6 earnings call, CEO Jeff Green said competitors were essentially arguing that advertisers buy on price rather than value.

Digiday also reported that stronger competition has given buyers confidence to structure media buys beyond The Trade Desk, Amazon and Google’s DV360. For independent agencies, the practical issue is whether greater choice produces more equitable fees and support or preserves the reseller cost structure.

The immediate test is whether the pending Amazon negotiations convert scale into direct terms without reseller markups. The New York case remains the warning: reaching a $100,000 monthly threshold did not remove a combined 29% burden for a 15-person agency.