In The Trade Desk's (TTD 3.25%) just-reported third quarter, the company kept up its strong momentum with 50% year-over-year revenue growth and a 91% jump in earnings per share. The Trade Desk beat analyst estimates for its top and bottom line and raised its outlook for the full year.
But what's going on behind the company's fast-rising top and bottom lines? To get a better look at The Trade Desk's drivers and management's expectations for its business, investors can turn to the company's third-quarter earnings call. Here are some of the most insightful takeaways.
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Massive momentum
First and foremost, investors simply should appreciate the uncanny momentum The Trade Desk is seeing across its business. The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green summed up some of the company's most impressive trends during the conference call:
Brands are coming to us directly at a record pace. TV content creators are coming to us directly at a record pace. Our data business has grown 70% year over year. Cross-device has grown three times. Mobile video was up almost 100% and mobile overall is almost half of our revenue, and we saw remarkable 10 times increase in Connected TV yet again.
The Trade Desk's blockbuster acquisition
During the call, Green provided investors an insightful window into the company's nascent data business, which is thriving. While data revenue is notably up 70% year over year, Green also noted that the data the segment is providing its customers is driving incremental cross-device ad spend -- a trend The Trade Desk says is a result of its acquisition of AdBrain last year.
AdBrain is a small company with algorithms to make serving ad campaigns across multiple devices more effective. While the acquisition was intended simply to enhance the value it provides customers and not to be a revenue generator, the acquisition is proving to be more valuable than The Trade Desk anticipated.
"We are extremely excited that our first acquisition made almost a year ago has already paid for itself," Green said. "Cross device spend was up three times compared to last year."
The Next Wave: A winning product launch
Perhaps the most important area The Trade Desk touched on in its third-quarter earnings call was an update on its recently launched new products, which The Trade Desk is collectively referring to as The Next Wave. These products, which were launched this summer, include Koa, an artificial intelligence technology to help improve advertiser decisions and accelerate performance; The Trade Desk Planner, a data-driven media planning tool; and Megagon, a new user interface to proactively serve its customers tailored insights and recommendations.
The major new product launch is performing exceptionally well, according to Green. "Forty-two percent of our clients have upgraded and all of them have seen increases in performance [and] in cost," said the CEO. By some measures, increased efficiency generated from The Next Wave products is worth more than $100 million, he noted.
"I think [our Next Wave launch is] the best explanation as to why the data spend was up so much more," Green continued, "because we just made it easier for them to make data-driven decisions and when they do that, it just increases efficacy that increases retention and the flywheel spins faster."
Overall, The Trade Desk's earnings call helped verify a narrative the company's numbers already tell: This software-as-a-service company's growth story still is in its prime.
