Stop renting your data. Start building with it.

In digital advertising, the most valuable thing you can build isn’t a campaign — it’s a data advantage. But too many brands give that away by relying on platforms that restrict access to their own performance signals. The result? Less control, weaker insights and a media strategy that serves someone else’s road map.

Brands face a critical choice: Should you rent your media performance data from walled garden demand-side platforms (DSPs) like Amazon’s and Google’s? Or gain access to it by activating your first-party data through independent platforms?

First-party data is the new oil of the digital economy — a natural resource that, when refined and applied, drives business growth and creates lasting value. Yet many brands still hand over this valuable resource by relying exclusively on platforms that constrain their ability to view and ingest crucial return path data — the performance feedback loop that shows what works and what doesn’t and why. This data is key to understanding customers and improving performance.

Walled gardens = rented land

Platforms like Google and Meta rely on proprietary identity systems that aren’t built for portability. Spend your budget there, and the value you create stays there. When the spend stops, your data equity disappears with it. That leads to fractured customer journeys and fragmented strategies — where the same person looks like a stranger from one platform to the next.

The data dividend of access

Independent platforms like The Trade Desk let you control and access your return path data. With that comes what’s referred to as a “data dividend” — each impression, click and conversion becomes a data point you can reuse to fuel future campaigns, inform better products and create stronger customer experiences.

I predict that by 2030, brands with access to their return path data — and who use interoperable identifiers — will consistently outperform their peers in customer lifetime value.

The value of this data cannot be overstated. Some leading marketers are working with finance teams to treat data not just as an operational tool, but as a balance-sheet asset. When you have long-term access to granular performance data, you’re building institutional knowledge — a compounding resource that improves over time. And investors are starting to pay attention. Microsoft, for instance, frequently points to its data capabilities as a competitive advantage across its business units.

For omnichannel marketers, access to return path data enables consistent addressability across platforms — allowing for better cross-channel attribution, more efficient media investments and more coherent customer experiences. Brands can market in an integrated way across all platforms, without losing historical performance insights or measurement continuity.

Flexibility in a privacy-first world

As privacy regulations evolve and high-quality third-party data becomes more scarce, brands with access and usage rights to return path data gain flexibility and negotiate from a position of strength. They’re no longer at the mercy of closed ecosystems — and can adapt faster to market shifts.

If you’re relying solely on walled gardens, you’re thinking short-term. The smart brands are investing in access, independence and interoperability.

So ask yourself: Are we building long-term data wealth — with portable, future-proof IDs — or enriching someone else’s balance sheet?

Choosing the right DSP isn’t just a tactical call. It’s a strategic one. Access to your own performance data is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation for everything that comes next.

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.