The advertising technology, or adtech, industry uses software and AI to help advertisers buy ads more efficiently and help publishers monetize content. As digital advertising expands across mobile, streaming, and connected TV, these tools are becoming more important. Industry forecasts suggest the global adtech market could grow from about $1.1 trillion in 2026 to more than $3 trillion by the next decade.
For investors, that growth is drawing attention to companies building the infrastructure behind digital ads. Here are some of our favorites.
Top adtech stocks to consider
| Name and ticker | Market cap | Current price |
|---|---|---|
| The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) | $11.1 billion | $23.24 |
| PubMatic (NASDAQ:PUBM) | $456.5 million | $9.78 |
| Magnite (NASDAQ:MGNI) | $1.9 billion | $12.97 |
| Digital Turbine (NASDAQ:APPS) | $414.9 million | $3.46 |
| DoubleVerify (NYSE:DV) | $1.7 billion | $10.91 |
1. The Trade Desk
NASDAQ: TTD
Key Data Points
The Trade Desk (TTD +0.43%) serves the buy side of the digital advertising market. The company's self-service platform allows ad buyers to create and manage digital advertising campaigns across all major channels.
The Trade Desk's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, cloud-based platform churns through massive amounts of data to automate the ad-buying process. The company enables advertisers to reach their audience across channels, and data from one channel can inform decisions about another. For The Trade Desk's advertising agency and service provider customers, the platform greatly simplifies launching a modern digital advertising campaign.
Not only is The Trade Desk rapidly increasing revenue, but it's also highly profitable. In 2025, the company's sales jumped 18% year over year to reach $2.9 billion. The bottom line also showed growth, as the company's diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 15% year over year to $0.90 in 2025.
Connected TV (CTV), a category that includes devices such as Roku (ROKU -1.84%) and Xbox, is one of the company's biggest long-term opportunities as ad-based streaming services proliferate. The Trade Desk's CTV and over-the-top (OTT) advertising technologies combined reach 185 million households worldwide, and there's still huge room for expansion.
2. PubMatic
NASDAQ: PUBM
Key Data Points
While The Trade Desk focuses on ad buyers, PubMatic’s (PUBM +0.51%) sell-side platform enables publishers and app developers to monetize their content more effectively.
PubMatic’s home-grown cloud platform processed an astounding 336.8 trillion ad impressions in 2025 -- a 28% year-over-year increase -- for its more than 2,000 publishers. The company's platform is integrated with major buy-side platforms, including The Trade Desk, providing a vast array of ad inventory to tens of thousands of advertisers.
PubMatic’s approach to infrastructure is unique. Instead of relying on a cloud computing provider, PubMatic owns and operates its own hardware. This makes the business more capital-intensive, but it saves PubMatic from massive cloud computing bills that would eat into its profits. The company has consistently leveraged its infrastructure and used software improvements. In 2025, for example, PubMatic reduced its unit cost of impressions by 20% compared to 2024.
The intense focus on keeping costs down has helped the business to generate growing cash flow. In 2025, for example, PubMatic reported free cash flow of $46.2 million, a 32% year-over-year increase. For investors seeking adtech stocks with explosive upside, PubMatic is certainly worth a look.
3. Magnite
NASDAQ: MGNI
Key Data Points
Like PubMatic, Magnite (MGNI -0.46%) operates a sell-side digital advertising platform. The company was formed in 2020 by the merger of The Rubicon Project and Telaria, the latter of which focused on connected TV and video publishers. With revenue of $714 million in 2025, Magnite is more than twice the size of PubMatic in terms of sales.
Neither Magnite nor PubMatic owns any media properties, so their interests are squarely aligned with those of their publisher customers. Unlike PubMatic, Magnite uses cloud computing providers to handle some of its processing. Magnite adopts a hybrid approach, mixing servers hosted at data centers around the world with cloud platforms.
As the largest independent sell-side player, Magnite is certainly a stock to consider, especially given the company's continued bottom-line improvement. In 2025, the company generated diluted EPS of $0.95 million -- a massive 494% gain over the $0.16 it reported in 2024.
On the company's fourth-quarter 2025 conference call, management articulated a "capital allocation strategy [that] will target approximately 50% of free cash flow generation to be returned to shareholders via share repurchases over time." Between its growth opportunities and its dedication to rewarding
4. Digital Turbine
NASDAQ: APPS
Key Data Points
Digital Turbine (APPS -3.08%) helps wireless carriers and device manufacturers manage and monetize devices. DigitalTurbine's solution enables app installation at activation and throughout the device's lifetime. Third-party advertisers pay for each install or action, allowing carriers and original equipment manufacturers to generate additional revenue.
Digital Turbine has powered billions of app preloads, and it has more than 40 long-term agreements with companies, including Verizon (VZ +0.30%), AT&T (T +2.12%), and Samsung (SSNL.F +115.99%). The ad specialist spends little on operating costs. Still, the business has faced headwinds stemming from relatively soft mobile device sales, macroeconomic pressures, and other factors for the past few years.
But the company has shown signs of turning things around in fiscal 2025, thanks to management's embrace of artificial intelligence and machine learning. After several years of lagging sales, Digital Turbine expects improvements in fiscal 2026, forecasting year-over-year revenue growth of 12.7% to 13.8% and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) growth of 58% to 62%.
5. DoubleVerify
NYSE: DV
Key Data Points
Advertisers have numerous options when buying ads, but it’s challenging to determine whether those ads are paying off. Publishers, social media companies, and other platforms often self-report advertising data that is not always accurate.
DoubleVerify (DV +0.00%) aims to solve this problem for advertisers with its digital media measurement and analytics platform. Integrated across the digital advertising industry, DoubleVerify provides insights into advertising performance and metrics that give advertisers peace of mind. On top of knowing whether their ads are performing well, advertisers also want to ensure their ads aren’t hit by fraud and are displayed in places suitable for their brand.
More than 9 trillion media transactions were measured on DoubleVerify’s platform in 2025, pushing sales up 14% to $748 million, thanks in part to upselling premium-priced products, such as AI-powered DV Authentic Advantage. Management sees continued growth in 2026, projecting revenue to increase 8% to 10% year over year.
Profits are also poised to rise. After reporting year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth of 33% in both 2024 and 2025, DoubleVerify projects 34% year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth for 2026.
As advertisers lose faith in self-reported data, DoubleVerify is ready to deliver the accurate metrics necessary to run successful ad campaigns.
How to invest in adtech stocks
If you think you're ready to start investing in adtech stocks, there are a few basic steps you must take.
- Open your brokerage app: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments. If you don't have one yet, take a look at our favorite brokers and trading platforms to find the right one for you.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
Benefits and risks of investing in advertising technology stocks
Before deciding whether adtech stocks are a good fit for your portfolio, it's critial to familiarize yourselves with the benefits and risks.
Benefits
- Since the adtech industry is expected to flourish in the coming years, adtech stocks will appeal to growth investors.
- Investing goals may vary, but portfolio diversification is an essential element of any portfolio, and adtech stocks could help achieve this.
- Adtech companies often help businesses grow sales.
Risks
- If the economy downturns, businesses may be inclined to reduce their marketing budgets, hindering the presumed growth of adtech companies.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies are growing rapidly, and if adtech companies don't stay up to date, their platforms may become antiquated. Consequently, they may have to invest heavily in research and development, thereby reducing profits.
- Many adtech companies are making substantial reinvestments in their businesses rather than returning capital to shareholders through dividends, so those looking to generate passive income have limited options with adtech stocks.
The bottom line
Before picking up shares of an adtech stock, investors will want to identify the specific exposure they're interested in. Those eager to gain exposure to the connected TV market, for example, will find The Trade Desk to be a solid choice, while those looking for exposure to the wireless carrier market will find Digital Turbine more appealing.
Secondly, those who are more risk-averse will want to prioritize companies that generate free cash flow, since the ability to generate cash organically is a sign of good financial health. In this regard, The Trade Desk stands out among its peers, producing strong, consistent free cash flow over the past few years.
Related investing topics
FAQ
Investing in adtech stocks FAQ
About the Author
Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends DoubleVerify, PubMatic, Roku, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool recommends Magnite and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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