The Trade Desk vs. AppLovin: What Do Their Quarterly Revenue Trajectories Tell Investors?
Key Points
AppLovin currently looks stronger on this metric, maintaining a substantial lead in total revenue generation compared to Trade Desk.
AppLovin shows a generally consistent quarter-over-quarter upward trend over the last eight periods, while Trade Desk experiences more seasonal and volatile quarter-over-quarter fluctuations.
Investors should watch whether the revenue gap between the two companies continues to widen or if cyclical patterns begin to stabilize the comparison.
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The Trade Desk: Seasonal Revenue Fluctuations
The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) operates a self-service cloud-based platform allowing buyers to optimize data-driven digital advertising campaigns.
While launching its Ventura streaming initiative and facing an investigation regarding its previous guidance, it reported an approximately 6% net income margin for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.
AppLovin: Consistent Revenue Expansion
AppLovin (NASDAQ:APP) builds software solutions that help mobile app developers improve the marketing and monetization of their digital properties.
It announced a board leadership transition and migrated games to its Adjust platform, while generating an approximately 65% net income margin for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.
Why Revenue Matters for Retail Investors
Revenue shows investors the total amount of money a business brings in before any operating costs or taxes are deducted. This helps investors gauge raw business scale and growth.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Quarterly Revenue for The Trade Desk and AppLovin
| Quarter (Period End) | Trade Desk Revenue | AppLovin Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2024 (June 2024) | $584.5 million | $711.0 million |
| Q3 2024 (Sept. 2024) | $628.0 million | $835.2 million |
| Q4 2024 (Dec. 2024) | $741.0 million | $1.4 billion |
| Q1 2025 (March 2025) | $616.0 million | $1.5 billion |
| Q2 2025 (June 2025) | $694.0 million | $1.3 billion |
| Q3 2025 (Sept. 2025) | $739.4 million | $1.4 billion |
| Q4 2025 (Dec. 2025) | $846.8 million | $1.7 billion |
| Q1 2026 (March 2026) | $688.9 million | $1.8 billion |
Data source: Company filings. Data as of May 10, 2026.
Foolish Take
A comparison of revenues between The Trade Desk and AppLovin, two giants in the digital advertising sector, reveal interesting insights. The Trade Desk follows a typical pattern for the ad industry, where the fourth quarter represents its biggest in terms of revenue. Advertisers tend to spend more in Q4 due to seasonal factors such as Black Friday and driving holiday sales. I worked in digital advertising for many years, and am used to seeing this trend.
That said, AppLovin defied typical industry seasonality as its Q1 earnings results showed consistent quarter-over-quarter growth. Its Q1 sales of $1.8 billion represented a whopping 59% year-over-year increase. The company’s revenue expansion resulted in jaw-dropping Q1 net income of $1.2 billion, about double the prior year’s $576.4 million.
By contrast, The Trade Desk’s Q1 revenue of $689 million was a 12% year-over-year increase. That’s good growth, but not the outsized expansion AppLovin is experiencing.
This indicates AppLovin’s solutions are attracting more advertiser spending than The Trade Desk. For investors weighing whether to invest in these two digital ad companies, AppLovin looks like the better investment thanks to its spectacular sales growth.
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Robert Izquierdo has positions in The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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