Extended Freelance Copywriting for The Trade Desk
Derek Gillette
The Trade Desk is a publicly-traded company that is doing extremely well taking on the “walled garden” advertising titans like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Prior to this contract, I had never heard of them, but that was simply my own ignorance, as they are a major disruptor and currently sit at a $31B market cap.
I worked with their internal creative teams on an extended freelance contract. I’ll use this post to share a summary of my time there.
What is an extended contract?
As I shared in the ‘Answers’ section of the website, there are multiple ways to work with a freelance copywriter, and an extended contract or monthly retainer is one of those. Here is the description I previously gave:
For clients who like the idea of fixed costs and on-demand service, a flat monthly retainer is a good option. In these situations, the writer is usually working with the client for a minimum of 3 months and becomes integrated into their team’s systems: project management, communication, file storage, etc. They may even attend weekly meetings and start to feel like an extension of your team for a period of time.
With The Trade Desk, I originally signed on for 4-months and then extended for another 6 weeks because the relationship was going so well. I truly was integrated with their teams, as they mailed me a computer, gave me a company email address, invited me to team meetings/slack/project management software, etc.
A wide variety of work
Because I was with their team for ~6 months, I ended up helping with a wide variety of work:
Web pages
Landing pages
Emails
Ad copy
Event invitations
Case studies
SEO descriptions and headline creation
It would be too much to show you everything, instead, here is a sampling. Click on any of the images to expand them and check them out in more detail.
I was especially happy with how the employee benefit packets turned out (I rewrote them for each region) and some of the longer-form case studies (especially the two I’ve included below — Old Navy and Coco Village).
Acting as a freelancer integrated amongst full-time employees is a very interesting position. I’ve done this multiple times now and I have to say I really enjoy it. The work is steady, I get to know the unique culture and quirks of the organization and team, and it reduces the amount of “get up to speed” time that normally comes with a short stint project.
That said, cultural fit is still very important, even as a freelancer. If you’re considering taking on a position like this, you’ll want to ask questions about workflow, process, team structure, and what makes one person successful over another in their environment.
I’m pleased with the work I was able to do with The Trade Desk and thankfully I’ve been able to continue working with them, although in a reduced capacity.
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Posted Jun 25, 2026
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