Data Management Platforms (DMP) Resources

I'm researching Data Management Platforms specifically for marketing teams that need to build audience segments themselves, without opening an IT ticket every time. Within Data Management Platform (DMP), Simpli.fi, Zeta Marketing Platform, and Lotame Spherical Platform come up most for self-serve segmentation.

1. Simpli.fi: built with a self-serve interface aimed at marketers rather than data engineers, letting teams build and adjust audience segments directly.
2. Zeta Marketing Platform: combines identity data with marketing tools in one interface, reducing the need to hand off segmentation work to a technical team.
3. Lotame Spherical Platform: known for a straightforward segment builder that marketing teams can operate without deep technical setup.
4. MediaMath by Infillion: pairs DMP functionality with media buying, useful for teams that want segmentation tied directly to campaign activation.
5. Roku OneView (formerly Dataxu): leans more toward connected TV and video audiences, with segmentation tools built for that specific use case.
6. Adobe Audience Manager: more enterprise in scope, often still requiring closer collaboration with a data team despite marketing-facing tools.

For marketing teams running one of these without dedicated IT support, how steep was the learning curve to actually build a working segment, and did you eventually need technical help anyway for anything beyond the basics?

I'm researching Data Management Platforms specifically for marketing teams that need to build audience segments themselves, without opening an IT ticket every time. Within Data Management Platform (DMP), Simpli.fi, Zeta Marketing Platform, and Lotame Spherical Platform come up most for self-serve segmentation.

1. Simpli.fi: built with a self-serve interface aimed at marketers rather than data engineers, letting teams build and adjust audience segments directly.
2. Zeta Marketing Platform: combines identity data with marketing tools in one interface, reducing the need to hand off segmentation work to a technical team.
3. Lotame Spherical Platform: known for a straightforward segment builder that marketing teams can operate without deep technical setup.
4. MediaMath by Infillion: pairs DMP functionality with media buying, useful for teams that want segmentation tied directly to campaign activation.
5. Roku OneView (formerly Dataxu): leans more toward connected TV and video audiences, with segmentation tools built for that specific use case.
6. Adobe Audience Manager: more enterprise in scope, often still requiring closer collaboration with a data team despite marketing-facing tools.

For marketing teams running one of these without dedicated IT support, how steep was the learning curve to actually build a working segment, and did you eventually need technical help anyway for anything beyond the basics?

I’m trying to get a clearer picture of who the main DMP platforms in adtech still are, especially for audience building, targeting, and activation.

A few names I keep seeing are:

Lotame: seems to stay in the mix as a major audience data and enrichment player.

Adobe Audience Manager: still comes up a lot in audience and data platform conversations.

The Trade Desk: not a classic DMP in the old sense, but it keeps showing up as a big adtech platform for audience-based targeting.

Permutive: seems to come up a lot in newer adtech conversations, especially around privacy-first audience building and publisher data.

Nielsen Marketing Cloud: still feels relevant if the focus is on audience targeting, segmentation, and ad planning data.

For people working in adtech, which of these still feels the most useful for audience targeting today, and which ones feel like they’ve lost momentum?