Video Advertising & Ad Insertion

VIDEO ADVERTISING

How Video Ads Reach the Viewer

Digital video advertising can use different technologies depending on where the ad is requested, selected and inserted.

Video advertising can be delivered through different ad insertion approaches. The technology used can affect where the ad is inserted and how the player receives the advertisement.

Three important concepts are SSAI, CSAI and DAI. Wrappers and macros are additional components that can be encountered while working with video advertising tags and requests.

CORE CONCEPTS

Five Video Advertising Concepts

Start with these five concepts to understand the fundamentals of digital video ad insertion.

🖥️

SSAI

Server-Side Ad Insertion

Server-Side Ad Insertion is an ad insertion technique where advertisements are inserted into the video stream on the server side before the content reaches the user's device.

SERVER SIDE

▶️

CSAI

Client-Side Ad Insertion

Client-Side Ad Insertion is an ad insertion technique where the video player on the user's device requests, fetches and loads the advertisement separately from the main content.

CLIENT SIDE

🎯

DAI

Dynamic Ad Insertion

Dynamic Ad Insertion is a technique where advertisements can be selected and inserted dynamically using available information such as location, device, content or other targeting signals.

DYNAMIC

Wrapper

Ad Tag Container

A wrapper is an advertising tag that references another ad tag. It can be used to pass additional information and support functions such as tracking, measurement or additional ad requests.

AD TAG

Macros

Dynamic Placeholders

Macros are placeholders used in advertising tags or URLs. They can be replaced with actual values when the request or tracking event is processed.

DYNAMIC VALUE

SIMPLE FLOW

How Video Advertising Can Work

The exact implementation can vary depending on the video platform and ad-serving setup.

Video Content Content stream

→

Ad Opportunity Impression opportunity

→

Ad Request Request for advertising

→

Ad Decision Advertisement selected

→

Ad Insertion Ad reaches playback

QUICK COMPARISON

SSAI vs CSAI vs DAI

A simple comparison of the three main concepts covered on this page.

Technology	Where the Ad is Inserted	Main Idea
SSAI	Server side	Advertisement is inserted into the stream before it reaches the device.
CSAI	Client / player side	Player requests and loads the advertisement separately.
DAI	Depends on implementation	Advertisement is dynamically selected and inserted using available signals.

SUPPORTING CONCEPTS

Wrapper & Macros

These concepts commonly appear when working with advertising tags and video ad requests.

Wrapper A tag that references another ad tag and can support tracking or additional requests.

Macro A placeholder that can be replaced with an actual value during processing.

SSAI Server-side ad insertion.

CSAI Client-side ad insertion.

DAI Dynamic ad insertion.

Content & Copyright Notice

This page has been written and structured by PubsRate for educational and informational purposes. The explanations, examples and presentation are created for the PubsRate platform.

Third-party standards, company names, trademarks, products and technologies mentioned on this page belong to their respective owners. Mentioning a technology or company does not imply endorsement or affiliation.

Technical implementations can vary between platforms, video players, ad servers and advertising environments.

Please do not reproduce the complete page content, graphics or structure without permission.

Last reviewed: August 2026