Ad tech glossary

SSAI (Server-Side Ad Insertion)

Technical definition

Technology that stitches advertising content into video streams at the server level rather than the client device.

The ADLINGO translation

Ad insertion that happens at the server, not the device. The ad becomes part of the stream itself, which eliminates the quality drop and buffering gap that used to mark the transition into an ad break. It also makes client-side ad blocking ineffective, because the ad is indistinguishable from the content at the delivery layer. For advertisers, SSAI generally means cleaner delivery and more reliable impression tracking. The verification question is whether the ad actually rendered, not just whether it was inserted.

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Where this shows up

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