The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Ad Formats
CSAI (Client-Side Ad Insertion)
A method of delivering video ads where the ad is loaded and played directly by the user's device, such as a phone, laptop or tablet, rather than being stitched into the video stream beforehand. The device handles all the ad requests and playback.
HOW IT WORKS
When a viewer reaches an ad break, the video player on their device makes a separate request to an ad server, fetches the ad, plays it and then returns to the main content. Because this happens on the viewer's device, ad blockers can detect and block CSAI (Client-Side Ad Insertion) ad requests before they complete.
EXAMPLE
A news website streams video content. Using CSAI (Client-Side Ad Insertion), the video player on the viewer's laptop calls out to an ad server during the pre-roll slot. Viewers with ad blockers installed can block this call. The ad does not play, and the publisher receives no revenue.
RELATED TERMS
SSAI (Server-Side Ad Insertion) | VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) | VPAID | In-Stream Video | Connected TV (CTV)
