Share this
CSAI vs SSAI: What are the differences?
by Mathias Craps on February 11, 2021
THIS IS A SNIPPET FROM OUR “CSAI VS SSAI: BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK” GUIDE WHICH YOU CAN DOWNLOAD HERE.
When considering a monetisation strategy, it makes sense to carefully weigh your options. You may already have heard about Client-Side and Server-Side Ad Insertion. But what are they, and where does each strategy shine?
Client-Side Ad Insertion
In a CSAI-flow, advertisements are managed and added on the end-user’s device. From a delivery point-of-view, content and ads are separated; the player plays content and advertisements independent of each other. The player will switch between the two as needed. Client-Side Ad Insertion is specified via the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) standards:
- VAST (ad metadata)
- VMAP (ad timing)
- VPAID/SIMID (interactive ads) and
- OMID (viewability measurements)
A compliant player supports all ad solutions that adhere to these standards, making it easier to switch to another provider. CSAI-systems with a different flow can then be added on an individual basis. Alternative implementations, for instance Google IMA, can also be added in parallel.
Server-Side Ad Insertion
In an SSAI-flow, advertisements are directly stitched to the streaming manifest on the server side at the last moment. The content and advertisements are closer related to each other, allowing smoother playback and transitions. This way of working is comparable with traditional linear television. The main difference between broadcast advertising and SSAI is that the latter allows advertisements to be targeted towards individual end-users.
Server-Side Ad Insertion is only partly standardised. SCTE-35 markers are a popular technique to signal the encoder and packager where ads are allowed to be inserted. It was, however, never intended to be used towards streaming clients. As a result, SCTE-35 is often only used to inform SSAI providers where ads should be placed. How they place those ads, and how they provide the relevant metadata for tracking ad progress, is not standardised. This metadata is needed to build a CSAI-like experience: showing a click-through, giving an indication about duration and current time. Some common strategies include:
- Fetching metadata from the SSAI provider’s backend
- Adding timed cues via ID3/EMSG
- Parsing custom tags from the streaming manifest
- Integrating with a proprietary library
A video-player pre-integrated with multiple SSAI vendors improves the interoperability between all of them.
Can I earn more with CSAI or SSAI?
It depends.
Generally speaking, in conclusion, SSAI may be more expensive than CSAI, but also results in much more ad impressions. Ad blockers may be less effective against this type of advertising.. This is due to the tighter integration between content and advertisements and the increased complexity overall. These additional costs have to be subtracted from the Cost Per Mille (CPM) pay-out. The higher cost of SSAI, however, can be easily countered by the fact that it provides a much higher fill-rate.
Ad blockers have primarily been optimised to block CSAI ads,
but are not sophisticated enough to detect SSAI ads and block them.
CSAI ads are not always able to play due to ad blockers, errors happening on the client side, time outs for loading an ad, errors in VPAID ads et cetera. In practice, ad providers typically only promise a fill-rate ranging between 25 and 55%. In the case of SSAI, ad-blockers may block the integration libraries or the origin of the ad provider, but in that case the end-user would not be able to watch the content in the first place.
In our next articles we are going to discuss the technical aspects to consider and which approach is the most effective based on your use case. Subscribe to our insights so you don’t miss it. You can also download the complete version of this topic in our “CSAI vs SSAI: Best Bang For Your Buck” guide here.
Share this
- THEOplayer (41)
- online streaming (36)
- low latency (28)
- live streaming (27)
- HESP (22)
- video streaming (22)
- HLS (19)
- new features (19)
- SDK (18)
- html5 player (16)
- cross-platform (15)
- online video (14)
- THEO Technologies (12)
- THEOlive (12)
- LL-HLS (11)
- MPEG-DASH (11)
- best video player (11)
- partnership (11)
- Tizen (10)
- awards (10)
- content monetisation (10)
- delivering content (10)
- latency (10)
- SmartTV (9)
- fast zapping (9)
- video codec (9)
- Big Screen (8)
- Samsung (8)
- Adobe flash (7)
- High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (7)
- Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards (7)
- Ultra Low Latency (7)
- WebOS (7)
- advertising (7)
- html5 (7)
- innovation (7)
- low bandwidth (7)
- Apple (6)
- Efficiency (6)
- Events (6)
- SSAI (6)
- Bandwidth Usage (5)
- CDN (5)
- Deloitte (5)
- LG (5)
- Online Advertising (5)
- adaptive bitrate (5)
- nomination (5)
- release (5)
- roku (5)
- viewers expercience (5)
- AV1 (4)
- CMAF (4)
- DVR (4)
- HTTP (4)
- Update (4)
- ad revenue (4)
- case study (4)
- fast 50 (4)
- google (4)
- streaming media west (4)
- support matrix (4)
- ABR (3)
- Chrome (3)
- H.265 (3)
- HESP Alliance (3)
- HEVC (3)
- IBC (3)
- IBC trade show (3)
- THEO Technologies Partner Success Team (3)
- THEOplayer Partner Success Team (3)
- Year Award (3)
- content encryption (3)
- content protection (3)
- customer case (3)
- customise feature (3)
- drm (3)
- dynamic ad insertion (3)
- monetization (3)
- reduce buffering (3)
- scalable (3)
- sports betting (3)
- sports streaming (3)
- video monetization (3)
- "content delivery" (2)
- "network api" (2)
- AES-128 (2)
- Amino Technologies (2)
- Android TV (2)
- CSI Awards (2)
- Cost Efficient (2)
- Encoding (2)
- Encryption (2)
- FireTV (2)
- H.264 (2)
- MPEG (2)
- Microsoft Silverlight (2)
- Press Release (2)
- React Native SDK (2)
- Start-Up Times (2)
- UI (2)
- VMAP (2)
- VOD (2)
- VP9 (2)
- VPAID2.0 (2)
- adobe (2)
- ads in HTML5 (2)
- analytics (2)
- android (2)
- captions (2)
- chromecast (2)
- chromecast support (2)
- client-side ad insertion (2)
- clipping (2)
- closed captions (2)
- content integration (2)
- deloitte rising star (2)
- fast500 (2)
- frame accurate clipping (2)
- frame accurate seeking (2)
- interactive video (2)
- metadata (2)
- multiple audio (2)
- nab show (2)
- playback speed (2)
- plugin-free (2)
- pricing (2)
- server-side ad replacement (2)
- subtitles (2)
- video (2)
- video content (2)
- video publishers (2)
- video trends (2)
- viewer experience (2)
- "smooth playback" (1)
- 360 Video (1)
- AOM (1)
- API (1)
- BVE (1)
- Best of Show (1)
- CEA-608 (1)
- CEA-708 (1)
- CORS (1)
- DIY (1)
- Edge (1)
- FCC (1)
- HLS stream (1)
- Hudl (1)
- LCEVC (1)
- LHLS (1)
- LL-DASH (1)
- Microsoft Azure Media Services (1)
- Monoscopic (1)
- NAB Show 2016 (1)
- NPM (1)
- NetOn.Live (1)
- OMID (1)
- Periscope (1)
- React Native (1)
- Real-time (1)
- SIMID (1)
- Scale Up of the Year award (1)
- Seeking (1)
- Stereoscopic (1)
- Swisscom (1)
- TVB Europe (1)
- Tech Startup Day (1)
- Telenet (1)
- Uncategorized (1)
- University of Manitoba (1)
- User Interface (1)
- VAST (1)
- VPAID (1)
- VR (1)
- VR180 (1)
- Vivaldi support (1)
- Vualto (1)
- ad block detection (1)
- ad blocking (1)
- adblock detection (1)
- apple tv (1)
- audio (1)
- autoplay (1)
- cloud (1)
- facebook html5 (1)
- faster ABR (1)
- fmp4 (1)
- hiring (1)
- iGameMedia (1)
- iOS (1)
- iOS SDK (1)
- iPadOS (1)
- id3 (1)
- language localisation (1)
- micro moments (1)
- mobile ad (1)
- new web browser (1)
- offline playback (1)
- preloading (1)
- program-date-time (1)
- seamless transition (1)
- server-side ad insertion (1)
- stream problems (1)
- streaming media east (1)
- support organization (1)
- thumbnails (1)
- use case (1)
- video clipping (1)
- video recording (1)
- video trends in 2016 (1)
- visibility (1)
- vulnerabilities (1)
- webRTC (1)
- wowza (1)
- zero-day exploit (1)
- September 2023 (1)
- July 2023 (2)
- June 2023 (1)
- April 2023 (4)
- March 2023 (2)
- December 2022 (1)
- September 2022 (4)
- July 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (3)
- April 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (1)
- January 2022 (1)
- November 2021 (1)
- October 2021 (3)
- September 2021 (3)
- July 2021 (1)
- June 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (4)
- March 2021 (6)
- February 2021 (8)
- January 2021 (4)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (2)
- October 2020 (1)
- September 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (3)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (3)
- March 2020 (3)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (3)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (3)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (4)
- August 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (1)
- December 2018 (1)
- November 2018 (3)
- October 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (4)
- July 2018 (2)
- June 2018 (2)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (3)
- February 2018 (2)
- January 2018 (2)
- December 2017 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (3)
- May 2017 (3)
- April 2017 (1)
- March 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (3)
- October 2016 (2)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (3)
- July 2016 (1)
- May 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (4)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (4)
- January 2016 (2)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (5)
- August 2015 (3)
- July 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (2)
- January 2015 (2)
- September 2014 (1)
- August 2014 (1)