Limelight realizes that the video advertising space can be very complex, containing lots of terms and various options. Therefore, to avoid confusion, we offer the following definitions. (source: Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)).

Types of Ad Providers

Term	Definition
Ad Server	A 3rd party technology vendor enlisted by an agency (or advertiser) to manage their campaigns across multiple networks and web properties. The ad server provides tools to facilitate ad trafficking and to provide reporting on ad performance.
Ad Network	Advertising networks function as aggregators of video advertising inventory and enable publishers to generate advertising revenue from their video content libraries or other advertising inventory without a direct sales relationship to an advertiser.

In-Stream Video Ad Types

The Limelight Video Platform proprietary Ad-Server only supports Linear Video Ads (pre-roll and post-roll). Non-Linear Ads and companions are supported through integrations with third party ad providers. See the Limelight Video Platform Third Party Ads Guide for more information.

Term	Definition
Linear Video Ad	A linear video ad is presented before, in the middle of, or after the video content is consumed by the user, in very much the same way a TV commercial can play before, during or after the chosen program. One of the key characteristics of a Linear Video ad is that the user watches the ad instead of the content as the ad takes over the full view of the video. Examples include: pre-rolls post-rolls mid-rolls
Non-Linear Video Ad	Non-linear video ads run parallel to the video content so the users see the ad while viewing the content. Non-linear video ads can be delivered as text, graphical ads, or as video overlays. Common Non-linear Video ad products include: Overlays which are shown directly over the content video itself Product placements which are ads placed within the video content itself
Companion Ads	Companion Ads are commonly text, display ads, rich media, or skins that wrap around the video experience, can run alongside either or both the video or ad content. The primary purpose of the Companion Ad product is to offer sustained visibility of the sponsor throughout the video content experience. Companion Ads may offer click-through interactivity and rich media experiences such as expansion of the ad for further engagement opportunities. A commonly used companion ad is a companion banner.

Setting your ad configuration to 'Ordered' instructs the ad server to serve ads in the order in which they appear in the ad channel. To illustrate this we offer the following example.

Suppose you have an existing advertising channel in your account that contains three ad videos (Videos 1 - 3). This ad channel is configured as 'Ordered' and 'Pre Roll' on a content channel that contains four videos (Videos A - D). Since the configuration is setup as 'Ordered', the ads will be served in order. See the below illustration. Notice that the first ad video plays as the pre-roll to the first content video, the second ad video plays as the pre-roll to the second ad video, and the third ad video plays as the pre-roll to the third content video. Since there are only three ad videos and four content videos the pattern starts to repeat, resulting in the first ad video being the pre-roll for the fourth content video.

Setting your ad configuration to 'Random' instructs the ad server to randomly select an ad video from your ad channel. By default the weight of each video is set to '1', making sure all videos have the same probability of appearing. However, if you wish some ads to appear more frequently than others you can adjust the weights. The example below illustrates this concept.

In the example the three ads from the ad channel have been assigned custom weights (see below). A weight of '2' on 'Ad Video 1' means that the ad will appear 2/6 or 1/3 of the time. This is calculated by taking the weight of the ad divided by the total weight of all ads. 'Ad Video 2' will appear 1/2 of the time and 'Ad Video 3' will appear 1/6 of the time.