Create an SSAI strategy

SSAI strategies allow you to tailor server-side ad experiences for different viewers by defining logic that determines which ad config is delivered during SSAI stitching.

Using the strategy editor, you can create rules based on request attributes, such as query parameters, or run A/B tests to compare ad performance across different ad configs.

Prerequisites

Create an SSAI strategy

Follow these steps to create an SSAI strategy from your JWX dashboard:

1. On the Advertising page, under the Ad strategy tab, click Create ad strategy. The ad strategy details page appears.

2. Enter a Name for the ad strategy.

3. In the JSON code editor, define your strategy.

4. Click Save. The new SSAI strategy appears in the list on the Ad strategy tab, along with its strategy ID.

5. In the row of a strategy, in the ID column, click (copy icon) to copy the strategy ID to your clipboard.

6. In your SSAI manifest request, add the strategy ID as the value for your ad_config_id. This activates the strategy.

   Example

   https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/sites/{site_id}/media/{media_id}/ssai.{manifest_extension}?ad_config_id={strategy_id}
   

The new SSAI strategy is now ready to be applied to a viewer session.

Define a strategy

Using the JSON code editor, you can define how a strategy evaluates incoming SSAI requests and determines which ad experience is applied.

Before creating an SSAI strategy, decide how the strategy should behave at request time. Consider the following questions.

Having these decisions in place will help you define a clear, predictable strategy, as in the example below.

The following example shows a complete SSAI strategy that applies different ad configs and stitch modes depending on which rule is selected:

• Uses a custom query parameter (device_id) to distribute A/B test traffic deterministically
• Sends non-JIT-capable devices to non-JIT stitching (ssai) using ad configs C and D
• Runs a weighted A/B test until a specified date (2027-01-01)

📘

Learn more about this strategy.

How is this strategy evaluated?

When an SSAI request is received, SSAI evaluates the strategy as follows:

1. All rules are filtered based on their predicates.
2. If multiple rules remain, SSAI compares their weight values and distributes traffic proportionally.
3. The selected rule’s action determines both the ad config and stitching mode used for the request.

What happens after the date condition expires?

The strategy rule includes the following date-based predicates.

JSON

{
  "key": "ssai/now",
  "op": "less-than",
  "value": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

This means the rule is only eligible when the request time is before January 1, 2027.

After that date:

• The predicate no longer matches.
• The rule is excluded from evaluation.
• All traffic (100%) is routed using the remaining matching rules.

The strategy does not fail or stop working. It simply evaluates to the remaining applicable rule.

{
  "configs": {
    "weight_keys": [
      "query/device_id"
    ]
  },
  "rules": [
    // When the device is JIT-capable, traffic will split between ad configs A (30%) and B (70%) if the request occurs before 1 January 2027. If the request occurs after that date, all traffic will route to ad config A (100%), which is not time-bound.
    {
      "predicates": [
        {
          "key": "query/jit_capable",
          "op": "not-equals",
          "value": "0"
        }
      ],
      "weight": 3,
      "action": {
        "ad_config_id": "A",
        "stitch_mode": "jit"
      }
    },
    {
      "predicates": [
        {
          "key": "query/jit_capable",
          "op": "not-equals",
          "value": "0"
        },
        {
          "key": "ssai/now",
          "op": "less-than",
          "value": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z"
        }
      ],
      "weight": 7,
      "action": {
        "ad_config_id": "B",
        "stitch_mode": "jit"
      }
    },

    // When the device is not JIT-capable, traffic will split between ad configs C (30%) and D (70%) if the request occurs before 1 January 2027. If the request occurs after that date, all traffic will route to ad config C (100%), which is not time-bound.
    {
      "predicates": [
        {
          "key": "query/jit_capable",
          "op": "equals",
          "value": "0"
        }
      ],
      "weight": 3,
      "action": {
        "ad_config_id": "C",
        "stitch_mode": "ssai"
      }
    },
    {
      "predicates": [
        {
          "key": "query/jit_capable",
          "op": "equals",
          "value": "0"
        },
        {
          "key": "ssai/now",
          "op": "less-than",
          "value": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z"
        }
      ],
      "weight": 7,
      "action": {
        "ad_config_id": "D",
        "stitch_mode": "ssai"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Top level strategy

configs

rules

predicates

action