With display ads, you invite the audience of a website or app to take a specific action. These ads are often images or animated ads that encourage the visitor to click to view a landing page and take action (such as making a purchase). There are numerous display ad types — from simple images to highly interactive, animated rich media ads. Each type of ad has its advantages and disadvantages. Display ads can appear above, below, or alongside page content.
Display ads, as images, can provide:
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More visibility: Because display ads can be visually appealing, they can draw customer attention and increase brand awareness.
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Cost savings: Display ads can be relatively easy to create with minimal cost.
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Visual appeal: To make sure images look good on any device, upload images that are up to twice the dimensions of the placement.
HTML5-based display ads are essentially mini-web pages that may have multiple media files. These can provide basic animations (such as text fades or moving images) for an ad. HTML5 display ads can provide:
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Better user experiences: HTML5 ads tend to be more engaging because they are more interactive. For example, they can have advanced animations and play videos. They generally have higher resolution quality and can have faster load times.
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Optimized performance: You can measure more than just CTR (click-through rates) such as VCR (video-completion rates).
Rich media ads are display ads with additional media or coding and that feature more complex types of ads (such as carousels and 3D cubes) or ads that expand.
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Highly engaging components: These ads involve more software coding and custom components than simple HTML5-based ads.
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May require more development costs: Because of the visual complexity, it's harder to create effective rich media ads without support (such as those provided by Adform).
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Effective with both desktop and mobile devices: Having an engaging rich media ad can be more compatible with an engaging online environment.
The most popular display ad sizes include:
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Medium Rectangle: 300x250
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Large Rectangle: 336x280
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Leaderboard: 728x90
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Half Page (Large Skyscraper): 300x600
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Large Mobile Banner: 320x100
Standard Display Ad (Desktop) Specifications
Standard display ads for website viewed by desktop computers can be image-based or HTML5-based ads.
|
Supported Type and Size |
File Types |
Maximum Size |
Animation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Medium Rectangle: 300x250 Billboard: 970x250 Leaderboard: 728x90 Half Page: 300x600 Skyscraper: 160x600 |
.jpeg (.jpg), .png, .gif or HTML5-based or 3rd-party banners |
300 KB |
Maximum 30 secs (must stop after 30 sec.) |
Standard Display Ad (Mobile) Specifications
Standard display ads for mobile devices can be image-based or HTML5-based ads. In this table, file types, maximum size, animation, and other content applies to both smartphones and tablets.
|
Supported Mobile Device |
Mobile Web |
In-App |
File Types |
Max Size |
Animation |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Smartphone |
300x250 320x50 320x480 250x250 |
300x250 320x50 320x480 250x250 |
.jpeg (.jpg), .png, .gif, or HTML5-based or 3rd-party banners |
Initial load: 5KB Max. 200KB |
Max 30 secs |
Obvious close button Autoplay with mute MRAID v1 and v2 supported. In-app restrictions depend on the application. |
|
Tablet |
728x90 300x250 160x600 300x600 1x1 |
728x90 300x250 160x600 300x600 1x1 |
.jpeg (.jpg), .png, .gif, or HTML5-based or 3rd-party banners |
Initial load: 5KB Max. 200KB |
Max 30 secs |
Obvious close button Autoplay with mute MRAID v1 and v2 supported. In-app restrictions depend on the application. |
Rich Media Display Ads (Desktop/Mobile) Specifications
You can use rich media ads with both desktop and mobile devices.
|
Supported Display Type |
Device |
File Types |
Maximum Size |
|---|---|---|---|
|
3D Cube Venetian Scratch Unit Responsive Carousel |
Desktop/Mobile Desktop Desktop/Mobile Desktop/Mobile |
HTML5 (rich media assets) or 3rd-party banners |
300 KB (recommended) |