The effectiveness of display advertising depends significantly on ad creatives and then on the attractive design, the choice of colors or the appearance of the product in the photo. But format, size, and quality images you use also matter.

Google supports a large number of ad variations. In order to simplify the creative process, we will talk about the most popular and effective formats of display ads. These formats will help you maximize your results and audiences, and avoid creating and testing ineffective ads.

Adaptive Banners

Such ads contain several different elements. The system will combine them with each other in such a way as to create an ad of a specific size that will fit into the corresponding ad units on information sites.

To create a responsive display ad, you need to upload images, logos, videos, text titles, and descriptions. Images must meet the following parameters:

Horizontal image 1.91:1.

  • Minimum size – 600 × 314 pixels.
  • Optimal size – 1200 × 628 pixels.

Horizontal image 1:1.

  • Minimum size – 600 × 300 pixels.
  • Optimal size – 1200 × 1200 pixels.

Logo 4:1.

  • Minimum size – 512 × 128 pixels.
  • Optimal size – 1200 × 300 pixels.

Logo 1:1.

  • Minimum size – 128 × 128 pixels.
  • Optimal size – 1200 × 1200 pixels.

To run an ad, you must upload at least one image of each type. The system most actively uses horizontal images, but by uploading several elements with different side resolutions, you give the system the opportunity to test more ad options and determine the most effective ones. These are the ones that will be shown the most.

When setting up a Performance Max ad campaign, it is also recommended to add a vertical image 4:5 to a responsive ad.

  • Minimum size – 480 × 600 pixels.
  • Optimal size – 960 x 1200 pixels.

Graphic Banner Ads

Graphic ads, unlike adaptive ads, do not include a text title and description. Instead, you can create ad creatives with text overlays of any design you like.

Google supports various sizes of image ads, a complete list of which can be found in Help. Some formats are more popular as they are suitable for display on most websites and are also more visible. After analyzing a sufficient number of campaigns, as well as open data on the popularity of certain formats, we have compiled a list of the best options for image ads. This will help you significantly save time and design budget without compromising the effectiveness of the campaigns themselves.

MPU/Medium rectangle: 300 × 250 pixels

A banner that appears on the side or in the middle of page content on a website. This is one of the most popular types of banners in terms of size, which shows the best results in CTR, and therefore brings profit to both the advertiser and the donor site. Also, this format looks great on both desktop and mobile devices. If your budget is limited, we recommend that you focus on creating MPU ads.

Leaderboard: 728 х 90 pixels

This is the second most effective banner after MPU. It is highly effective, as it is most often located at the top of the website page, and therefore easy to notice. It looks good on desktop as well as pages optimized for tablets.

Wide skyscraper: 160 × 600 pixels

These ads are placed in the sidebars of websites and quite often remain static while scrolling through the content. This format is effective due to the large area, which makes it visible and, as a result, guarantees good results.

These three ad formats are the most popular, both according to general and our own statistics. Therefore, we recommend them to get best results in reach and CTR while saving your budget.

Below is a complete list of the most popular Google Ads banner sizes for desktop display:

  • 300 х 250
  • 728 х 90
  • 160 х 600
  • 336 х 280
  • 300 x 600
  • 250 х 250
  • 200 x 200
  • 970 x 90
  • 468 х 60

Graphic banners for mobile devices

As mobile devices are highly popular, many advertisers are interested in displaying ads on them. And since the mobile version of sites and applications look different than the desktop version, it is best to create separate banners for phones.

According to Google, the most effective format in this case would be a 300 x 50-pixel banner. In addition, the following options are also popular:

  • 300 х 200
  • 300 х 100
  • 250 х 250
  • 200 х 200

Google Ads Image Ad Format Specifications

An image ad can be either an image or an animation. If you want to use static images, file types like JPG or PNG are fine. For animation, these can be GIF, JPS, APNG, and HTML5 files. All files must be of good quality, within acceptable sizes, and maximum 150 KB.

Need help creating and running ads? Contact us! We will find the most effective ad formats, design and create advertising campaigns that will show the best possible results.