Online Advertising Formats

There are many different formats used in online advertising in today’s market. We, at Alchemy Interactive have put this guide together to highlight the main types used in the creating, planning, buying and selling of interactive marketing and advertising.

NOTE: All dimensions are in pixels.

Rectangles and Pop-Ups

  Recommended
Maximum
Initial
Download
Fileweight		 Recommended
Animation
Length
(Seconds)
300 x 250 IMU - (Medium Rectangle) 40k :15
250 x 250 IMU - (Square Pop-Up) 40k :15
240 x 400 IMU - (Vertical Rectangle) 40k :15
336 x 280 IMU - (Large Rectangle) 40k :15
180 x 150 IMU - (Rectangle) 40k :15
300x100 IMU - (3:1 Rectangle) 40k :15
720x300 IMU – (Pop-Under) 40k :15

Banners and Buttons

468 x 60 IMU - (Full Banner) 40k :15
234 x 60 IMU - (Half Banner) 30k :15
88 x 31 IMU - (Micro Bar) 10k :15
120 x 90 IMU - (Button 1) 20k :15
120 x 60 IMU - (Button 2) 20k :15
120 x 240 IMU - (Vertical Banner) 30k :15
125 x 125 IMU - (Square Button) 30k :15
728 x 90 IMU - (Leaderboard) 40k :15

Skyscrapers

160 x 600 IMU - (Wide Skyscraper) 40k :15
120 x 600 IMU - (Skyscraper) 40k :15
300 x 600 IMU - (Half Page Ad) 40k :15

Rich Media Creative Guidelines

New and improved advertising technologies mean that Rich Media has developed into a popular format for engaging with consumers, and this has enabled consumer interaction with the creative assets.

Rich Media is: advertisements users can interact with in a web page that is not solely animation or a click-through function. These can be used either on their own or in a combination of technologies e.g. Flash, sound, video, DHTML, Java, and JavaScript. Our guidelines include advertising formats, ranging from banners to transitionals and tear-backs, in addition to emails, web pages and other standard web applications.

Other Guidelines

Additional Considerations: CPU Usage

Please bear in mind CPU usage may be taken into account by some publishers, as well as file size. We would recommend a maximum of 18 frames per second.

Common High CPU Usage Factors:

  • Numerous animated sequences across layers animating simultaneously
  • Imported graphics scaled up over a long period of time
  • Frame rate is over 18 frames per second (nb: reducing the number to 18 does not degrade visual performance)
  • Animated sequences set to be translucent and animating on top of an imported graphic (e.g.: jpeg, png, etc.)
  • Action Script-generated events set to randomly generate (ex: fog and rain)

The Guidelines:

Format Category Format (WxH) Max Initial Load File Size * Add’l
File Weight (Polite Download)		 Flash Specifics Audio Initiation Maximum Animation Length Controls Web Site Labelling
& Other Items
In-Page Video Units See IAB Ad Unit Guidelines, for example, 300x250 40 KB 1.2MB** 18 fps User Initiated (on click) Anything up to 15 seconds • Control = “Close X”, Play, Pause, Rewind, Volume
• Font = 16 pt		 • Label = “Advertisement”
• Font = 16 pt
Expandable/
Retractable Units		 User-initiated Expandable Ads: See IAB Ad Unit Guidelines.

Landing Spots: Maximum width of 2X the initial ad size*		 40 KB 80 KB 18 fps User Initiated (on click) Anything up to 15 seconds • Control = “Close X”
• Font = 16 pt
• Location = On Edge of Original (non-expanded / expanded) unit
• Feature = Enable Mouse-Off Retraction		 • Label = “Advertisement”
Font = 16 pt
User-initiated Retractable Ads: Maximum width of 600 pixels.

Landing Spots: See IAB Ad Unit Guidelines		 Expansion:
• 3 seconds,
if no user interaction
• Up to 15 seconds within ad
Pop-Up or Pop-Under Units Pop-ups: 250x250; 300x250 40 KB 80 KB 18 fps User Initiated (on click) Anything up to 15 seconds Provided by Browser Window See IAB Pop-Up Guidelines for more details
Pop-up Large: 550x480
Pop-under: 720x300
Floating Units Variable Landing Spots for Floating Ads: See IAB Ad Unit Guidelines 80 KB 160 KB 18 fps User Initiated (on click) Floating:
• 10 seconds max, if no user interaction

• Up to 15 seconds within ad		 • Control = “Close X”
• Font = 16 pt
• Location = Fixed placement at the location of the first completely visible frame

Not Applicable		 • Label = “Advertisement”
• Font = 16 pt
Between-the-Page Units a.k.a., Transitional Ads: See IAB Ad Unit Guidelines 80 KB 160 KB 18 fps User Initiated (on click) Transitions:
• 10 seconds max, if no user interaction

• Up to 15 seconds within ad		 • Control = “Skip Advertisement”
• Font = 16 pt
• Location = Above the Fold in Lower Right Corner of Ad		 • Label = “Advertisement” or “Brought to you by”
• Font = 16 pt
• Location = Above the Fold and at Top of Ad

*300x250 ads only need to expand to 500x250
**If video is part of any other rich media units, polite download file weight should adhere to In-Page Video Limit of 1.2 MB.


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