Types of online ads

A Guide to Online Ad Types and Formats

Video Ads

Video ads are growing in popularity as better internet speed performance and online advancements make it fast and easy to watch videos on the web. The most successful video ads avoid blatant advertising, opting instead for educational, how-to video content that naturally appeals to users, with some (if any) product suggestions discreetly integrated. Humorous video ads also perform well, with some funny video ad network campaigns finding enormous success, especially when an interactive element is added. 

YouTube Ads
YouTube ads are ads that appear on Google’s video-sharing site. Since Google obtained ownership of YouTube,advertising on YouTube has become nearly as easy and customizable as advertising on AdWords.

YouTube ads provide a number of targeting options and several different ad formats. YouTube advertisements can appear as banner ads, in-video overlay ads, in-stream video ads (which are video ads that appear before or during another YouTube video), as well as several other setups.

Google Search Ads

Google search ads are online ads that appear alongside the search engine result page when users search a keyword query on Google. These ads are PPC, or pay-per-click ads, in which advertisers pay for each ad click. Google’s PPC search ads are managed by Google’s AdWords advertising platform, which allows advertisers to bid on keywords, craft ad text, set budgets, and more. To advertise on Google AdWords, you'll need to create a Google AdWords Account. 

AdWords Ads

AdWords ads are online advertisements created within Google’s AdWords advertising platform, identical to Google search ads.

PPC Ads
PPC ads, AKA pay-per-click ads, are advertisements in which the cost of advertising is determined by the number of clicks an ad receives. AdWords and Bing Ads both use a pay-per-click model.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads exist in many different forms, each offering unique pros and cons for advertisers looking to market on Facebook. To learn all about Facebook advertising, read our Facebook Marketing blog post, or check out our list of 45 Facebook advertising tips.

Marketplace ads appear in the side columns of the Facebook website with a headline, copy, and an image.

Promoted Posts are Facebook ads that let advertisers pay a flat rate to promote a single post on their Facebook business page. The promoted post reaches more fans and friends of fans than a regular post.

Sponsored Stories show a user’s interaction with an advertisers page or product to the user’s friends and larger network. Sponsored Stories are also one form of Facebook ads that can appear in a user’s newsfeed.

FBX, or Facebook Exchange, are Facebook ads that implement remarketing. These ads take into account a user’s web surfing history data, letting an advertiser show an ad for a product a user was looking at earlier on the advertiser’s website.

To see more examples, check out our Ultimate Facebook Ad Types Cheatsheet.

Banner Ads

Banner ads are image-based advertisements that often appear in the side, top, and bottom sections of websites. They can range widely in terms of size, design, and function. You'll typically find them in all sorts of news-based websites, blogs, and specialized web communities. Many websites brokerage their ad space with ad exchanges such as Google's Display Network, or you can buy the ad space in the same manner you'd buy an ad on a newspaper.

Google Display Ads

Google Display Ads are a form of contextual banner ads used in the Google Display Network, Google’s collection of network sites that agree to host display ads. The Google Display Network also includes Google properties such as YouTube, Gmail, Blogger, etc. Google Display ads can be text, images, and even video based. To serve online ads on the Google Display Network, you need to start by using Google AdWords.

Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads (see similar, Google Remarketing) entice a user to visit a site by taking into account the user’s past web history. When a user visits a website, a retargetting campaign cookie is attached to the visitor, taking note of what pages and products the user visits while browsing the site.

Once the user leaves the advertiser’s site and begins journeying to other websites, targetting ads can be made to appear in certain ad spaces, displaying ads that specifically call out what the user was looking at on the advertiser’s site earlier.

Retargeting ads tend to perform drastically better than regular banner ads, with higher click-through rates and conversions. If you're already using Google AdWords, we have a step-by-step tutorial on creating your own Google AdWords remarketing ad.

Mobile Ads

Mobile ads are ads that appear on smartphones, tablets, and any other mobile device. Many social media platforms, websites, and apps offer their own unique mobile ad options. If you advertise on Google AdWords, you can advertise to mobile devices by taking advantage of Enhanced Campaigns.

AdMob Ads

AdMob Ads are advertisements that appear within mobile apps. AdMob itself is Google’s mobile advertisingplatform, enabling app creators to make revenue off of free games by offering ad space, and allowing advertisers to get ad spots in the most popular mobile games and apps.

AdMob ads can appear as mobile-optimized text ads, image-based banner ads, or even interstitials ads, which use rich HTML5. 

Email Ads

Email ads are advertisements sent to users via web mail. Email ads can be used to notify subscribers of certain promotions, discounts, or new features, among other uses.

Most email advertisements feature a large image with minimal text; users will not waste large amounts of time reading email ads, so it’s important to make your message as clear and concise as possible. Email ads also rely on a compelling subject line to ensure that a user will open the email.

Email ads have specific rules – the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, created to prevent email spam for users, authorizes a $16,000 penalty per violation for spamming individuals, which is why many email marketers in the US use an email service or software to make sure they are in compliance with the Act.

Gmail Ads

Gmail ads in Google’s online email service are contextual ads that are generated by an automated process that scans a user’s emails to discover interests and topics that are relevant to the user. If a user is writing and receiving many emails about air conditioners, that user may see ads about air conditions appear within the Gmail client.

While privacy advocates are wary of such practices, Gmail advertising is fully automated and Google asserts that no humans read user emails, only robots.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)

Types of Facebook Ads

For Facebook ads in this category, you as an advertiser are in full control of all creative elements of the ad. This means you control the title of the ad, the imagery and any text that goes with it.

Facebook currently has 10 different ad types that fall in the Ad category:

a.    App ad

b.    Domain ad

c.    Event ad

d.    Mobile app ad

e.    Page like ad

f.      Page post ads

a.    Page post link ad

b.    Page post photo ad

c.    Page post text ad

d.    Page post video ad

e.    Offer ad

Where on Facebook these ads are eligible to appear (their placement) depend on their type. Let’s go through them each in a little more detail.

App ad

App ads are, just like the name hints, ads for applications on Facebook. For App ads you don’t set a destination, they always take people to the application itself when clicked.

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Title: App name (25 characters)

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

Domain ad

Domain ads are the classic Facebook ads that you see on the right hand side of Facebook and that takes you off site when clicking them. They are typically used for direct-response campaigns where the conversion takes place outside of Facebook.

Domain ads can show social context (e.g., “John Smith likes www.example.com”). For this to happen, Facebook must be able to match the destination URL of your ad with a Facebook page.

To make this match possible, add the URL of your website in your Facebook page’s settings.

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Title: 25 characters

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Domain link: 1 line

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

Event ad

Event ads are, like the name suggests, ads for Facebook Events. They can show on all placements and it is possible to join the event directly from the ad.

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

·        Event details that are pulled from event:

o   Title: 25 characters

o   Page name: 1 line, if applicable

o   Date and time: 1 line, under image

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 8:3

·        Image specs in ad: 400x150 px
If the uploaded image is smaller than 400x150 px or no image is uploaded, then the ad will render without an image

·        Event details (pulled from event):

o   Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

o   Address: Up to 1 line (depending on title length)

o   Date and time: 1 line

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 8:3

·        Image specs in ad: 560x210 px
If the uploaded image is smaller than 400 px wide or no image is uploaded, then the ad will render with a map showing location of event

·        Event details that are pulled from the event to show in the ad:

o   Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

o   Address: 1-2 lines (depending on title length and social context)

o   Date and time: 1 line

Mobile app ad

Mobile app ads are only eligible to show in the News feed on mobile. Clicks on the ad takes the user directly to the Apple App Store or Google Play, depending on which mobile operating system the app is for.

In order to measure mobile app installs, the app must first be connected with Facebook. This does not mean that it has to integrate with Facebook from a user experience perspective, but Facebook must be aware of its existence. You can read more about how to do this in this tutorial provided by Facebook.

Mobile news feed

Creative specs

·        Title: App name

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 1:91

·        Image specs in ad: 1200x627 px

·        App details:

o   Star ratings: Appear if you have at least 250 ratings in the App Center

o   Social context: Will appear if your friends play/use the game/app and if you have Facebook login enabled

Page like ad

Page like ads are ads for Facebook Pages. The Page can be liked directly from the ad.

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Title: 25 characters

·        Page name: 1 line

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

Desktop: News feed

Creatives specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 8:3

·        Image specs in ad: 400x150 px
If the image is smaller than 400x150 px, then the ad will render with a smaller 100x72 px image

·        Page details (pulled from Page):

o   Page category: Up to 1 line (depending on length of Page name)

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 8:3

·        Image specs in ad: 560x210 px
If the image is smaller than 560x210 px, then the ad will render with a smaller 200x144 px image.

·        Page details (pulled from Page):

o   Page category: Up to 1 line (depending on length of Page name)

Page post ads

Page post ads are Page posts that are sponsored (sometimes called promoted)in order to increase their reach. Both published and unpublishedPage posts can be sponsored and thus used as Page post ads.

Turning a Page post into a Page post ad by promoting it doesn’t change the original post in terms of appearance - only in terms of distribution. This means that Facebook users interact with a Page post ad the same way they would with an unsponsored Page post.

For example, if your post contains a link to a website, people will go to that website when clicking the link. If your post contains a photo, it will be enlarged when clicked. The same logic applies for posts with videos or offers.

When appearing in the News feed, page post ads can be liked, commented and shared - just like unsponsored page posts.

A click on the page name always takes the user to the Facebook page that published the post (Qwaya in the example). When a page post ad is showing on the right hand side of Facebook, the text in the post is truncated, showing only the first 90 characters. When showing in the News feed more of the post’s text is visible.

Page post ads come in five different types:

Page post link ad

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters, remainder truncated

·        Link title: 25 characters

·        Domain link: 1 line

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters

·        Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

·        Domain link: 1 line

·        Description: 2-3 lines (depending on title length)

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.91:1

·        Image specs in ad: 400x209 px
If the uploaded image is smaller than 400x209 px, then it will render as 154x154 or 90x90 px (the largest available size)

·        Links to external video like YouTube: Image is limited to 90x90 px

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Link Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

·        Domain link: 1 line

·        Description: Up to 1 line (depending on title length)

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.91:1

·        Image specs in ad: 560x292 px
If the uploaded image is smaller than 560x292 px, then it will render as 100x100 px

·        Links to external video like YouTube: Image is limited to 100x100 px design

Page post photo ad

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

·        Image Aspect Ratio: Up to 1:1 at the tallest. This depends on the specs of the uploaded image.

·        Image specs in ad: Up to 120x120 px.

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters.

·        Image Aspect Ratio: Up to 1:1 at the tallest. This depends on the specs of the uploaded image.

·        Image specs in ad: Up to 400x400 px.

·        Image specs if it's a multi-image story

o   2 or 4 photos: 196x196 px for each photo

o   3 or 5-9 photos: 129x129 px for each photo

o   Album created stories: 3 photos at 129x129 px; 1 photo at 398x264 px

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

·        Image Aspect Ratio: Up to 1:1 at the tallest. This depends on the specs of the uploaded image.

·        Image specs in ad: Up to 618x618 px. This will scale to fit the longest edge at 618 px.

·        Image aspect ratio if it's a multi-image story: 1:1. It will be cropped to make 1:1 regardless of the size.

Page post text ad

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

Page post video ad

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

·        Thumbnail image aspect ratio: Up to 1:1 at tallest depending on the specs of the uploaded image.

·        Image specs in ad: Up to 128x128 px.

·        Max video size and length: 1 GB, 20 minutes.

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters.

·        Thumbnail aspect ratio: Up to 1:1 at tallest depending on the specs of the uploaded image.

·        Image specs in ad: Up to 400x400 px.

·        Max video size and length: 1 GB, 20 minutes.

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters.

·        Thumbnail image aspect ratio: Up to 1:1 at tallest (depending on specs of uploaded image.

·        Max video size and length: 1 GB, 20 minutes.

Offer ad

Offer ads can promote an offer redeemable in a physical store or online.

Desktop: Right hand side

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Offer title: 25 characters

·        Page name: 1 line

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.39:1

·        Image specs in ad: 100x72 px

Desktop: News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 500 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.91:1

·        Image specs in ad: 400x209 px

·        Offer details:

o   Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

o   Expiration date: Up to 1 line (depending on title length)

Mobile News feed

Creative specs

·        Text: 90 characters

·        Image aspect ratio: 1.91:1

·        Image specs in ad: 560x292 px
If the uploaded image is too small, then it will render as 100x100 px

·        Offer details:

o   Title: 1-2 lines (depending on length)

o   Expiration date: Up to 1 line (depending on title length)

Types of Linkedin Ads

Sponsored InMail

Sponsored InMail gives advertisers the ability to send a form of email message to any of the over 300 million LinkedIn users. The InMail feature also uses LinkedIn’s robust segmenting features to choose a highly targeted group of users to send your message to. This is a great opportunity to send a detailed message to a specific set of users.

Fortunately for advertisers, LinkedIn has imposed a limit on the number of sponsored InMails that a user can receive in a certain time period. This helps guarantee that your messages won’t get lost in all of the noise. Each user is only able to receive one InMail every 60 days.

Follow Company Ads

If you’re just starting out as a company on LinkedIn, it’s important to grow your following. These are ads that appear on a user’s page in order to encourage them to follow your company. There are two main reasons that you’d want to create these types of ads. You can create them to increase your brand’s credibility on the social network, or you could do it because once someone is following you, you can use a Company Update to promote content to them for free.

Recommendation Ads

These ads appear on a number of different locations and can help advertisers showcase a specific product. The ad shows the company name, the product, the amount of people who have recommended the product, and buttons for users to recommend or share the product.

Join-Group Ads

Groups are a great way to get communities to engage with one of your products. ­­­If you’re looking to increase the amount of users you have participating in a group, this is the way to do it. These ads will show the name of your group, a brief description of the topics that will be discussed, and a clear call to action button asking users to join.

New Ads

The LinkedIn advertising solutions are constantly improving. In order to keep up you can sign up for LinkedIn’s monthly marketing newsletter. Or, visit LinkedIn’s solutions page.

Types of Twitter Ads

Plain Text Tweet

Tweet copy: 140 characters (note: each link used reduces character count by 24 characters, leaving 116 characters for Tweet copy.)

Website Card

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images)

Website title length: 70 characters. Please note - depending on device and app settings this description may truncate. Although not guaranteed, limiting the description to 50 characters should ensure that truncation won’t occur across most devices.

Image size: 800 x 320 pixels (max 3mb)

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.

Lead Generation card

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images)

Short description: 50 characters (only appears on desktop)

Post submit message: Text after lead is submitted, 100 characters

Image size: 800 x 200 pixels (max 3mb)

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.

Call to action options: Custom, 20 character limit

Basic App card

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images)

Custom icon image size: 144 x 144 pixels

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.

Title/price: Pulled from app store

Call to action options: Install (default if app is not installed), Open (default if app is installed), Play, Shop, Book, Connect and Order

Image App card

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images)

Image size: 800 x 320 pixels (max 3mb)

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.

Title/price: Pulled from app store

Call to action options: Install (default if app is not installed), Open (default if app is installed), Play, Shop, Book, Connect and Order

Promoted Video

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images)

Title (under video): 70 characters

Description (under video): 200 characters

File type: MP4 or MOV

File size: Under 1GB strongly recommended for optimal performance.

Max time: 10 minutes

Video codec recommendation: H264, Baseline, Main or High profile with a 4:2:0 color space

Frame rate recommendation: 29.97FPS or 30FPS. Higher is acceptable. If the available video has a lower frame rate don’t try to “upsample” it.

Video bitrate recommendation: 6,000 - 10,000k (recommended 6,000k) for 1080p. 5,000k - 8,000k (recommended 5,000k) for 720p)

Audio codec recommendation: AAC LC (low complexity)
 

Thumbnail

Supported file types: PNG or JPEG

Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9

Minimum size: 640 pixels by 360 pixels

Max size: 5mb 

Multi Image Tweets

Mobile

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images). Note: using links in addition to images will further reduce available characters by 24 characters per link.

Image width/height: Minimum 600 X 335 pixels, although larger images (for example 1200 X 675) will be better optimized for when users click to expand images.

Aspect ratio: For two images, the images will be side by side, both at 7:8 aspect ratios. For three images, there will be one 7:8 aspect ratio image on the left, with two 4:7 aspect ratio images running up the right side of the image. For four images, there will be four 2:1 aspect ratio images in a grid.

Image file size: Max 3mb on twitter.com max 1048kb on ads.twitter.com.

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.
 

Desktop

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for images). Note: using links in addition to images will further reduce available characters by 24 characters per link.

Image width/height: We recommend a minimum of 600PX X 600PX images, although larger images (for example 1200 X 1200 pixel images) will be better optimized for when users click to expand images.

Aspect ratio: Multi image tweets will always be cropped to a square (1:1 aspect ratio). For two images, the images will be side by side horizontally. For three images, there will be one large square image on the left, with two square images running up the right side of the image. For four images, there will be one large square image on the left and three smaller square images along the side.

Image file size: Max 3mb on twitter.com max 1048kb on ads.twitter.com.

File types: PNG and JPEG are recommended. We do not accept BMP or TIFF files.

Conversational Ads

Tweet copy: 116 characters are available (24 characters are used for the Conversational Card)

Hashtag: 21 characters

Pre-populated user Tweet: 116 characters

Headline: 23 characters

Thank you text: 23 characters

Thank you URL (optional): 23 characters

Video (if used): same specifications mentioned in the “Promoted video” section.

Image Specs (if used): File size: 3 MB, Aspect ratio: 5:2, Image width / height: 800 X 320PX, File formats: JPEG, PNG, non-animated GIFs

Thanks & Regards

     ARUN A K

SEO SPECIALIST