First of all, we need to define exactly what banner advertising is. It’s the use of rectangular layouts of different sizes to display advertisements. The content of the rectangle can be an image, text, or both. Images, however, are more popular.
These ads are used a great deal online because they are very good at helping companies to build their brand value, are easy to put together, and can also be used for retargeting.
The Various Sizes of Banner Ads
Banner ads come in a range of different sizes — from a medium rectangle size to a leaderboard, a wide skyscraper, half-page rectangle, billboard, to small squares and rectangles. So, you may be wondering – which banner ad size should I use? Although there are many different sizes, four stand out from the rest.
The Most Popular Banner Ads
The four banner ads described below make up 90 percent of all banner ads that appear online.
The most popular type of ad, which accounts for 40 percent of advertising space, is the medium rectangle, which is 300 by 250 pixels.
The next most popular type of ad is the leaderboard, which is used in 25 percent of the ad space. Leaderboard ads are 728 by 90 pixels.
The third most popular ad is the wide skyscraper, which clocks in at 12 percent of total ad space. The skyscraper is 160 by 600 pixels.
And then at number four, we have the mobile leaderboard ad, which also accounts for 12 percent of all ad space. It is 320 by 50 pixels.
Mobile Leaderboards
More people now use mobile devices than desktop to browse the web. Mobile accounts for more than 60 percent of all internet use. For that reason, the best course of action for an advertiser may be to focus their efforts on mobile advertising. These types of ads can be displayed both in web browsers and in apps.
Mobile leaderboards are hands-down the best performing ads on these types of devices. They are classified as anchor ads because they remain at the bottom of the page even when scrolling. They are essential if you want to increase the reach of your ads.
Medium Rectangle
The medium rectangle is the top performer for banner advertising, and for that reason, also the most expensive. To use it to its best advantage, it should be somewhere on the top half of the screen.
These ads are often inserted directly into the text and work well both as a text ad or image. They are effective on both desktop and mobile settings.
Because this ad is used so often, Google has set up guidelines just for this type of ad.
Leaderboard
Leaderboard ads are very easy to put up on a web page, and the demand for them is very high. They are usually posted at the top of a page, so the user sees the ad almost immediately upon opening the website.
Wide Skyscraper
The wide skyscraper is usually posted on the side of the page, and it stays up even if the user scrolls down on the page, so it is constantly in view. It also is effective displaying both text and images. However, it does not work as well on a mobile format as other ads, but is still a staple for desktops.
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