The traditional sphere of advertising has been merging with its digital counterpart for quite some time. As mobile continues to outperform TV and radio, at the same time, they are becoming one. So, what are the best ad formats then? We’ve come together with what we know as the best ad formats for mobile. Specifically, this will appeal to brands who are truly only starting to make their first true splash into digital.
Where did digital advertising go the last few years?
Many stakeholders may have lost sight of the importance of creatives and more importantly ad formats. Recently, we’ve been getting this question from clients regarding the best ad formats. There seems to be an urgent need to take a step back and rethink the whole advertising paradigm when it comes to high quality ad formats. Time to dig deep and align interests so that brand messaging is enhanced with visuals that work.
Interstitial
Popular sizes: 1024×768, 640×960, 720×1280
Interstitial ads are full-screen formats that cover the interface of an app or website hosting the advertisement. Typically, you would find them displayed at natural transition points in the flow of content, such as a break in an article, between activities, or before starting a new level of a game. These are commonly JPEG or PNG file types but can also leverage video assets for greater interactivity and engagement.
Interstitial ads offer a significantly higher ROI when compared to traditional native display ads. The full screen format is attention-grabbing and offers a key moment to reach your audience free of other distractions. This advertising format generates excellent click-through rates (CTR) and therefore, greater opportunities to connect with your client and showcase value.
Rich Media
Popular sizes: 300×50, 320×50, 300×250, 320×480
Rich media formats relate to any ads that employ advanced media including video, audio, animations, or other interactive elements that encourage viewers to engage more meaningfully with the content. They offer an opportunity to expand your message beyond the traditional text or image-based ads. Rich media formats can also adapt to the visitor’s device to provide the best viewing experience to the individual.
Similar to interstitial ads, rich media is proven to deliver high CTR when designed effectively for the viewer. When production and creative are executed well, results can be smashed out of the park.
Video
Popular sizes: 320×480, 480×320, 1280×720, 720×1280
Promotional content has taken the mobile world by storm and obviously that is correlated to video streaming content. Campaigns with celebrities are proving to be what is generating the trust with brands and value with viewers. The correlation of content and contextual relevancy is now the new order.
Short and concise videos are becoming the gold standard for brands. A few years ago, it was 15 seconds, then it went to 6 now it’s probably around 4-5! This becomes challenging and fun for brands to demonstrate the best positioning to an audience.
We’ve gathered data from various campaigns and stand firm with these formats and sizes as being the best to consider for your advertising as CTR being the best indicator for brand success. We have not discussed traditional formats here as they are currently going through a transformation that will surely be important to consider as well and we can speak about that at a later time. Marketing budgets need to be consolidated across the board with digital and traditional reaching an intersection for maximizing cost-efficiencies.
Many have seen the expression that Creative is King, well it’s worth interchanging it now with CTR is king. Here we neglected to speak in regards to audio. This will follow in a separate post of it’s own.
April 26th, 2021
