In a previous article we talked about banner standard sizes, one of the most important metrics in banner advertising.
Now the second metric in the order of its importance is the banner file size.
There are different advertising networks, and they have different weight banner standards, here are some of them:
The recommended banner size from AdWords
The file size limit for all static ads is 150 kilobytes and for all animated ads is 150 kilobytes or smaller
| Max. size (kB) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Banner Ad | Ad Size | Static (JPG, GIF) | Animated (.GIF, HTML5) |
| Small square | 200 × 200 | 150 | 150 KB or smaller |
| Vertical rectangle | 240 × 400 | ||
| Square | 250 × 250 | ||
| Triple widescreen | 250 × 360 | ||
| Inline rectangle | 300 × 250 | ||
| Large rectangle | 336 × 280 | ||
| Netboard | 580 × 400 | ||
| Skyscraper | 120 × 600 | ||
| Wide skyscraper | 160 × 600 | ||
| Half-page ad | 300 × 600 | ||
| Portrait | 300×1050 | ||
| Banner | 468 × 60 | ||
| Leaderboard | 728 × 90 | ||
| Top banner | 930 × 180 | ||
| Large leaderboard | 970 × 90 | ||
| Billboard | 970 × 250 | ||
| Panorama | 980 × 120 | ||
| Mobile banner | 300 × 50 | ||
| Mobile banner | 320 × 50 | ||
| Large mobile banner | 320 × 100 |
The recommended banner size from IAB
Note that these file weights refer to the initial download. That means, a flash banner can have a total file weight of over 40 KB, but anything above 40 KB is downloaded “in the background” meanwhile the flash ad/animation had already begun.
Here you can read more
| Banner Ad | Size Range | Max. K-Weight (kB) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Size | Max Size | Min Size | Initial Load | Subload | |
| Billboard | 970 x 250 | 900 x 225 | 1800 x 450 | 250 | 500 |
| Mobile Banner | 300 x 50 | 300 x 50 | 450 x 75 | 50 | 100 |
| Leaderboard | 728 x 90 | 600 x 75 | 1200 x 150 | 150 | 300 |
| Half Page | 300 x 600 | 300 x 600 | 450 x 900 | 200 | 400 |
| Portrait | 300 x 1050 | 300 x 900 | 450 x 1350 | 200 | 400 |
| Skyscraper | 160 x 600 | 160 x 640 | 240 x 960 | 150 | 300 |
| Medium Rectangle | 300 x 250 | 300 x 300 | 450 x 450 | 150 | 300 |
Aol Advertising: The maximum accepted file size is generally 40 KB for the standard banners, but there are some exceptions. You can read more here.
Right Media – the file size should be up to 37 kb.
How do we measure the online banner size?
The file size is measured in bytes, often with the kilo- (thousand) or mega- (million) metric prefixes, and it represents the amount of disk space consumed by a particular file.
- 1 B = 1 byte
- 1 kB = 1.000 bytes
- 1 MB = 1.000 kB or 1.000.000 bytes
- 1 GB = 1.000 MB, 1.000.000 kB, or 1.000.000.000 bytes
As with other files, banners (JPGs, GIFs, SWFs etc.) have certain file weights. These files are temporarily downloaded on the users’ computers when they open a web page, so the bigger a banner file is, the heavier and slower to download that web page will be.
That made publishers introducing some restrictions regarding the standard file size of the banner they would accept. And that was the first step to introducing a set of universally accepted standards concerning the banner file sizes.