Digital
Ad Formats
LESSON SCRIPT
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DIGITAL AD FORMATS LESSON SCRIPT
LESSON 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Hi, and welcome to this lesson on digital ad formats. There are lots of ingredients
that go into creating an ad, from the choice of format to the individual creative assets
and the message they carry. Although there’s no recipe for a perfect ad, we can help
you think about how different ingredients combine to make different types of ad.
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Chapter 2: Planning Your Ads
So, what’s the first step in creating an ad? Well, you need to start by asking a very
simple, very important question: what are your goals? Before you can make any
decisions about message or format, you need to know what you want to make
happen.
Are people aware of the brand? Would they recognise the brand’s visual identity,
and do they know about the products available? If the answer’s no, your goal might
be to increase awareness around the brand and products, without necessarily trying
to drive the viewer to any specific action.
If people are aware of the brand, are they considering it as a viable option? Would
they choose the brand’s products over competitors’? Without going out and asking
everyone in your target market, it can be difficult to identify where consumers’
preference lies - so you’ll often look to drive deeper engagement with the brand at
this stage, following the theory that a deeper level of engagement with the ad
indicates stronger brand affinity.
Beyond just engaging with the content of your ad, you might be trying to get the
consumer to take some kind of action, or conversion. Making a purchase is the most
straightforward example of this, but conversions come in all shapes and sizes, from
signing up to a newsletter to claiming a promotional offer.
It’s unlikely that all your activity will be focused on just one of these goals, especially
given the lightning speed at which consumers online can progress from awareness
to conversion, so you’ll probably be running multiple streams of activity
simultaneously to create ads for multiple goals. There are formats that lend
themselves particularly well to each goal, so for each one you’ll be working with
different formats to transmit a different creative message.
This is a far cry from the early days of digital marketing. Back then, it was common for
brands to repurpose other creative for use online - using a clip from their TV
commercial in a display banner, for example. Although this might have seemed like a
simple way of ensuring the brand’s visual identity stayed consistent across channels,
our present-day understanding of consumer behaviour makes it easy to see where
the theory falls down. Apart from the fact that squeezing your TV ad into a banner
doesn’t look great, it’s now accepted that a successful digital ad will be created to
suit the device and environment where it appears – and, as a result, will be more
relevant to the consumer’s state of mind.
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In fact, these days, relevancy is a huge part of creating successful digital ads. To
make ads relevant, advertisers need to use the data collected on a user when they
browse the web.
All your online activity leaves behind a trail of data. This might be data you’ve
entered voluntarily - registration data, for example - or it might be data that websites
and third party companies have collected on you as a result of your online behaviour.
This data is stored as cookies - tiny files on your browser that contain a record of the
sites you’ve visited and what you did there, including any products or ads you
viewed. A data management platform, or DMP, is used to make sense of the data
signals coming from the cookies on your browser, and any other information the
website has about you. It uses this data to segment users into different groups for
targeting purposes - according to any number of factors, including age, gender and
online behaviour - and it communicates this back to the publisher’s ad server. Based
on this, the publisher’s ad server decides which advertiser’s ad server to call to
display an ad - and then the advertiser’s ad server uses the data from the DMP to
send over the creative that’s most relevant to you.
Advertisers might also use cookies to retarget consumers who’ve looked at a
product, but haven’t made a purchase.
To do this, cookie data is used to see if a user visited a website, which products they
viewed there, and whether they added any to their basket - and then they’ll be
shown relevant ads. However, there’s a big problem with cookie-based retargeting;
cookies can’t track one user across multiple devices so, if a user saw your ad on a
desktop, cookies can’t help you retarget them on mobile. In these instances, there
are two options: deterministic and probabilistic tracking.
In terms of accuracy, deterministic tracking wins hands-down. This involves getting a
user to sign in across all of the media owner’s properties, on all devices - meaning
that, no matter which device is used to access the site, the user will be identifiable,
and therefore targetable. Google’s DoubleClick ad server, for example, uses Google
login details to identify and target users across devices. It’s mostly giants like Google,
Facebook and Apple that use deterministic tracking, as they can get their users to
sign in across every device they own.
For media owners who haven’t reached Google’s level of dominance yet, hope for
cross-device targeting lies with probabilistic tracking. Where deterministic tracking
uses personal data to identify an individual, probabilistic tracking relies on masses of
anonymised data points - like location, WiFi network, or behavioural data - to
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determine when activity is likely to be coming from the same user on multiple
devices.
In theory, this makes sense - if an ad is viewed on a tablet over a WiFi connection,
and then a search is made on a desktop computer for that product over the same
WiFi connection, those devices probably belong to the same user. However, this is
where probabilistic tracking can go wrong. If you end up accidentally associating a
device with the wrong user and trying to retarget them on that device, you might end
up spoiling a surprise!
That’s an overview of the considerations and decisions you have to make before
you’re ready to start thinking about which formats to use for your marketing activity.
Remember that the decisions you make at this stage regarding your goals will inform
everything you do from this point onwards, so be sure to define them carefully and
keep them close at hand throughout the process.
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Chapter 3: Ad Formats
After you’ve defined your goals, identified your audience and thought about a cross-
device strategy, it’s time to turn to the choice of formats. Before we start looking at
individual formats in detail, let’s think about what sets them apart from one another.
One of the most obvious ways in which ad formats vary is by size on the page.
Size on the page is measured in pixels - the tiny dots that make up any image or
webpage displayed on a device. Most formats can be described by their dimensions
- width by height, in pixels - but many of the earlier ones were given names to make
them easier to identify. A 160 by 600 pixel rectangle, for instance, became known as
a Skyscraper, while a 300 by 250 pixel unit is usually called an MPU or medium
rectangle. Size comes into play right from the creative planning stage, especially
given the number of different formats needed to achieve a single goal. You can’t
design assets for an MPU and expect them to automatically work in a 120 by 20
feature phone banner.
As well as size, you’ll need to think about visuals - including whether to use any rich
media elements, like animation or interactive games. Bear in mind that including rich
media will have an impact on the file size of the creative - which, in turn, will affect
how your creative loads on the page. A smaller file will load much faster than a huge
file full of different elements. That might not be a problem for users browsing over a
high-speed connection, but remember that won’t always be the case. If your creative
makes the site slow to load, the user will probably scroll past or give up altogether -
especially if they’re browsing on a 3G or 4G connection, where loading large files
may actually be costing them money!
Not only does this mean you’ve missed a potential customer, but you could end up
being charged for the impression too, as a request has already been sent to the ad
server for the creative.
Lost impressions are a particular problem in the current market, where there’s a lot of
emphasis on viewability. An ad is viewable when it’s visible on-screen for long
enough that a consumer has the opportunity to see it. Seems simple enough - but,
depending on the size and type of your ad, the percentage of pixels that need to
appear on-screen, and the length of time they need to be present for, will vary for the
impression to be counted as viewable. Given just how many different ad formats are
out there, determining whether your ads count as viewable can be tricky!
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With all the variation in ad formats making things difficult for brands and agencies, it
was only a matter of time before someone stepped in to create some
standardisation. That someone was the Interactive Advertising Bureau, or IAB.
They’re the trade body responsible for developing online advertising industry
standards. The IAB’s advertising guidelines take three forms: ad standards,
guidelines, and protocols. The standards are a set of suggested formats; the
guidelines provide information on how ads should be made; and the protocols set
out the technical requirements for allowing communication between the ads
themselves and the systems that host them.
The IAB’s ad standards have evolved over time to better reflect our understanding of
consumer behaviour and changing capabilities online. In the early days, advertisers
online were focused on grabbing consumer attention. This ultimately led the IAB, in
2012, to release a list of then-innovative formats known as ‘Rising Stars’ – like the
Slider, Pushdown and Filmstrip - which were developed by publishers and endorsed
by the IAB.
However, understanding of the kind of ads that users want to see has changed
significantly since then and, amidst concerns about increased ad blocking by
consumers who find the current formats too intrusive and irrelevant, the IAB have
announced the phasing out of their Rising Stars. Instead, they’re emphasising a
LEAN ad experience. LEAN stands for light, encrypted, ad choice supported and
non-invasive. The aim of LEAN is to encourage advertisers to respect what the
consumer came to the site to do, give the consumer control over their advertising
experience, and recognise consumers’ right to choose what advertising they view.
This means consumers have a more positive experience, advertisers benefit from
increased receptivity, and publishers can rest easy knowing their ad inventory won’t
detract from the overall experience of the site – so it’s a win all round!
With the Rising Stars set to be retired, a new set of ad standards are needed to take
their place. The new ‘Flexible Ad Size Specifications’ are based on the need for ad
formats to work well across all devices, so they focus on aspect ratio rather than
pixels. For example: the former 320 by 50 ‘smartphone banner’ will now be known
simply as a ‘6 by 1’, and will retain its 6:1 aspect ratio on all screens, which means
that, on all devices, the ad will scale to fit the layout of the page.
The IAB’s Standards shouldn’t be taken as an exhaustive list of available formats.
Many large publishers offer their own selection – AOL have developed a list of
formats for use across both their own and Microsoft’s properties, and Google offer
their own selection within their Display Network. There are also specialist companies
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whose job is to work with both publisher and agency partners to design new ad
formats.
Given that display can encompass everything from standard banners to large, high-
impact formats, it’s hardly surprising that it’s used for lots of different goals. High-
impact display is often used for awareness-building activity; increasing familiarity with
the brand and assets without trying to entice users to click away from what they’re
doing.
Skins are a type of high-impact display format that basically turn your ad into the
background image on a given site visible above and at the sides of the media
owner’s content. It’s possible for the skin to change as the user scrolls down the
page, allowing advertisers to create a clear narrative.
Mastheads are essentially big banner ads that dominate the top of a webpage. They
can either form part of a skin or feature as an ad unit in themselves, and often
contain rich media elements. This kind of exposure doesn’t come cheap though, and
you might find you can achieve the same share of voice on the page by buying
multiple, cheaper formats in a move known as dual placement.
The advantage of dual placement is that you can reinforce the message in different
areas of the page, or choose two formats which interact with one another.
A homepage takeover, or HPTO, is when a brand buys all the ad units on a site’s
homepage. A page takeover, or PTO, is when a brand buys all the available ad units
on a given page or section of a site - not necessarily the homepage! This will involve
a combination of display formats – what’s crucial is that, in an HPTO, the brand in
question has a 100% share of voice. Because of their dominant nature, HPTOs are
usually quite expensive and are mostly bought on a 24-hour basis. It’s becoming
more common for HPTOs to be sold programmatically, but they’re still often bought
directly, requiring close cooperation between the brand, agency and media owner.
If a consumer is already aware of your brand, then you don’t need big, flashy HPTOs
to showcase it. In these instances, standard display formats might be enough to
bring your brand to the forefront of consumers’ minds, and drive them to conversion.
Mobile display works similarly to desktop - although the smaller screen size needs
factoring in when thinking about copy and creative. Some kinds of conversion are
easier to drive on mobile - for example, your audience is far more likely to follow an
‘install app’ call-to-action button, where the investment and effort involved is minimal
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given that they’re already on the right device. There are opportunities available on
mobile that extend beyond what’s possible on desktop, so let’s explore what mobile
ad formats have to offer.
Targeting on mobile comes with opportunities that just aren’t available on desktop.
Take location-based targeting - if a user’s out and about on mobile, you can target
them when they’re near your store location. Digital out-of-home technology has
made this even easier. Geo-fencing can be used to create an ‘invisible fence’ around
a geographical area, where ads are served to those who enter. Beacons work in a
similar way, delivering messages – including special offers, links, and directions to a
store location - to a consumer as they enter the ‘beacon zone’. Beacons can also be
attached to digital billboards – allowing advertisers to reach consumers across
outdoor and mobile formats simultaneously, and making it easier to identify, track
and retarget consumers who’ve seen the outdoor billboard.
Mobile isn’t all about targeting, though. Some advertisers have also incorporated
interactivity in ways that wouldn’t be possible on desktop - asking users to swipe,
move or shake their device to activate elements of the ad. Using haptic technology –
that is, the phone’s ‘vibrate’ feature – advertisers can even incorporate physical
sensation into their ads. Both Lexus and Peugeot have used vibration in their mobile
video ads, and have seen boosts in replay, recall and click-through rates as a result.
Video is often used for awareness-building activity - although it can lend itself well to
other goals too. Video can form a part of a rich media display ad, on both mobile and
desktop, but there are video ad formats that exist outside of rich media display.
These ads can be either instream or outstream.
Instream video ads are like an online version of the traditional TV spot, sitting within
other video content. YouTube’s pre-roll ads are a good example of ‘instream’ video.
Similarly, broadcasters who offer on-demand or catch-up TV online without charging
a subscription fee will often monetise their content by serving instream ads.
One of the most successful instream advertising techniques has been to offer the
user options as to when they view advertising, or how long for. YouTube’s TrueView
format gives users the option to skip ads they’re not interested in after five seconds,
while Hulu’s TrueX offers the user the chance to choose between watching a 30
second ad before the start of a show, or mid-rolls at various points throughout. From
a user perspective this means they see fewer irrelevant ads, at times when they’re
more willing to watch. Meanwhile, the advertiser only pays for ads that the user has
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chosen to watch – which theoretically means they’re getting a more engaged
audience.
Outstream video ads are ads which play outside of other video content – between
two paragraphs of an article, for example. Like instream videos, they usually play
automatically - except outstream ads often autoplay without sound. That means your
video will need to use visuals to attract attention and convey the bulk of your
message, so that users who choose not to play sound will still take something away.
The rise in video consumption on mobile devices has led to the development of
several new, mobile-first video formats.
Social platform Snapchat changed the game by being the first to introduce vertical
video. This is in-keeping with the way most users hold their phone, meaning that
they don’t need to turn it – and disrupt their experience - to view video content.
YouTube, and Facebook, meanwhile, have embraced creative technology with 360
degree video. Users can swipe, move their phone, or click and drag on desktop to
explore the 3D environment – creating a far more engaging experience than an
ordinary video ad.
Like other sites, most social platforms will offer their own library of ad formats
available as part of a paid campaign.
Social formats are particularly well suited to brands looking to drive users to engage,
or who want to use the granular retargeting options to generate sales. Let’s take
Facebook as an example. Lots of their paid ad formats are designed to encourage
engagement, often with a call-to-action asking the user to like the brand’s page, or
share content with others - reflecting the way that users ordinarily behave on the
platform. The call-to-action button can just as easily be used to drive conversions - ad
formats like the Carousel demonstrate this particularly well, where a series of product
images could be accompanied by a ‘Shop Now’ button.
Facebook is just one example - if you’re interested in learning about each platform’s
ad options, be sure to watch our Social Media lessons later on.
So far we’ve focused on formats designed to appear within a webpage. However,
advertisers aren’t confined to the placements available on websites - there are other
areas of online activity, like gaming and audio streaming, which have become
valuable spaces for ads to appear.
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In-game advertising takes place across a variety of platforms and devices - like
mobile apps, console-based gaming, and even VR and AR. This kind of advertising
usually works best for awareness-building activity. And that makes a lot of sense - a
user who’s trying to play a game probably doesn’t want to click your call-to-action
button and be taken away from what they’re doing! There are two forms of in-game
advertising: dynamic and static.
Dynamic in-game ads are essentially display ads, like banners or interstitials, which
are served into the game as the user plays. They’re served in real time, so they can
be targeted, but this means they only work if the device is connected to the internet.
That’s not a problem if the game can only be accessed online, but it might cause
difficulties if the game is a downloadable app which can be played offline as well.
Static in-game ads, on the other hand, don’t rely on an internet connection. They’re
programmed directly into the game itself, so they can’t be targeted to the individual
user - all players will be exposed to the same ad. However, the advantage of building
ads in this way means they can be tailored to the game’s environment - like the
sponsorship billboards surrounding the track in racing games, which mirror their real-
life equivalent.
The last format we’re going to look at today is digital audio. These ads have their
roots in traditional radio spots; however, the web or app-based nature of audio
streaming platforms like Spotify means that digital audio is usually accompanied by a
clickable visual element. Spotify, for example, offers everything from clickable
campaign names and cover art, best used to drive conversions, to awareness-
building formats like HPTOs and video.
Don’t forget, though, that people tend to stream music while doing other things, so
they won’t necessarily be looking at the streaming service when your ad appears.
This means that your audio will need to do the legwork of convincing the audience
to return to the streaming service to click on the display portion of the ad.
Right, I think I’ve made my decision - time to get these ads into production. So as you
can see, the digital ad format landscape is a pretty complicated one. Now you know
what each format can do for you, making the right decision about which ones to use
should feel a lot less daunting.
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Chapter 4: Ad Building & Optimisation
By now you should know what you’re aiming to achieve and which formats will help
you get there – so what happens next? How do your ads make it from the drawing
board to the screen – and what do you need to do to make sure this process runs as
smoothly as possible?
A brief to the creative agency will need to contain: any format-specific requirements,
brand guidelines, campaign objectives, target audience, important metrics, and any
ideas about features (like images, videos or social activations) that should be
included. Once all this has been provided, the designers design the creative. After
the client has approved the final designs, the ad is built. This is the part of the
process where all the individual assets are created in Javascript, CSS or HTML to be
fed into the ad server.
The decisions you made earlier about audience and goals will influence how many
different assets you need.
If you want your message to be highly tailored to the individual that sees it, you’ll
need assets that reflect all the potential variants of the message. Getting the right
assets to come together to build a hyper-relevant ad takes a bit more than the
standard ad serving process we described earlier - you’ll need to use something
called dynamic creative optimisation. So what exactly is this?
Imagine you’re creating an ad for a new flavour of ice cream. Rather than creating
one, generic ad and serving it to your entire audience, you can use dynamic creative
optimisation to alter your ad according to the data you have on a consumer. You
might want the text of your ad to change depending on the consumer’s current
location or search history - if they’ve been looking up recipes involving ice cream, for
example. You could optimise the promotional message and price - maybe offering a
discount to consumers who’ve been searching for your competitors. You might want
to change the product image, or incorporate weather data. And, of course,
depending on your goals, you can alter the call-to-action button, driving conversions
by asking for newsletter sign-ups in exchange for an offer code, or just offering ‘more
information’.
So far we’ve focused on optimising for audience and moment. There is another use
for dynamic creative optimisation, though. If you’ve got several designs, but don’t
know which one will be most effective, DCO can help you work that out and make
sure the version that performs the best against your chosen metric is the one that’s
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seen the most. This is done with the help of multivariate testing, which lets you
compare different versions of the same ad.
Imagine you had three different product images and two background colours, and
you wanted to know which combination would increase the number of clicks on your
ad. The DCO system will serve all the possible combinations, continuously measure
how many clicks each version receives from different target audiences, and show the
best performing combination to each audience.
Even if you’re using DCO, you’ll still want to measure results for yourself. What you
decide to measure depends on your goal. If your aim is to increase awareness or
consideration, you might use branding studies to compare people who were
exposed to your ad to those who weren’t. When it comes to conversion, you’ll need
to measure how many people took the action you wanted them to. And, if you want
to check how effective your assets are, you might measure engagement with an
asset - so video views, interactions with a game or social shares.
Although we’ve shown you how your choice of format can help you get the results
you’re looking for, remember that your creative message is just as important.
Having the right format and placement is key to success, but it’s no substitute for
strong creative. If you can get all three working together, you’re sure to start seeing
results.
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