Banner size guide

When it comes to display/banner advertising, size does matter!

With the rise of mobile, apps and responsive design, banner ads now come in all shapes and sizes, but the reality is only a handful are worth designing for.

Most websites and apps run a limited range to choose from, and they all tend to be from the same banner sizes.

Choosing the wrong banner sizes can cost you money through wasted design effort and/or placement costs if you are paying on a CPM basis.

So, which are the best web banner sizes to design for?

Banner sizes and dimensions

If you are planning your display campaigns and briefing/building your banners, here are the key banner dimensions you should include.

What are the most common banner ad size on websites:

• Inline Rectangle: 300 x 250
• Mobile leaderboard: 320 x 50
• Large mobile banner: 320 x 100
• Large rectangle: 336 x 280
• Leaderboard: 728 x 90
• Wide Skyscraper: 160 x 600
• Half-Page Ad: 300 x 600

Most lists of this type still focus on desktop sizes, but that is a decreasing percentage of internet traffic.

Mobile users now make up 63% of all traffic in the UK, so it is vital you include mobile optimised sized in your banners.

What are mobile banner sizes

• Inline Rectangle: 300 x 250
• Mobile leaderboard: 320 x 50
• Large mobile banner: 320 x 100

How effective is banner advertising?

For me, traditional prospecting display/banner advertising should be used as a branding and awareness tool, and only considered if you have a large budget or the ability to track post-impression conversions.

However, when combined with effective remarketing banners they become very effective and they can be used as a direct response marketing channel (i.e. judged on a CPA model).

Thanks to Google Ads, setting up and tracking a prospecting campaign’s post-impression performance is become increasingly easy for small businesses.

Additionally, their remarketing tools are a must if you have the traffic levels and a marketing acquisition budget.