IAB - Interactive Advertising Bureau
The IAB is a neutral organization dedicated to bringing together publishers and agencies to form agreed-upon standards for online, mobile, and video advertising and publication.
According to their revised 2009 specifications document for online display ads:
Seven units met the new criteria for being a standard ad unit. These seven units accounted for approximately 80% of total impression weight over the past 12 months and each had broad availability along with favorable effectiveness/creative preference assessments.
- Medium Rectangle 300×250
- Rectangle 180×150
- Leaderboard 728×90
- Wide Skyscraper 160×600
- Half Page Ad 300×600
- Button #2 120×60
- Micro Bar 88×31
The first four on the list above are part of the Universal Ad Package, which is an attempt to bring together the most commonly purchased and delivered ads into a single, easy to work with package.
Why would this be needed? Well, it makes things easier for agencies and advertisers if publishers would stick to the same sizes. Think of it this way. If I’m an agency, and I need to place media buys in 100 different sites, I’ll probably choose the ones that have the same ad sizes. It’s easier, faster, and more likely to provide the best results for my client.
For publishers, the incentive to stick to these sizes should be evident: more chance of having an ad purchased on your site = more revenue.
Here are the ad units that are still considered “standard” ad sizes, but could be phased out at some point in the future.
- Square Pop Up 250×250
- Vertical Rectangle 240×400
- Large Rectangle 336×280
- 3:1 Rectangle 300×100
- Pop Under 720×300
- Full Banner 468×60
- Half Banner 234×60
- Button #1 120×90
- Vertical Banner 120×240
- Square Button 125×125
- Skyscraper 120×600
Although some of the ad units listed here contain the word “pop-up” many of them are not actually used as a pop-up or pop-under ad.
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