Choosing the right ad format helps ensure your message resonates with the intended audience, and affects how users engage with your ad. Some formats work better for grabbing attention quickly, while others can be more effective for storytelling and building deeper connections with a brand over time.

When you approach creatives, we recommend thinking about the type of experience you’d like to create and how your target audience consumes content. A well-matched ad format can enhance the impact of your creative and drive the campaign results you’re aiming for.

The creative you choose depends on a variety of factors such as the target audience, product or service, and the campaign’s goals. Ad-format choices can also depend on bandwidth and skillset, and whether you can meet the requirements necessary for the ad to display correctly.

Review this article for more details about the ad formats that are supported on the IQM platform, and refer to Creative Ad Specs to confirm that your creatives follow IQM and industry requirements.

Capture consumers’ valuable attention with bold visuals that captivate your audience. Image creatives use a static (PNG, JPG) or moving (GIF) image, often paired with a short caption or tagline, to promote a product or service.

Advertisers gravitate toward this format because it’s quick to produce, easy to understand, and grabs consumers’ attention. Image creatives also work well on platforms where users scroll quickly as they deliver a clear and concise message in a small space. For these reasons, it can be critical to apply consistent imagery, color, and design to image creatives to spark brand recognition at a glance.

Refer to Add an image to your creative library for more information.

Engage your audience with dynamic, interactive content that adapts seamlessly across their devices. HTML creatives rely on an iframe, meaning you can introduce interactive multimedia elements that encourage users to engage with your ad in more ways. These responsive display ads automatically adjust your creative’s design elements, like its size and appearance, based on the size of the ad placement.

Without requiring manual adjustments, HTML creatives can help introduce scale to your operations. However, they require a level of coding knowledge to add source links for videos, graphics, or images; and the elements necessary to make the ad responsive.

Refer to Add an HTML file to your creative library for more information.

Advertisers rely on video creatives to encourage brand recall with rich storytelling content that leaves a lasting impression. The IQM platform supports two video creative types: standard video creatives and Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) video creatives. Both standard video and VAST video creatives can be shown before, during, or after the publisher’s video content plays. The main differences between them relate to how they’re structured and delivered.

Refer to Upload a video creative for more information.

Video creatives use standard MP4 or MOV video files. They’re typically hosted on a platform and embedded directly into a web page or app. Video creatives either begin playing immediately or after a user clicks on them—without needing further instructions from an ad server.

You can append tracking solutions onto standard video creatives when you upload them. These tags include click URLs, impression-tracking URLs, and URLs related to how much of the video played for the consumer (e.g., start-tracking URLs and complete-tracking URLs).

Instead of MP4 or MOV video files, VAST video creatives use extensible markup language (XML). This string of code is used to communicate details between the ad server and video player, which lets the video player know how to run each ad.

VAST video creatives allow for more complex ad serving than their standard video counterpart. Their capabilities range from enabling tracking, multiple file versions, companion ads, and dynamic ad insertion; to requesting ads dynamically and including different video sources depending on variables like device type.

The XML code also provides tracking capabilities like impressions, clicks, and other user interactions such as how much of the video played for the consumer (e.g., start-tracking URLs and complete-tracking URLs). Unlike with standard video creatives, these trackers are included directly in the XML code.

Refer to How to set up native ads for more information.

Reach on-the-go users with brief and memorable audio ads that play on publishers’ digital audio players. While audio creatives bring a brand to life with immersive sound experiences, this ad format is unique because it allows you to reach consumers while they’re engaged in offline activities. Your products or services will stay top-of-mind across their commute or exercise, for example. Advertisers also gravitate toward this format because it allows them to tap into large, highly engaged audiences across categories and genres.

Unlike with other ad formats that allow a clickable call-to-action button, audio creatives benefit from shorter URLs that your audience can remember and easily type into a web browser. You might also choose to mention the brand’s name multiple times since users won’t be able to associate any memorable visual design elements, like colors and logos, with the brand.

Refer to Add an audio file to your creative library for more information.

Send promotional messages directly to a user’s phone via text. SMS ads are simple, text-only messages, while MMS ads can also include elements such as images, videos, and links.

Advertisers choose these formats because they offer a direct line of communication to customers, and typically feature high open rates compared to other ad formats. These quick-to-consume and highly personalized ads are effective for time-sensitive promotions, special offers, and political campaigns.

Because they reach individuals on their personal devices, SMS and MMS ads can create a sense of urgency and foster a closer connection with the brand. However, this one-to-one connection also makes supporting your audience’s sense of privacy critical, and there are additional regulations for this ad format including mandatory opt-out texts (e.g., “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”). Due to spam rates on mobile devices, you should also confirm any SMS or MMS messages are high quality and error free to help ensure that users trust your ads enough to interact with them.

Refer to SMS MMS Creative Guidelines and Specifications for more information.