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Creative ad specs overview
Creative specifications (specs) are the guidelines that you’ll follow when you add a new creative to the IQM platform. These specs relate to factors ranging from dimensions to text-character lengths, for example, with the ultimate goal of helping you achieve two outcomes:
Inventory: When a site or app loads, a publisher fills a set of reserved ad-inventory slots with creatives. Each time an ad opportunity appears in the bid stream, creatives must match the dimensions of these sections to be eligible for placement.
Appearance: Users’ ability to clearly decipher your brand’s message is critical to the success of your campaigns. Following specs that are specific to individual creative formats and/or publishers help ensure that every ad renders as expected.
Refer to this guide and any in-platform text when setting up your campaigns to follow IQM and industry standards for creatives.
Supported sizes: The tables included throughout this article highlight recommended creative sizes. There are no restrictions to the creative sizes you can upload to the IQM platform as all are supported. Note, however, that less common sizes may limit your access to inventory and impact a campaign’s ability to scale. |
Image creatives
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. Refer to Creative formats overview - Image creatives for more information on this ad format.
Image mockup | Image aspect ratio | Resolution |
 | Horizontal 6:1 | 300 x 50 pixels |
 | Horizontal 6:5 | 300 x 250 pixels |
 | Horizontal 6.40:1 | 320 x 50 pixels |
 | Horizontal 3.20:1
| 320 x 100 pixels |
 | Horizontal 8.09:1 | 728 x 90 pixels |
 | Horizontal 3.92:1 | 920 x 250 pixels |
 | Vertical 4:5 | 320 x 400 pixels |
 | Vertical 1:2 | 300 x 600 pixels |
 | Vertical 4:15 | 160 x 600 pixels |
 | Square 1:1 | 250 x 250 pixels |
File types and sizes: Static image files must be less than 2 MB in size and in the JPEG, JPG, or PNG formats. Moving image files must be less than 750 KB in size and in the GIF format. |
Video creatives
Standard video creatives and Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) video creatives play before, during, or after the publisher’s video content. The main differences between them relate to how they’re structured and delivered. Refer to Creative formats overview - Video creatives for more information on these ad formats.
Standard video
Video mockup | Video aspect ratio | Resolution | Length |
| Horizontal 4:3
| 640 x 480 pixels (recommended)
480 x 360 pixels (minimum) | 6, 15, 30, or 60 seconds |
| Horizontal 16:9 | 1920 x 1080 pixels (recommended)
640 x 360 pixels (minimum) | 6, 15, 30, or 60 seconds |
File types and sizes: Video creative files must be less than 400 MB in size and in the MOV or MP4 formats. |
VAST video
Observe the specs and limits included in Standard video, and refer to the list below for supported versions. These versions determine how a video creative's metadata is transferred from the ad server to a video player.
Supported VAST versions include the following:
VAST 2.0
VAST 3.0
VAST 4.0
VAST 4.1 (interactive)
VPAID creatives are not currently supported.
VAST video wrappers: A VAST video wrapper is a type of redirect that attaches itself to an ad response. While these wrappers allow you to layer on certain elements such as adding tracking pixels and managing creative delivery without changing the creative itself, we recommend including three or fewer per creative. You’ll be more likely to avoid issues with serving on exchanges if you stay within this limit. |
Audio creatives
Audio creatives differ from other creative formats because they do not include visual elements. These creatives benefit from shorter URLs that your audience can remember and easily type into a web browser. Refer to Creative formats overview - Audio creatives for more information on these ad formats.
- | Audio aspect ratio | Resolution | Length |
 | N/A | N/A | 15 or 30 seconds |
File types and sizes: Audio creative files must be less than 100 MB in size and in the MP3, WAV, OGG, or MPEG formats. |
Native creatives
Native creatives are designed to blend seamlessly with the content around them. These ads can feel less intrusive than ads in other formats because they don’t interrupt the flow of a platform or website. Refer to Creative formats overview - Native creatives for more information on this ad format.
Native publisher specs
Native creative specs are dependent on the platform or publisher that’s displaying your ad. You’ll need to follow those platforms’ or publishers’ specific guidelines to make your ads blend in seamlessly with the site or app’s surrounding content. It also helps ensure that the ad renders as expected for users.
For example, X Business (formerly Twitter) maintains their own requirements for a creative’s title, description, and brand name lengths; and its brand icon and main image dimensions. You can review X Business creative ad specs (external link) for more details, which are available in the Twitter Ads Help Center.
Refer to Native image creatives and Native video creatives for general specs, and refer to support docs from your preferred native providers for more detailed requirements.
Native image creatives
- | Element type | Recommended length | Maximum length |
 | Headlines* | 25, 90, or 140 characters | 140 characters |
 | Descriptions* | N/A | 140 characters |
 | Call to action (CTA) | 10-15 characters | 15 characters |
 | Click URL** | N/A | N/A |
 | Brand name | N/A | 25 characters |
* Headlines and descriptions: Add up to five different headlines and descriptions to each creative. This generates different combinations, or variants, of the same creative.
**Click URL: The Click URL field is required when you add a CTA to a native image creative. This ensures that users are directed to the correct site or app when they interact with your ad.
- | Brand icon aspect ratio | Resolution |
| Square 1:1
| 50 x 50 pixels (minimum)
|
File types and sizes: Brand icons for native image creatives must be in the JPG, PNG, or GIF formats. |
Mockup | Native image aspect ratio | Resolution |
 | Horizontal 4:3
| 267 x 200 pixels (small)
480 x 360 pixels (minimum) |
 | Horizontal 1.91:1
| 382 x 200 (small)
1198 x 627 pixels (large) |
 | Square 1:1
| 200 x 200 pixels (small)
627 x 627 pixels (large) |
File types and sizes: Native image creative files must be in the JPG, JPEG, PNG, or GIF formats. |
Native video creatives
- | Element type | Recommended length | Maximum length |
 | Headlines* | 60-90 characters | 140 characters |
 | Descriptions* | N/A | 140 characters |
 | Call to action (CTA) | 10-15 characters | 15 characters |
 | Click URL** | N/A | N/A |
 | Brand name | N/A | 25 characters |
* Headlines and descriptions: Add up to five different headlines and descriptions to each creative. This generates different combinations, or variants, of the same creative.
**Click URL: The Click URL field is required when you add a CTA to a native image creative. This ensures that users are directed to the correct site or app when they interact with your ad.
- | Brand icon aspect ratio | Resolution |
| Square 1:1
| 50 x 50 pixels (minimum)
|
File types and sizes: Brand icons for native image creatives must be in the JPG, JPEG, PNG, or GIF formats. |
Mockup | Native video aspect ratio | Resolution | Length |
| Horizontal 4:3
| 267 x 200 pixels (small)
480 x 360 pixels (minimum) | 15-120 seconds (minimum/maximum)
30 seconds (recommended) |
 | Horizontal 1.91:1
| 382 x 200 (small)
1198 x 627 pixels (large) | 15-120 seconds (minimum/maximum)
30 seconds (recommended) |
| Square 1:1
| 200 x 200 pixels (small)
627 x 627 pixels (large) | 15-120 seconds (minimum/maximum)
30 seconds (recommended) |
File types and sizes: Native video creative files must be in the MP4 or MOV formats (recommended) or the WMV or FLV formats (accepted). |
HTML creatives
HTML creatives rely on an iframe, meaning you can introduce interactive multimedia elements that encourage users to engage with your ad in more ways. Refer to Creative formats overview - HTML creatives for more information on this ad format.
Note that elements for HTML creatives aren’t hosted on the IQM platform. Instead, you’ll host your creatives with a third party and enter a third-party ad tag into the IQM platform. We’ll run the ad using that connection, and the third party will provide data and performance details such as impressions or clicks. Refer to Third-party ad tags for more details.
- | Element type | Resolution or other requirements |
 | Width | 120 pixels |
 | Height | 50 pixels |
 | Spreadsheet column 1 | Include the creative name. |
 | Spreadsheet column 2 | Include the HTML code that corresponds to the creative described in column 1. |
File types and sizes: You can add HTML creatives by pasting your HTML code or uploading a file. HTML files must be in the XLSX or CSV formats. Rich media features such as video, audio, and interactive elements are supported. |
Refer to the IAB Tech Lab’s HTML5 for Digital Advertising (external link) guidelines to produce ads in an HTML5 format that meet IAB requirements for desktop and mobile display ads.
Third-party ad tags
The following third-party ad tags are supported
HTML
The {IAA_TRACKING_CLICK_URL} macro is required for HTML tags in instances when you’re not using IQM’s ad server.
Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions (MRAID)
Tags created in third-party tools such as DoubleClick Campaign Manage (DCM)
More on third-party ad tags: Third-party ad tags are optional. You can use them to add an identifier that you created in an external platform to the creatives that you upload in the IQM platform. With this identifier, you can better reconcile performance data across IQM and third-party platforms. |