Google Display Ad Sizes & Guidelines

Since Google is the most popular search engine on the internet, it receives over 4.5 billion searches on a daily basis. In other words, Google can give every marketer access to the largest audiences as compared to other marketing platforms. 

While being the biggest search engine on the internet should be enough of an advantage for marketers, Google goes beyond its search engine to offer numerous other benefits. Businesses can also use Google to advertise on a host of platforms which include over 650,000 apps and 2 million websites. 

In addition, Google is a great platform for marketers because:

• It caters to more than 40,000 search queries per second
• It controls a massive 90.8% of the internet 
• Since it has the biggest database of user behavior, demographic targeting is on-point

Why Are Google Display Ad Sizes Important?

It goes without saying that every marketer who invests in an advertising channel would like to experience the best possible returns. That being said, businesses that advertise on Google’s display network are often faced with the dilemma of which Google ad sizes they should use.

With so many sizes and dimensions to choose from, running ads on Google can get a little confusing. Should you stick to using large rectangles and leaderboards or will your business do better with a wide skyscraper? 

To help you better understand which type of Google ads will prove to be the most beneficial for your business, we’re about to introduce you to the most popular Google Ad types and dimensions.

Google Display Ad Guidelines

When it comes to using Google’s Display network to advertise your products and services, the most common ad sizes include:

• Medium Rectangle
• Large Rectangle
• Leaderboad
• Large Skyscraper

Animated and non-animated image ads

• Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
• Max. size: 150KB

Over the years, these 4 ad sizes have become the industry standard and make up for about 90% of all the ads on websites. Let’s briefly discuss each ad type and its unique advantages.

1. Medium Rectangle

Medium rectangle ads (300 x 250 pixels) tend to have the largest supply of ad inventory on Google Display’s network. If both the image and text are enabled in the ad, this will increase the inventory of the size even more. The size of medium rectangle ads performs best when they are embedded within the end of the article or in between text content.

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2. Large Rectangle

Quite like medium rectangle ads, large rectangle ads (336 x 280 pixels) can also be seen in an abundant supply on the Google Ad network. Of course, since its size is slightly larger than that of medium rectangle ads, it can grab the audience’s attention much more easily. This, in turn, significantly improves the chances of viewers engaging with the ad.

Typically, large rectangle ads perform best when they are placed at the end or in the middle of an article. 

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3. Leaderboard

Leaderboard ads (728 x 90 pixels) are another example of the most common Google Ad sizes because of their exceptional chances of converting viewers. Since they are placed right above the main content as a long horizontal advertisement, it is bound to get significant views and finally increase the likeliness of clicks. 

Leaderboard ads have a significant advantage over other types of ads because their width allows companies to clearly display brand names, logos, or text.

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4. Large Skyscraper

Among the fast-growing Google ads in terms of impressions is the large skyscraper. Its massive size (300 x 600 pixels) is enough to grab any viewer’s attention when they are placed next to articles or other forms of content. 

The dimensions of large skyscraper ads make them hard to miss and significantly increase the chances of viewers clicking on them. For this reason, large skyscraper ads are preferred by marketing-savvy businesses and these ads offer them high conversion and even higher payouts. 

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Google Banner Ad Guidelines

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Now that we’ve had a quick look at the most popular Google ads, it's time to look at the not-so-common type of ads and their unique dimensions. Even though these aren’t very common, they could possibly be advantageous for your business.

1. Horizontal Google Banner Ad Dimensions

Since Horizontal Google Banners have non-standard dimensions, they can be a little difficult to pin up on websites. Many publishers would have trouble adding these to their website due to size constraints while they will have better inventory for other ad options.

2. Vertical Google Banner Ad Dimensions

Much like Horizontal Google Banner Ads, Vertical Google ads are less in demand, and advertisers usually prefer Large Skyscrapers instead. Unless they can be utilized for a particular product or service, these ads are too thin to fit longer text and the overall ad may seem too cramped if not used properly.

3. Square Google Banner Ad Dimensions

To conclude our list of Google Ads and their dimensions, we would like to introduce you to Square Google Banner Ads as well. Naturally, these ads are smaller in size as opposed to rectangle ads and they don’t seem very appealing to viewers. 

Square ads usually force publishers to position the ad in weird formats or layouts since they aren’t easy to position in between content. On the other hand, rectangle ads make it easy for advertisers to position text and images in a manner that they look natural.

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