Responsive Banner Ads with HTML5
Build once, display everywhere. Learn why and how to build responsive banner ads that fits any device or screen!
Build once, display everywhere. To build responsive banner ads using HTML5 gets more into the focus the more mobile web users surf the web on different devices. Responsive banner designs make it easy to fit on any screen or device. Learn more about HTML5, the benefits that responsive banner ads will bring to you and why everybody is heading towards mobile.
Websites often contain banner ads that are incompatible with todays responsive layouts and mobile media devices. The banner ads are usually made with Flash and animated GIF files with fixed pixel dimensions which makes them completely inflexible and almost useless. Since the rise of HTML5 there is a better way to do banners that solve exact this problem. HTML5 makes it possible to build responsive banner ads that will adjust with the screen size based on what device the viewer is using.
The new way to create banner ads
Usually, to run an ad campaign that crosses different devices means hard and time-intensive work, to even suit all kinds of screens that the banner ad might appear on. There is one single optimal way to make banner ads just as responsive as website layouts – the solution is named HTML5.
HTML5 is a big force in online advertising, and it will get you the flexibility to run your banner ads on any device, wherever your audiences are. It will help you as publishers or advertisers to create cross-device ad campaigns, for instance a campaign with animated banner ads that fits laptops, smartphones and tablets. That means you don’t have to create hundreds of versions of the same ad. Reducing the number of ad versions will also reduce the likelihood of errors and increase your banner production.
Text, images, video and javascript can still be used within the ad just in the same way as any webpage. HTML5 banner ads will responsively and dynamically optimize the ad so it looks perfect
HTML5 Banner Sizes
When creating responsive layouts it requires that the elements have variable widths that is a convention banner ads must follow, too. In responsive design the height doesn’t really matter. You can use any height you like, but it doesn’t mean that your ad will be stuck at that height. The best way is to use the same heights as in traditional banner sizes to maintain the compatibility. These are some examples of useful banner sizes with standard heights tha tyou could start using with HTML5 banner ads:
90px “banner”
button 1 (120 x 90)
leaderboard (728 x 90)
250px “medium rectangle”
vertical banner (120 x 240)
square pop-up (250 x 250)
medium rectangle (300 x 250)
600px “skyscraper”
skyscraper (120 x 600)
wide skyscraper (240 x 600)
half-page ad (300 x 600)
This gives a nice vertical size with variable widths that covers the most popular ad sizes in use today. If you base your responsive banner ads using HTML5 on these sizes you can be sure that most devices will display them right.
The growth of mobile advertising
Mobile advertising has become a very important industry in its own. I heard a lot people discussing about the reasons to consider HTML5 banner ads over Flash. Without going into details I would say that HTML5 scores much better on mobiles and the market is growing rapidly. A large growth of the mobile advertising market and its popularity is already predicted over the next few years, as Gartner says. Their data even shows that the mobile advertising industry is predicted to be 6 times larger than some years ago.
Mobile Advertising Revenue by Region, Worldwide, 2011-2015 (Millions of Dollars)
| Region | 2011 | 2015 |
|---|
| North America |
701.7 |
5,791.4 |
| Western Europe |
569.3 |
5,131.9 |
| Asia and Japan |
1,628.5 |
6,925.0 |
| Rest of the World |
410,4 |
2,761.7 |
| Total |
3,309.9 |
20,610.0 |
What about the users?
According to Google’s study “Our Mobile Planet” there are some interesting facts about mobile advertising and consumers. 89% of all users in the US that own a smartphone also notice banner ads on them, which is a high recognition compared to other media channels.Because of this result, Google says that mobile advertising is a critical component of traditional advertising and recommends “Making mobile ads a part of an integrated marketing strategy can drive greater consumer engagement“.This actually underlines how the market is changing towards mobile and HTML5 showing you how important it is to consider mobile advertising to meet the user’s needs.
Mobile guru and developer Josh Clark even sees social aspects supporting the mobile revolution. ”A pair of studies late last year from Pew and from On Device Research showed that over 25 per cent of people in the US who browse the web on smartphones almost never use any other platform. [...]. There’s a digital-divide issue here. People who can afford only one screen or internet connection are choosing the phone. If you want to reach them at all, you have to reach them on mobile.” Clark even points out that we can’t settle for serving such a huge audience a stripped-down experience or force them to swim through a desktop layout in a small screen.