What specifications should an ad creative meet in 2024?

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Ad creatives: types, dimensions, technical requirements

What specifications should an ad creative meet in 2024?

In mobile advertising, well-crafted and appropriately chosen ad creatives can significantly boost the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and conversion rates. In this article, we’ll discuss how to properly launch creatives on advertising platforms and the relevant creative sizes for 2024. About promoting a mobile app in Paid Social Media outlined here.

What Are Ad Creatives

Ad creatives are visual or multimedia assets used in advertising campaigns to engage target audiences. They incorporate images, videos, graphics, and copy, designed to grab attention and bring a marketing message. These assets are tailored to various media and formats, such as social media, search engines, or display ads, and play a key role in driving engagement and conversions by appealing to users’ interests and emotions. A successful ad creative aligns with the brand's goals and the audience's preferences to maximize impact.

Ad Creatives for Google Ads 

Google Ads is a platform for placing ads to drive users to install or engage with mobile apps. The platform automatically selects ad placement across Google Search, Google Play, and YouTube. Google Ads offers more than 20 types of ad campaigns, which utilize banners and video ads. Each format has its technical requirements.

Google Ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Google Ads

*Recommended video duration:

  • Up to 6 seconds: for non-skippable ads on YouTube Shorts or videos.
  • 7 to 10 seconds: for interstitial videos in AdMob and other ad networks, and portrait videos in YouTube Shorts.
  • 11 to 15 seconds: for interstitial video in AdMob and other ad networks, as well as portrait videos in YouTube Shorts between longer content.
  • 16 to 20 seconds: for videos on YouTube and partner platforms, occasionally for rewarded ads in various ad networks.
  • 21 to 25 seconds: for rewarded videos in AppLovin, AdMob, and skippable ads on YouTube.
  • 26 to 30 seconds: for rewarded ads in AppLovin, AdMob.
  • More than 30 seconds: for YouTube, partner websites, and apps.

Banners must include a CTA (Call to Action) button, such as “Install” or “Download.”

Ad Creatives for Meta Ads

Meta Ads (formerly Facebook Ads) is a platform for mobile app advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Ads appear in users' feeds, and up to 75-90% of campaign effectiveness depends on the creatives.

Meta Ads supports the following creative types:

  1. Illustrations. According to Facebook research, this type of ad generates more unique traffic than other formats.
  2. Videos. A 15-second video can improve app awareness.
  3. Carousel. Allows showcasing up to 10 images in a single ad.
  4. Collection. Features a cover illustration or video followed by 3 product images.

Let’s look at the technical specs for each creative in Meta Ads.

Meta Ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Meta Ads

Ad Creatives for TikTok Ads

TikTok Ads is a platform for creating video ads with precise targeting options. In 2024, TikTok will have a global audience of 1.56 billion active users monthly.

TikTok Ads creatives are unique in their presentation and placement. Advertisers can use the following TikTok ads formats:

  1. In-Feed Ads. Short video clips displayed in the recommendation feed, allowing likes, comments, and a link to the mobile app.
  2. Branded Hashtag Challenges. Includes a banner with a unique hashtag encouraging participation in a challenge.
  3. Branded Effects. This tool allows applying various filters and masks to the video ad.
  4. TopView Ads. A banner or video that appears in the feed after 5 seconds of app launch, with ads lasting up to 60 seconds.
  5. Brand Takeovers. Banners or videos shown upon app launch, typically lasting 3-5 seconds.
  6. Spark Ads. Native ad formats that use organic content as the creative.

Below are the technical specs  for TikTok Ads.

TikTok ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in TikTok

It's important to consider TikTok safe zones — areas on the screen where user interface elements are displayed (buttons, account names, descriptions, calls to action, etc.). If the creative is not centered or aligned within the safe zone, part of the information may be visually cut off and obscured by user interface elements. We explained safe zones in more detail in the article.

Ad Creatives for Snapchat Ads

Snapchat Ads offers unique ad formats that tend to be less intrusive to users. It is most popular in India and the U.S., with 202.51 million and 106.7 million users, respectively.

Snapchat creatives include:

  1. Single Image or Video Ads. A versatile format displayed in Stories and Spotlight, suitable for retargeting, brand awareness, and driving app installs.
  2. Story Ads. Reach users through a series of ads between content or via tiles in the Snapchat Discover section.
  3. Collection Ads. These creatives improve conversion rates and make the mobile app more visible.
  4. Video Ads. Deliver core app information via curated Snapchat content.

Here are the technical specs for Snapchat ad creatives.

Snapchat ads specs and safe zone
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Snapchat

*Important note for creating Snapchat Story ads. Each Snapchat Story ad requires a custom cover. It is recommended not to add text, logos, or app icons to the cover, as these elements are filled in within the Snapchat Ads Manager and automatically applied to the cover.

Snapchat Ads cover requirements:

  1. File format: PNG.
  2. Aspect ratio: 3:5.
  3. Resolution: 1080×1920.

Snapchat ad safe zone for cover is 1080×1420, meaning that there should be a safe distance at the top and bottom, and no text should be placed near the edges.

Snapchat Ads logo requirements:

  1. Logo size: 993×284.
  2. File format: PNG.
  3. The logo must be placed on a transparent background.

Snapchat Ads icon requirements:

  1. Minimum resolution: 200×200.
  2. Maximum resolution: 2000×2000.
  3. Icon format: square.
  4. Icon size: up to 2 MB.

For each collection ad, thumbnail product cards must also be created. The cover design should not include the logo, as it is integrated into the Snapchat platform. The following requirements apply to the thumbnail cards in the collection:

  1. File format: PNG or JPEG.
  2. File size: up to 2 MB.
  3. Image resolution: greater than 260×260.

Snapchat Ads text requirements: brand name — up to 25 characters including spaces; headline — up to 34 characters including spaces.

Snapchat Ads audio requirements: codec PCM or AAC, minimum 192 kbps, only 16 or 24-bit, sampling rate of 48 kHz.

Ad Creatives for MiAds 

MiAds platform enables the distribution of advertisements on devices with the Xiaomi operating system. It has more than 410 million active users worldwide. The platform offers mass ad formats based on personalized thematic recommendations, which helps maximize the value of media traffic.

In MiAds, users can view advertisements across various pre-installed phone apps, including Mi Browser, Mi Music, Theme, Mi Video, Mi File Manager, Mi Clean Master, Mi Security Centre, and Xiaomi Downloads. Up to five creatives of each format can be rotated. The following technical requirements apply to the ad creatives.

Technical requirements for advertising creatives in MiAds
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in MiAds

Ad Creatives for Bigo Ads

Bigo Ads allows advertisers to place ads on Likee and Imo.im, attracting new app users with compelling creatives.

In Likee, advertisers can use:

  • In-Feed Videos.
  • Main Tab Videos (featured in the "Popular" and "Nearby" sections).

In Imo.im, ads can be run as:

  • Full-screen post-call ads.
  • Story integrations.
  • Banner ads in chat lists.

Below are the technical specs for Bigo Ads creatives.

Bigo Ads ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Bigo Ads

Ad Creatives for Mintegral

Mintegral is a leading mobile advertising platform offering a wide range of ad formats, including banners, video ads, native ads, and playable ads. Each creative type has specific technical specs, which are listed below.

Mintegral ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Mintegral

Ad creatives for Appnext

Appnext is an ad network that gathers data on user interests based on installed Android apps, delivering the most relevant ads. Appnext offers native ads, videos, banners, and playable ads with minimal technical requirements.

Appnext ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Appnext

Ad Creatives for Petal Ads (Huawei Ads) 

Petal Ads is a popular platform that displays advertisements across Huawei services: AppGallery, Huawei Video, Huawei Music, Huawei Books, Huawei Assistant, Petal Search, Huawei Browser, and Huawei Themes. Additionally, advertisers can place ads in services integrated with Huawei Ads Kit.

Petal Ads supports a variety of creative formats:

  • Splash ads.
  • Interstitial ads.
  • Video ads, including rewarded videos.
  • Native ads.
  • Banners.

The technical requirements for the creatives are listed below.

Petal Ads ads specs
Technical requirements for advertising creatives in Petal Ads

Ad Creatives by Acquisition.mobi

At Acquisition.mobi, we specialize in creating static and dynamic ad creatives for major platforms like Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok, Snapchat, MiAds, Bigo Ads, and Mintegral. If your mobile app needs standout creatives, contact us at info@acquisition.mobi.