In a world where all the brands are fighting for attention, you have to make sure you put your brand in the spotlight. Otherwise, it will be soon forgotten by consumers.
That’s why HTML5 ads are the perfect banner ad format to consider. Not only do they catch consumers’ attention, but they can be quickly scaled, transformed into lots of ad variants, and created for all devices in minutes.
In this article, you will find all about what HTML5 ads are, their benefits, requirements, and, most importantly, what to include when designing your HTML5 ads.
If you’re feeling inspired and wish to design your ads right away, you can go to our platform and start creating display ads, then export or launch them as HTML5 ads.
Creatopy can help you automate ad creation and delivery because the days of writing code when making HTML5 ads are gone.
But first, let’s see what HTML5 ads are.
1. What Are HTML5 Ads?
To explain what HTML5 ads are, you first need to understand what HTML5 is.
HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language) is developers’ coding language to create online ads or web pages. HTML5 is supported by every type of web browser on every operating system. Therefore, you don’t need any plugins to make HTML5 work.
Now, we can move on with the definition of HTML5 ads.
They are ads based on HTML coding. To better understand them, imagine that an HTML5 ad is like a mini webpage with multiple file types (like HTML, JS, CSS, etc.).
Since they work as a mini webpage, you can use interactive elements when creating your HTML5 ad to make it more appealing to your audience.
2. What Are the Benefits of Using HTML5 Ads?
Now that you know what HTML5 ads are, it’s time to understand how they are useful in your marketing campaigns and how you can benefit from them.
A. Plenty of room for creativity
When creating HTML5 ads, you can be as creative as you want because HTML5 ads offer a large variety of ad types to choose from.
You can have fun changing the content in your ads by adding videos and sounds. You can even create interactive content for your products that will help you increase brand awareness. Simply put, you can create a whole experience for your audience.
B. Optimized performance
Thanks to their animated nature, HTML5 ads can definitely drive more engagement.
You can even use Google’s default channels (such as display, organic search, direct, referral) to give you a broad overview of the sources and mediums that bring traffic to your website.
HTML5 enables data capture, meaning that you can measure much more than CTR.
Marketers that use HTML5 ads have more metrics to analyze and see the performance of their ad campaigns. The metrics vary from engagement rates, videos played to completion, mouse clicks, and many more.
Here you can find Google’s list of metrics and what information you can see through each one.
So if you are a marketer and use HTML5, you can find important insights about your ads’ success and ways of improving your campaigns by testing, tweaking, and optimizing.
C. Suitable for all devices and browsers
HTML5 ads are compatible with pretty much every operating system or browser. Not only that, but they will be presented the same no matter the device you are using.
HTML5 ads are accepted by many ad networks, including Google Display Network, so you won’t have any issues distributing your ads across the internet.
D. Dynamic content creation
While static ads have the same content, HTML5 offers you the possibility to use data and respond to the needs of your audience.
To display customized HTML5 ads to your potential customers, you can take advantage of data such as geo-location, browsing history, demographic data, and behavioral data.
You will become more relevant to your prospects by using data.
E. No coding skills required
Since HTML5 is a coding language, you might think you need coding skills or a developer to create HTML5 ads. Still, advertising technology nowadays has evolved so much that anyone can create online ads.
If you try our ad design platform, for example, the coding happens in the backend, and what you design occurs in the front end.
Your designer or marketer will create the front end of the HTML5 ads in our drag and drop editor while using videos, images, audio, or illustrations to create a professional-looking ad in just a few minutes.
3. HTML5 Creatives
Depending on what you want to achieve with HTML5 ads, there are certain HTML5 creatives you can make:
A. Display ads
You can forget about banner blindness as these ads catch your eye and make your potential customers engage more. The HTML5 display ad has one or more fixed sizes and a fixed position on a web page or in a mobile app.
B. Rich media
Rich media ads include advanced features such as video, audio, or other interactive elements like illusions of depth, floating effects, and even games that make the viewers more interested.
They differentiate from HTML5 display ads because they allow you to include videos and check out detailed interaction metrics. Google has a Rich Media Gallery filled with examples if you want to see what these look like.
C. AMPHTML
AMPHTML ads are lighter and known to be loading much faster. Because of this, they have a higher viewability and higher click-through rates.
They are secure and cannot spread malware because they are verified before serving. Consequently, advertisers offer a safer user experience and positive brand perception.
4. HTML5 Ad Specs
Like all the other online ads, HTML5 ads have their requirements to work properly on ad networks, but especially on Google Display Network, as this is the most relevant in today’s advertising world.
Therefore, if you want your HTML5 to work on Google Display Network, you’ll have to pay attention to a few requirements, such as how long can the HTML5 ads be or the sizes you’ll have to use for your ads to look good.
You can create your HTML5 ads in an ad design platform, such as Creatopy or Google Web Designer.
Let’s see the specifications for the first scenario.
A. You will gain access to HTML5 ads in your Google Ads account once your account has met the following requirements:
- It has been opened for more than 90 days
- It has more than $9,000 in total lifetime spend
- It has a good history of policy compliance
B. The file size must be 150 KB or smaller.
C. The file type must be a ZIP file containing HTML and optionally CSS, JS, GIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, and SVG.
D. The ad size must be:
- 200 × 200: Small square
- 240 × 400: Vertical rectangle
- 250 × 250: Square
- 250 × 360: Triple widescreen
- 300 × 250: Inline rectangle
- 336 × 280: Large rectangle
- 580 × 400: Netboard
- 120 × 600: Skyscraper
- 160 × 600: Wide skyscraper
- 300 × 600: Half-page ad
- 300 × 1050: Portrait
- 468 × 60: Banner
- 728 × 90: Leaderboard
- 930 × 180: Top banner
- 970 × 90: Large leaderboard
- 970 × 250: Billboard
- 980 × 120: Panorama
- 300 × 50: Mobile banner
- 320 × 50: Mobile banner
- 320 × 100: Large mobile banner
There are a few more HTML5 ads specs to keep in mind if you create your HTML5 ads in Google Web Designer:
- All images used in HTML5 ads must be local images and should be part of a ZIP file
- Expandable ads are not supported
- For environment target actions, timer and multiple exits are not supported
- Local storage methods cannot be used in HTML5 ads
- Only Google web fonts are supported
5. What to Include in an HTML5 Ad?
If you want to create an HTML5 ad that your audience won’t ignore, you should consider the following:
A. Powerful imagery and concise text
To design a simple, impactful HTML5 ad, you should focus on images related to your products and services or tell your brand’s story. Pair the right imagery with a concise ad copy written in a legible font to capture your audience’s attention.
You can inspire yourself from our library of HTML5 templates. You can also create a brand kit to keep all your assets together, including images, color palette, logo, and preferred fonts.
B. Low compression for fast loading time
An important aspect to keep in mind when designing an HTML5 ad is to ensure that the ad functions smoothly. You can create the most amazing ad, but the experience will be lost if it delays in loading or snags.
You should save your files at the lowest compression to avoid functionality issues. Creatopy can help you with this as it estimates the size of your HTML5 ad. If you want to download your ad, you can select your image quality.
C. Animation for higher impact
What is the point of creating an HTML5 ad if you are not adding animation? The movement will always catch the user’s attention, so make sure you include it in your ad. Adding animated demonstrations of your products may increase the CTR.
If the word “animation” still scares you a bit, do not worry. Many platforms out there, such as Creatopy, offer ready-made animations that can be applied in just a couple of clicks and be customized further.
D. Responsive designs
90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. When working with your HTML5 ads, you need to focus on mobile formats to reach all your audiences.
When creating responsive HTML banner ads, you don’t need to remember all the sizes for mobile and desktop, as most ad design platforms have the most used sizes saved and up to date for you.
E. Engaging CTA
Without a CTA, your HTML5 ad will be like a bicycle without wheels. It will lead nowhere. To get the users to click through and land on your website, add an enticing CTA. Make it stand out and state a clear message.
6. HTML5 Ad Examples
Below you can find some HTML5 banner ad examples to inspire you to design your own.
A. Vessi
Here is an HTML5 ad for Vessi sneakers that tells you a few essential characteristics about their products in a few seconds, shows you more models, and ends with the “Shop now” CTA. It’s simple and effective.
B. Perigold
Perigold is a luxury furnishing company that created this bold ad. The gold in the name and image makes the ad empowering and automatically makes you think of something elegant and rich. The ad also has a strong value proposition and a straightforward CTA.
C. Airbnb
Everyone knows about Airbnb, which makes offering an Airbnb gift card an excellent idea. The ad design is simple, clean, and uses the power of white space to attract attention to what matters: the text and the CTA.
D. Shutterstock
This ad surely does stand out with this bold yellow and blue contrast. The text is on point, and the CTA is short and visible inside a red button.
Wrapping Up
HTML5 ads are your to-go type of ads, but if you want to attract more attention to your brand’s products and services, you need to make sure they follow all the requirements and have a good loading time.
We hope this article will come in handy for you when building your HTML5 banner ads.
You can go to Creatopy, start your free trial and see how easy it is to create the ads yourself, which you can download or launch directly from the app using our Ad Serving add-on.