A display campaign is rarely one banner. It’s a set of five, ten or fifteen sizes that all need to say the same thing, from a billboard across the top of a news site to a thin strip at the bottom of a phone screen. This guide lists the standard display ad sizes, explains which ones to make first and covers how to get a whole set approved without surprises.

The standard display ad sizes

These are the sizes Google Display and most programmatic networks treat as standard inventory, grouped by shape.

Rectangles and squares

• 300 × 250, Medium Rectangle

• 336 × 280, Large Rectangle

• 250 × 250, Square

• 200 × 200, Small Square

• 180 × 150, Small Rectangle

• 240 × 400, Vertical Rectangle

Skyscrapers and verticals

• 160 × 600, Wide Skyscraper

• 120 × 600, Skyscraper

• 300 × 600, Half Page

• 300 × 1050, Portrait

• 120 × 240, Vertical Banner

Leaderboards and horizontal banners

• 728 × 90, Leaderboard

• 970 × 90, Large Leaderboard

• 970 × 250, Billboard

• 468 × 60, Banner

• 234 × 60, Half Banner

Mobile

• 320 × 50, Mobile Banner (often called the mobile leaderboard)

• 300 × 50, Mobile Banner

• 320 × 100, Large Mobile Banner

Some markets also use sizes like 930 × 180 (Top Banner), 980 × 120 (Panorama), 250 × 360 (Triple Widescreen) and 580 × 400 (Netboard). Check which ones your media plan actually books before you design them.

Which sizes to make first

If time or budget is tight, start with the sizes that carry the most inventory. Google’s AdSense guidance names five top performers:

• 300 × 250: the size with the most inventory, at home inside articles and at the end of them.

• 336 × 280: a slightly larger rectangle for the same spots.

• 728 × 90: runs above the main content on desktop pages.

• 300 × 600: a large sidebar unit with room for a real message.

• 320 × 100: a mobile banner with twice the height of the 320 × 50.

Add the 320 × 50 for mobile reach and the 160 × 600 for sidebars, and you have a set that covers most placements. Add the 970 × 250 billboard when the campaign needs a big moment at the top of a page.

Where each size runs

Size tells you placement, and placement tells you how the banner will be seen.

• Page header: leaderboards and the billboard sit above or below a site’s navigation. They’re seen early and quickly.

• In article: rectangles sit between paragraphs or at the end of a story, competing with the content the reader came for.

• Sidebar: skyscrapers and the half page run beside the content and stay in view longer as the reader scrolls.

• Mobile: mobile banners are often pinned to the bottom of the screen, and 300 × 250 rectangles appear between content on phones.

Responsive display ads are a different job

Google’s responsive display ads and Performance Max campaigns don’t use fixed banners. You upload assets (images, logos, headlines and descriptions) and Google assembles the ad to fit each slot. The images follow ratios rather than sizes: landscape 1.91:1 (for example 1200 × 628), square 1:1 (1200 × 1200) and portrait 4:5 (960 × 1200), plus square and 4:1 logos. Review these as a set of parts, and remember the client won’t see every combination Google builds from them.

File size and format limits

Ad platforms are strict about weight. Google Ads accepts uploaded image banners as GIF, JPG or PNG files of up to 150 KB each. Animated banners have extra rules, including a 30-second limit on animation length, so check the current spec before you animate. HTML5 banners have their own limits and build process, and they should be tested inside the ad platform itself.

Designing a set that works at every size

• Write for the smallest size first. A 320 × 50 has room for about four words and a logo. If the message works there, it will work everywhere.

• Keep one message per set. Each size should say the same thing in the same order, even if the big ones have more room to say it.

• Check the logo at every size. A detailed logo that reads well at 300 × 600 can turn into a smudge at 320 × 50.

• Make the button say what happens. “Shop the sale” beats “Learn more” on a banner that gets a glance.

• Keep the qualifiers. A “terms apply” or “from” line that fits in the big sizes often gets dropped from the small ones. If a claim needs it, every size needs it.

• Avoid fake interface tricks. Fake close buttons, mock cursors and pretend system alerts get rejected by most ad networks.

How to get a banner set approved

Banner sets have a particular review problem. Clients see them as a pile of files with names like Spring_728x90_v3.png, out of scale and out of context. They approve the 300 × 250 they looked at closely and miss the 728 × 90 where the headline wraps badly.

1. Show every size at its true pixel size, on one canvas, so the client sees the set as a set.

2. Label each banner with its dimensions and name, so feedback is never about “the long one”.

3. Show each banner in the kind of slot it will run in, on a page with real-looking content around it.

4. Ask for approval size by size, so nothing slips through on a general yes.

5. Flag any size that isn’t standard inventory before the client gets attached to it.

How display ad review works in Honter

Honter’s display ad view was built for exactly this. Upload your banners as images or a PDF, and Honter reads each one’s pixel dimensions and matches them to the standard sizes above. Every banner gets a caption like “300 × 250 · Medium Rectangle”. Responsive display assets are recognized too, and anything that isn’t standard inventory is shown apart with its raw dimensions, so it can’t be mistaken for a bookable size.

• The true-scale canvas shows the whole set at real size, grouped by shape.

• The in-context canvas puts each banner on a mock publisher page, in a header, in an article, in a sidebar or on a phone, at 1280 px desktop or 390 px phone width, in light or dark.

• AI reviewers check that every size tells the same story, and flag claims and copy that won’t survive a glance.

Honter reviews static banners. HTML5 banners don’t play as live HTML, so upload a static image or PDF of each one for the review.