How to Choose the Best Online Ad Sizes and Ad Styles


“Ad blindness” is not a dreaded new disease, but we seem to suffer from it at one time or another.  It refers to online ads that are not clicked on or viewed by users.  Can you imagine a worse affliction for your advertising or marketing department?  As more and more online ads proliferate across the web, businesses and brands need to be able to generate distinct ads as well as learn what size, position, colors and other features will attract people’s attention.

According to a recent study, 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on display Ads. Here are a few key strategies to help advertisers make the most of their Google advertising campaigns.

Blend in – but not too much:

Here are some additional recommendations for creating a winning online ad:

  • Light background behind an ad: Blend or complement for ads within content; and blend for ads adjacent to content
  • Dark background behind the ad: Blend, complement or contrast for ads placed within content; contrast or complement  ads adjacent to content

The Color of Links within the ad:

  • Google recommends using the same color scheme that is on the page. For instance, if the links on the site are all orange, then use orange for links within the ad.  Since many people relate the color blue to links, you can never go wrong with shades of blue either in your ad.

Repeat Visitors – Mix it up:

  • Many people visit the same websites day after day and Google advises that if the ads are always in the same place, most repeat visitors will start to ignore them. To change this up, Google recommends changing the position of the ad from time to time.
  • You can also customize the way the ad looks with color and rich content to make your ad pop.

Website Pages with lots of content:

  • There are many “busy” looking web pages and making sure an ad pops is very important — especially if an ad must compete with a lot of text and photos and other rich content. Google recommends to open the page and see if your ad draws any attention (without your ad being obnoxious).  Does it?  If not, Google has many suggestions for content, locale, size, and more to help your ad be more prominent in a busy website.

Size Matters (doesn’t it always?):

  • When it comes to online ads, size matters. According to Google there are some important rules to follow.  For instance, wider ad sizes “outperform their taller counterparts”.  Why?  Google says it is because wider sizes make it  easier for readers to absorb the content and actually read more text.

Google advises that the most effective sizes are 336×280 large rectangle; the medium rectangle and 728x 90 leaderboard.  For ads that look best on mobile devices, Google recommends the 320×100 banner.