Understanding Display and Audio Ads Specifications

Last Updated: May 30, 2025 14:21

Purpose

Understanding display specifications is important for advertisers to ensure that their files meet the necessary requirements to run effectively everywhere. This page outlines requirements for display and audio ads.

Standard and rich media display

Standard display creative	Rich media creative
A single HTML, GIF, PNG, or JPG file format of usually 200 KB or less.	Usually exceeds 200KB.
Static or animated.	May use multiple files. May contain other special features, for example, product carousel, store locator/map, etc.
Contains no video.	May contain video.
Contains a single click-through covering the entire ad unit.	Contains multiple click-through links.
Does not include detailed tracking metrics.	May include detailed tracking metrics on user interactivity.

Display specifications

Innovid uses the IAB spec to determine whether the ad weight is compatible with the ad size.

Note: The spec validations for display should be used as a recommendation. The IAB spec is the industry standard, but some publishers are less strict than IAB and still approve creatives below these requirements. See the official IAB specs here.

Supported IAB standard file sizes

Note: These are for fixed-size ad specifications.

Ad Unit Name	Fixed Size (px)
Billboard	970x250
Smartphone Banner	300x50 or 320x50
Leaderboard	728x90
Super Leaderboard/Pushdown	970x90
Portrait	300x1050
Skyscraper	160x600
Medium Rectangle	300x250
20x60	120x60
Mobile Phone Interstitial	640x1136 or 750x1334 or 1080x1920
Feature Phone Small Banner	120x20
Feature Phone Medium Banner	168x28
Feature Phone Large Banner	216x36

Uploading a custom size

Within the Campaign Submission Form or Campaign Management Tool, select to submit or edit a campaign.
Scroll to the Campaign Creatives section.
Select Upload and choose Display.
Select a dimension in the Dimensions dropdown in the Display Upload window.
If this list does not contain the needed dimensions of the asset, enter the dimension measurements and select +Add.

Note: Any new dimensions that were used and were not in the dimensions list will be added to the list automatically for future use, but only for the specific campaign.

Thresholds

Innovid validates the ad weight determined by the dimension of the creative. This is called the threshold, which consists of an initial load and subload:

Initial load: Minimum files necessary for completing the first visual of the ad (usually the Polite Image).
Subload: Includes the rest of the creative content, usually referring to the Primary Asset.

Ad threshold requirements vary according to ad dimension; the official IAB specs, available here, list the compatible thresholds.

Best practices and requirements for display

When your creative display unit has been uploaded to the platform, you must provide a URL for the unit to click out to. Innovid will apply this URL across the entire creative.
If your creative contains additional interactive elements like button rollovers, clickable elements like buttons, hotspots, etc., and requires more than one click tag, you will be required to include the Open Creative API.
Note: Including the functions from this API will disable the main click tag applied when uploading your creative to the platform, so that your interactive elements remain interactive, clickable, and reportable. If you'd like to include video assets in your display banner, see Building Display Ads With In-Banner Video.
Make sure a 1px border or stroke is applied to all creatives. All publishers require this, and the IAB recommends it.
Monitor file size and make sure that it adheres to IAB display specifications.
When implementing multiple click tags and interaction events, make sure that any labels are named intuitively for reporting purposes.
Innovid does not require a backup or fallback image. A Polite Image can be uploaded in the same dimensions as the ad size. The polite image is loaded before the HTML content, and only includes either the background image or the contents of the first frame before an animation.

Audio ad spec

Digital audio ads are usually 15 to 30 seconds long and are sometimes accompanied by a companion banner. You can consolidate audio inventory for a streamlined launch process and one unified platform to track all of their digital media. Innovid supports audio ad serving via a VAST tag.

Note: Where VAST tags are not accepted due to audio publisher limitations, Innovid is happy to implement 1x1s so that you can still see standard impressions and, in the case of companion banners, clicks.

The Innovid audio ad requirements and specifications are:

Requirement	Details
Audio length	When uploaded to the platform, any creative that is over 60 seconds in length will be flagged as out of spec.
File type	Recommended: MP3 Note: When Innovid is 3P serving audio via VAST tags, the platform will encode the tag to include both MP3 and OGG versions of the creative.
File size	6MB maximum.
Audio bitrate	Through the trafficking process, Innovid automatically encodes the audio file bitrate to 160 kbps once trafficked in a VAST tag.
Companion banners	File type: GIF or JPG Dimensions of the creative depend on the specifications required by the publisher. Note: If served as 1x1s, you can provide the publisher with the creative directly, or Innovid can send it along with the 1x1 tracking. If served through VAST, Innovid will traffic the companion banner along with the audio assets.