On the face of it, this sounds like it will be a pretty dry article.
But for anyone wanting to seriously monetize their website using banner ads, it is important to know the standard IAB sizes.
They are important to know because when you design your website, and more specifically where you are going to place your ads, you need to know what you are designing for. You can’t just hap-hazardly choose where to put ads.
You should know that the 728×90 Leaderboard ad works great in the header of a website, beside the logo, and above the navigation. Your sidebar should be designed in such as way that it can fit a 300×250 Medium Rectangle (MREC) ad, or a 160×600 Wide Skyscraper.
If you don’t know the standard IAB sizes, and start designing your website to accommodate banner ads, you’re going to find yourself facepalming when you start selling ads to brands or installed Google Adsense.
What are the IAB Standard Sizes?
The most common IAB sizes are:
- 300×250 Medium rectangle
- 728×90 Leaderboard
- 180×150 rectangle
- 160×600 wide skyscraper
If you build your website to accomodate ads of these sizes then you will be better prepared to accept banner ad campaigns.
What other ad sizes should I use?
In addition to the standard IAB sizes above, I also like to mix in some additional sizes:
- 300×600 – you can get really nice ads designed in this larger size
- 200×200 – I often align three of these horizontally, above the footer
