Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
need their advertising specs and there should be no problem
obtaining them. The information you are after are things like the
maximum file size your ad can be when published to the final .swf,
the amount of time you are allowed to run animation, and the
number of times your banner can loop before finally coming to a
stop. Another thing to watch out for is a maximum frame rate.
Although most sites may not have the maximum frame rate listed
in their specs, some do, and your work can very easily get kicked
back to you if you exceed it.
Keep It Down (Your File Size That Is)
The sites that your ads will run on don
'
twanttobogdowntheir
readers
bandwidth with banners that exceed the file size in their
specs and you don
'
twantthebannerstotaketoolongtostart
playing. If you built an ad that was 500k, your audience would
have to wait for it to load before they ever got to see the product.
Sure, with that much file size you
'
'
d probably have a pretty amazing
banner, but your end goal to intrigue users and get them to inter-
act with your ad could be lost in all of it. As I mentioned earlier,
most sites usually stick with a maximum file size of 30
40k. There
are, of course, exceptions where some sites will accept a higher file
size like 50k. Another fairly consistent spec is timing and looping.
A lot of sites prefer to set a time limit of 15 or 30 s with a maxi-
mum of three loops.
-
More IAB
Because we
s expand on the informa-
tion about the IAB from a little earlier. As I was mentioning before,
the IAB has voluntary guidelines for what they call Interactive
Marketing Units (IMUs). These guidelines are updated as needed
by the IAB
'
re on the subject of specs, let
'
s Reimagining Interactive Advertising Taskforce. The
taskforce is made up of leaders from creative agencies, media agen-
cies, and publishers, and they review the Ad Unit Guidelines each
year. Table 1.1 shows some of the sizes in the guidelines at the
time of writing this topic.
Remember that Table 1.1 is only a partial list and the sizes
listed within it may have changed by the time you are reading this.
To make sure you have the most up-to-date guidelines, visit the
IAB
'
s Ad Unit Guidelines page on their Web site at http://www
.iab.net/.Whileyouarethere,besuretoalsotakeaquicklook
around at the other guidelines for more advertising options like
Pop-up Guidelines, Rich Media Creative Guidelines, and Digital
Video Ad Format Guidelines
'
&
Best Practices. Obviously, the latter
is where you
'
ll find information on running audio and video in
your banners.
