Skyscraper banners are types of ads that appear on narrower sections of web pages, mainly along sidebars, ideal for sites that are content heavy, . There are two sizes of skyscrapers, the standard 120 x 600 pixel skyscraper, and the more common ‘wide’ skyscraper which is 160 x 600px.
While not as popular as 728×90 leaderboard or 300×250 cube banners, their unusual size make skyscrapers stand out from wider format ads. However, due to limited availability, performance may be relatively limited and depending on the nice the competiton can be high or low. Skyscrapers should not be confused with ‘vertical banner’ (120 x 240) and ‘vertical rectangle’ (240 x 400) formats.
Ad-Pixel Size: Skyscraper: 120 x 600 Wide skyscraper: 160 x 600
Optimal File Size: On the web, smaller is always better when it comes to file sizes, even with today’s fast connections and cheap data. For web banners, files should be kept around 20KB, but no larger than 50KB.
File types: GIF: Animation, transparency, size PNG: better transparency, size, newer format JPG: Photo, artwork
What does a skyscraper look like
This is how the ad looks like:
A live example would be the following:
Live desktop website example:
What’s important for advertiser
Due to their slightly odd size, skyscrapers stand out from wider format banners. This presents an opportunity for CPA campaigns. However, it is important to keep the design simple with a clear call-to-action, as well as relevant to the content of the site. This helps avoid information overload and increases the integrity of the ad.
Ads that take up the entire real-estate of the banner may not be ideal as the message can get lost of the user does not scroll past the fold. Creative ways to solve this problem is to split the message in two - above and below the fold - focussing the message, branding and call to action above the fold, with brand reinforcement, or a ’reveal’ that relates to the top message at the bottom. This will encourage the reader to interact with the ad and scroll down.
Note: Skyscrapers are not suited for mobile advertising
What’s important for website owners
Skyscrapers are usually better suited to sites that have a lot of information and few images, as well as part of site takeover campaigns.
While not as popular as 728×90 or 300×250 banners, they still produce a fair return on investment on CPM. Due to the relatively low demand for skyscrapers, it is advisable to have both regular (120 x 600) and wide skyscrapers (160 x 600) available on your site and test out which one performs better. Especially when you are having a CPC deal and not a CPM arrangement.
Due to user reading patterns on the web, the traditional placement of skyscrapers on the righthand side of the page has caused them to be less effective many other formats. In order to increase exposure, site owners should play around with placement, such as on the left hand side of the page. It's also important to note that this ad-unit is not suiteable for mobile. Publisher should rather focus on leaderboard banner.
No comments:
Post a Comment