Six core Google display ad sizes with examples

Selecting the right size Google display ads for your campaigns will increase the reach and effectiveness.

Google display ads are seen by potential customers who visit sites across the Google Display Network. The websites that publish your ads ultimately have control over which size ad gets featured so you need to choose the most popular sizes but also a variety to achieve your advertising goals.



When running Google display ads you introduce your business to a specific target audience who is likely to be interested in your products or services. This may help you to reach a larger or completely new audience than simply through a search.

Five benefits of Google display ads

Google display ads are personalised based on the searcher's previous online activity making them very effective. The five key benefits we’ve identified are:

1. Increase sales of your product or service
2. Generate high-quality leads
3. Boost website traffic to your site
4. Influence consumer purchasing decisions
5. Build greater brand awareness.

What are the six core ad sizes?

There are many size options for Google display ads but by choosing the six core sizes you’re likely to achieve more success.

Choosing the right Google display ad sizes for your particular situation can have a huge impact on the overall success of your campaign. Even if you have the skill to create eye-catching display ads if you choose the wrong sizes you won’t get them in front of the right people at the right time.

Before you begin your campaign, you need to know what the most common Google display ad sizes are. Read on to learn more.

The six core sizes are 160x600, 300x250, 300x600, 320x50, 336x280, and 728x90.

1. 160 x 600

Known as the wide skyscraper, this tall ad is great to keep your audience engaged as they scroll down the page. Google reports that this is a popular size and suggests a combination of text and display versions to gain the best results.

2. 300 x 250

Called the inline rectangle or medium rectangle and is reportedly one of the most widely-used banner ad sizes on the Internet. It’s typically used in the middle of pages to break up the text so it’s likely to be noticed by anyone who reads or scrolls down the entire page. They are often used for video ads.

The 300x250 banner ad is a great place to start if you’re new to Google display ads.

3. 300 x 600

Known as a half-page ad, this Google display ad is large so it grabs the user’s attention. According to Google, the 300x600 is one of the fastest growing sizes by impressions and is indicative of a trend where publishers are offering more visually impactful ad sizes that are preferred by brand advertisers.

4. 320 x 50

This 320x50 is called a mobile leaderboard or smartphone leaderboard and is most commonly used as an ad on mobile phones. As one of the smallest ad sizes, it can be very effective if used in the right way. They are especially useful as they can reach users at a different point than usual desktop ads.

5. 336 x 280

Known as the large rectangle, the 336x280 ad has a large range of sites and publishers that like to use it. Like the popular 300x250 inline rectangle it can be embedded in the text of an article where more eyes will see it as they scroll down.

5. 728 x 90

This size is called the leaderboard because it generally appears at the top of the page. It has largely replaced the 468x60 banner that previously dominated this space. Make sure you’re buying the top-of-page slots as opposed to the bottom ads which are viewed less frequently.

Campaign success with Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre

Two of our clients, Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre, use display advertising as part of their broader marketing campaigns.

For Edenvale, a leading alcohol-free winemaker, our display advertising is split between always-on campaigns and shorter seasonal campaigns. Our always-on campaigns focus on driving brand awareness amongst our target audiences and are typically refreshed quarterly to allow the campaigns time to build momentum. Our shorter seasonal or promotional campaigns, such as Dry July and Summer, are created as needed in support of our overall strategy to drive traffic to the website or e-shop.

For Narellan Town Centre, our display advertising campaigns are geographically targeted to specifically reach residents within a 10 km radius of the shopping centre. The campaigns support the brand’s marketing efforts around its key pillars – family, fashion, and food. Each month we refresh the creative to target a new pillar eg: Spring/Summer Fashion Catalogue or focus on a new promotion eg: Easter or Mother’s Day.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we focus on six ad sizes for display ads, combining the top performing and best placed ad sizes for desktop and mobile banners.

For both Edenvale and Narellan Town Centre we find that the medium rectangle and mobile leaderboard ads are consistently in the top performing ad sizes for both impressions and conversions, with the desktop leaderboard size also performing consistently.

Need help creating your Google display ads campaign?

To optimise your next Google display ad campaign, it is important that you choose the top-performing ad sizes with the right Google display ad specs for your ad placements that are most likely to generate impressions and conversions for your campaign.

At Icon Visual Marketing, we have a team of digital design and strategy experts who can develop your develop your digital strategy, create your display ad assets, and execute, optimise and report on your campaign performance.

Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion on how we can help you.