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Creative specs

14 February 2024

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Display ads creative specs

Display Advertising Overview

Microsoft Display Advertising falls into three categories providing ad serving options as well as advertising opportunities on and off Microsoft owned properties.

1)    Microsoft Invest, enabling advertisers to connect with engaged consumers and drive business           results across the online advertising landscape.
2)    Microsoft Advertising platform, giving advertisers advanced audience targeting using                       Microsoft’s first-party intent data and AI to drive engagements.
3)    Advertising on Microsoft Owned and Operated Publishers (MSN.com, Edge Homepage,                   Outlook.com, Xbox), supporting first and third-party served ads.

All advertising must conform to the Microsoft Advertising Network Policies.

Microsoft Invest

HTML5 Creative Guidelines and Specifications

To serve on the Xandr platform and other third-party platforms, all HTML5 creatives must adhere to the guidelines and specifications listed here, our creative standards, and any other guidelines that may apply.

Adhere to these guidelines and specifications when creating HTML5 creatives:

  • All hosted HTML5 creatives must be uploaded in a single zip file.
  • The zip file must contain an index.html file that resides at the root of the zip file and not in a subfolder.
  • The index.html file should be a complete and valid HTML document that includes the <html>, <head>, and <body> entities.
  • The clickTag parameter must be referenced in the URL of all HTML5 creatives.

    Note: The clickTag parameter ensures that:

    • clicks are tracked properly when the creative is served.
    • the corresponding landing page can be opened when the creative is clicked.
  • Creative designers can either use their own code or the helper code provided in the Xandr HTML5 library to integrate HTML5 creatives into websites efficiently. For more information, see our HTML5 Library, Walkthrough for Manually Created Ads, and IAB standards.

Creative designers can reference the following guides when creating new HTML5 creatives:

Ad traffickers can reference the following guides for integrating HTML5 creatives, which have been created in Google Web Designer and Adobe Edge, into websites efficiently:

Microsoft Advertising platform Display

Top volume ad sizes

 
Name
Dimensions
PC / Tablet
Medium Rectangle
Half Page
Leaderboard
Wide skyscraper
Billboard
300x250
300 x 600
728 x 90
160 x 600
970 x 250
Mobile
Leaderboard
320 x 50
 

Additional sizes

 
Name
Dimensions
PC / Tablet
Super leaderboard
Full banner
Large rectangle
Square
Skyscraper
Rectangle
Half banner
970 x 90
468 x 60
336 x 280
250 x 250
120 x 600
180 x 150
234 x 60
Mobile
Banner
Portrait interstitial
Landscape interstitial
Large banner
Large banner
Medium banner
Small banner
300 x 50
320 x 480
480 x 320
320 x 100
216 x 36
168 x 28
120 x 20
 

Deliverables

 
 
Image type
JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF
GIF animation
Not supported
PNG transparency
Not supported
HTML5 banner
Not supported
Third-party hosted creative
Not supported
IAS measurement pixel
Supported
1X1 Tracker
Not supported
3P Hosting
Not supported
Expandable
Not supported
File Size
Max 1GB
 
 

Advertising on Microsoft Owned and Operated (O&O) Publishers

Advertising on Microsoft O&Os such as MSN.com and Outlook.com is supported through Microsoft Invest as well as via third-party platforms. While these options support a broad range of features and ad sizes, Microsoft O&O has the requirements documented below.

 
 
Border
Creative must feature a 1-pixel border (gray [#666666] or black recommended, though any color that clearly distinguishes the ad from the content may be used).
Background
Display ads cannot have a transparent background.
Animation/Looping Limit (GIF)
Allowed; duration 15 seconds
Audio Specifications/Limit
Allowed; user initiated only
Audio
Audio must be user-initiated and never automatic.
Audio on/off toggle button must be always present when sound is available.
All ad audio must be muted or paused on click-through.
Video
Minimum video controls required for all video players:
Play/Pause and Mute/Unmute button.
HTML5 Required
Conform to all IAB standards
Flash
Not Supported
SSL
SSL is required.
Both ads and tracking tags must be SSL compliant. Ads that are not SSL compliant will not be accepted. All 3rd party content must serve SSL (https) compliant ads.
Close Button (970x250 Billboard 
A ‘X Hide Ad’ button is required in the language the ad will be served in the upper right corner.
Show Ad Button (970x250 Billboard Only)
A standard 88x31 pixel IAB Leave-behind “Show Ad” icon is required in the language the ad will be served when the ad is hidden. The width of the Leave-behind may be slightly larger to accommodate the language characters used.
Open/Close Persistence (970x250 Billboard and Custom Header Only)
The Open/Close state of the ad must persist when the page is reloaded or revisited.
Z-index
<30,000 is required so the service bar and mega menu do not drop behind the ad.
Click URLs
Click destination URL must open in a new browser.
Important Call-outs
728x90 Leaderboard

Any 728x90 Ad in 2-column view on MSN will be clipped by 100 pixels on the right side. It is up to the Advertiser to ensure that the creative design elements such as Advertiser branding, logos, and CTAs are not positioned in the right 100 pixels if desired. In 3-column view and 4-column view (full screen), the 728x90 Ad appears in full.

970x250 Billboard

In 3-column view and 4-column view (full screen), the Billboard appears in full by default. In 2-column view, the Billboard will appear clipped on the right by 342 pixels. Upon browser page scroll, the user will be able to see the full ad and interact. The Advertiser must ensure that the creative design elements such as Advertiser branding, logos, and CTAs are not positioned in the right 342 pixels, if desired.
Data Reported
3rd Party Rich Media partners will typically provide impressions and click-through data, as well as enhanced metrics. Please consult your Certified Rich Media partner of choice for more details.
Data Collection
Microsoft permits advertisers to collect user-provided personal information (for example, through web forms embedded in ads). Advertisers may be required to modify ad units or provide additional disclosure in order to be acceptable for advertising on Microsoft sites. Advertisers wishing to collect personal information within advertisements (according to specifications above) must follow these guidelines: Clearly identify the organization, provide link to privacy policy, Identify purpose for collection information.

Supported Ad Dimensions

 
MSN
Outlook
Mobile
Xbox
320x50
Mobile Banner
 
 
 
300x250
Inline Rectangle
 
300x600
Half-page
 
 
160x600
Skyscraper
 
 
 
970x250
Billboard
 
 
 
728x90
Leaderboard
 
 
400x225
Xbox Home
 
 
 
468x263
Xbox Store
 
 
 
1920x1080
Xbox Video Gallery
 
 
 

Deliverables

MSN, Outlook, Mobile

File
Required Format
Dimensions
Maximum File Size
Backup Image
GIF, JPEG
300x250
728x90
300x600
970x250 (970x70)
320x50
150 KB
100 KB
250 KB
250 KB
50 KB
Initial File Download
HTML5
300x250
728x90
300x600
970x250
320x50
150 KB
150 KB
200 KB
250 KB
50 KB
Secondary (Polite) File Download
HTML5
300x250
728x90
300x600
970x250
320x50
300 KB
300 KB
400 KB
500 KB
100 KB
User-initiated File Download
HTML5
300x250
728x90
300x600
970x250
1.5 MB
Host Initiated Video
MP4
15 Seconds
1.1 MB
User Initiated Video
MP4
30 Seconds
Progressive: 2.2MB
Streaming: No Limit

XBOX

File
Required Format
Dimensions
Maximum File Size
Static Banner
PSD
416x216 (Home)
468x263 (Store)
N/A
Full Screen Video
Any Video
1920x1080
N/A

Display Ads Performance Standards

This section describes the methodology, metrics, and standards Microsoft uses to assess the performance of display ads, where ad performance in this context refers to the weight or heaviness of an ad. The standards documented below are in alignment with the IAB Guidelines published in July 2017. Ads that do not comply with the performance standards outlined below will be prohibited from displaying on Microsoft online properties.


Background: Why Display Ad Performance is Important

Better ad performance is a win-win for ad providers and publishers. Said another way:

  • Poor ad performance impacts publishers' business metrics
  • Poor ad performance impacts ad business metrics
  • Poor ad performance contributes to the use of ad blockers.

This section describes each of the three performance metrics in more detail, including the thresholds used for flagging heavy ads.

  1. Total Bytes — the total number of bytes (KB) downloaded over the network for all ad-related assets, including HTML, JS, CSS, images, analytics calls, etc. Total Bytes thresholds are clearly defined in the Microsoft Display ad specs and shown below.
     
    Microsoft
    IAB Guidelines
    Bytes Threshold

    The combination of Initial and Subload (Polite) cannot exceed the KB limits defined in this document.

    User initiated content is not factored into the size measurement.

    If the ad contains a video element, this size is separately considered and not calculated in the Banner KB size.

    Identical. See IAB Guidelines

    Banner MAX Combined Size
    300x250 - 450 KB
    728x90 - 450 KB
    300x600 - 600 KB
    970x250 - 750 KB

    Video Max Size
    1.1MB

  2. Total Requests — the total number of HTTP requests over the network for all ad-related assets, including HTML, JS, CSS, images, pixels, event beacons, etc.
     
    Microsoft
    IAB Guidelines
    Requests Threshold

    The sum of all HTTP Requests made by an ad which include calls for ad assets, pixels, event beacons, etc. cannot exceed 100.

    Note that DSP’s and Ad Networks may add additional HTTP requests to an ad which are included in this threshold.

    Maximum number of initial load file requests is 10. See IAB Guidelines.

    Note: Microsoft has found that 10 is quite strict when considering all pixels, beacons, etc. that are commonly included with the ad and/or added by DSPs.

  3. CPU — the amount of CPU consumed by the main browser thread over a 30s period when the ad is loaded. A common cause of excessive CPU is JavaScript code/libraries. Because it’s impossible to represent CPU performance across the full spectrum of user machines, we take a conservative approach and choose a threshold that errs on the lenient side.
     
    Microsoft
    IAB Guidelines
    CPU Threshold

    An ad should not impose more than an average of 30% CPU utilization during the first 30s when the ad is loaded. This translates to a total of 12s of CPU consumed on a PC with average CPU power.

    30% CPU load max (based on the average CPU of the user base) per active ad. Please refer to the IAB Guidelines for additional information.

Important:
Since September 2020, Chromium based browsers including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge has introduced a new browser intervention that monitors ad iframes and may redirect them to an error page (Heavy ad intervention) if resource use exceeds specified criteria. Video advertisements, in particular, may be more vulnerable to this intervention, which impacts iframes that load more than 4 MB of data.

If a creative satisfies any of the following criteria, it is considered heavy:
  • The main thread is used for more than 60 seconds in total.
  • In any 30 second window, the main thread is used for more than 15 seconds.
  • More than 4 MB of network bandwidth is consumed It is recommended that the creative is compliant with the technical specifications detailed above.