This article provides an overview of Realize’s recommended creative best practices for your campaign items. Below are our best practices for creating great titles and images.
Technical Specifications at a Glance:
Image file: 5MB maximum, jpeg preferred. (Accepted types: JPEG, BMP, PNG, WBMP and GIF).
1200x674 px is best practice recommendation (The min is 400*350 px however smaller images will serve in fewer placements).
Aspect Ratios: 16:9 (preferred), 4:3 , 1:1.
Image will auto crop unless you choose to adjust cropping manually (recommended).
Motion Ads:
File Type: .mp4, .mov, .gif.
Max File Size: 50 MB (maximum 5 MB for .gif files.)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9.
Pixel Resolution: 1067x600.
Max Length: 15 Seconds.
Headline Character Length: 34-45 is best, 60 Characters max.
Branding Text: 30 characters maximum.
Description: 180-200 characters,
250 maximum.
Thumbnail Best Practices
When you upload or select an image for your ad, you will see a preview of the ad in different aspect ratios (16:9, 6:5, 2:1, 1:1, 1.91:1). Use the Cropping Tool to adjust the cropping frame and highlight the preferred area of the image. If your current aspect ratio is different, you can click the "replace" button in the cropping tool to upload the image with your new aspect ratio. This will enhance the effectiveness of your advertisements and maximize their impact on viewers.
Some other tips to make sure your image is cropped correctly:
Choose an Image with a clear, single point of focus and a relatively plain background. Avoid images with multiple subjects or busy backgrounds to avoid anything vital being cropped out of the image.
Avoid images that include brand logos or layers of text. These may not crop well, and end up being off-center.
Some tips for driving higher engagement from your Thumbnail images:
Use an image where the subject of the photo is looking into the camera. This mimics the way that we use eye contact to attract attention in real life.
If you are using your ad to sell a product, be sure to include that product in the image, as this will help to qualify shopping intent. Use Taboola Trends to find vertical and industry specific ideas for your campaign and how they boost your CTR.
Include People: People tend to attract more attention, use your target audience in the image, test different emotions. Focus on shoulders up.
Keep it real and clear: Authentic and unpolished visuals with a clear focus point.
A show of hands: Feature hands holding products or pointing toward products, in contrast with inclusion of faces, which perform better as standalone visuals.
Add motion: Keep motion subtle, too much movement can be intrusive and banner like, while subtle movement draw attention to your creative.
Deploy eye-catching colors: These help attract user attention. If you have a recognizable brand color, incorporate it to cement association with your brand.
Pro tip: Utilize GenAI AdMaker and MotionAds studio within Realize, already built in with best practices.
Motion Ads Best Practices:
Don’t look like a banner, avoid using text, logos, overlays or heavily processed creatives.
Use slow-paced and subtle movement. Too much movement can be intrusive and banner-like, while subtle movement draws attention to your creative.
Ken Burns Effect: Add an animated transition to your static creatives in order to create an illusion of motion.
Don’t forget to choose a good fallback image according to the above image best practices: Choose a clearcut shot from your video that represents the key message of your motion ad.
Title Best Practices
Title character limits vary across Realize’s network depending upon the publisher configurations and placement sizes. For this reason, Realize recommends running titles that are 60 characters or less. This will prevent your title from being cut short, which reduces the likelihood that you will get accidental clicks from users who just want to read the full title or get blocked by publishers to object to incomplete titles appearing in their feed.
For this reason, we also recommend front-loading the main point of your title, that way, in the unlikely event that your best-practice title is cut off, your audience won’t be missing vital information, such as the consequences of running a title that exceeds the character-count recommendation in the example above.
Follow all localized capitalization rules for titles in the region where your ad is running. This varies depending upon the language used in your area, so pay attention to your target market and what will resonate with the audience there.
Tips for Driving Higher Engagement from Your Ad Titles:
Word choice is your first and best tool for targeting your audience. Not only does this help to qualify your post-click experience and align the user with your KPI, but it can actually make your ad more clickable for the people you are trying to reach.
You can find more industry-specific guidelines around keyword use at Taboola Trends.
Once you have chosen the appropriate language to qualify and engage with your audience, you need to arrange those words in such a way as to create a knowledge gap or sense of mystery to motivate the user to click on your ad.
It is important to do that without misleading the user about your content, so we recommend using one of the seven common strategies below.
Be sure to experiment with these approaches to find the right balance of CTR & CVR to meet your goals, as these strategies tend to vary in performance depending upon saturation of use and seasonality.
Use a List to Create Familiarity with the User and Set an Expectation of the Post Click Experience: 5 Ways You Can Write Better Titles.
Ask a Direct Question of the User to Pique Interest and Pre-Qualify the Audience: Do You Need to Write Better Titles? Here’s How.
Provide a Trustworthy but Definitive Benefit Statement about the Content, Product, or Brand: Experts Say This is the Way to Write Better Titles.
Tell a Story with a Dangling Resolution to Draw the User In: An Advertiser Wrote Better Titles for Their Ad & This Happened.
Use Bandwagoning to Call out the Audience and Create FOMO: Marketers are Using This Method to Write Better Titles.
Use Low-Commitment Language to Supplement Bigger Actions: Try This Easy Method for Writing Better Titles.
Use a Clear Call-to-Action to Drive User Intent: Get Better Titles for Your Campaign Here.
Copy best practices
Your copy will make the difference between a customer who converts and one who doesn't. Use these best practices to make sure you get to customers who want your product.
Call out your audience and flatter them: Call out your audience by their demographic, interests, or traits to help generate engagement from high-intent users
Include numbers: Numbered lists and time reference can be a good way to entice a user to click.
Write in 3rd person or use experts: Start your title with who the expert is, followed by a quote or what they suggest.
Include dynamic keyword insertion: Incorporate DKI like location or device type to make the ad feel hyper-relevant to your target audience.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) and urgency when applicable: Creating a sense of FOMO can help draw users to your page.
Pro tip: Add descriptions to elaborate on your product or service and engage users for a performance KPI.
Test multiple creatives
Test multiple title variations and images/motions ads per URL to see what works best. We recommend beginning with testing 4 to 6 titles with a similar number of images/motion ads.
Video
Technical Requirements:
Media Type: MP4, MOV.
3rd Party Tag Specifications: VAST 2.0, VAST 2.0 with VPAID 2.0 JS, VAST 3.0.
Aspect Ratios: 16:9 (preferred), 4:3, 1:1.
Video Size Limit: 50 MB.
Bitrate: >=2500 kbps.
Video length: 6-30 seconds (preferred), 90 seconds maximum.
Video Creative Best Practices
Fill the screen for a higher impact experience. Using big images in your videos are more eye-catching.
Add subtitles to account for users watching videos with their sound off to drive more engagement.
Use text overlays and call-to-action buttons to drive users to the end of the video or to complete an action.
Video Campaign TIPS AND TRICKS
Test different creatives: Test two or three creatives to see what works best for your video. Consider using people, nature scenes, city scenes, and a lot of movement.
Use the Realize Video Studio: available to our managed service clients, to add enrichments including custom overlays, end-cards, subtitles, logos, and more to drive engagement and amplify brand awareness.
Visit Taboola Trends for the latest video trends in your market.
Video Best Practices
Incorporate Branding and Visual Identity: Add your logo in the top left corner and use consistent branding throughout the video. This strengthens brand recognition and trust.
Keep Videos Short and Engaging: Keep the video length under 15 seconds to maintain viewer attention and deliver the key message quickly.
Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Place the CTA button in the bottom right corner (above 27 pixels) to encourage interaction. Make it appear 3-5 seconds after the video starts, and include an end card to reinforce the message and provide additional CTAs.
Optimize for Platforms and Formats: Use the 16:9 aspect ratio for desktop and 1:1 for mobile to ensure your video looks great on any device and platform.
Design for Sound-Off Viewing: Since many users watch videos without sound, include subtitles to ensure your message is clear and accessible.