Among the social media titans on the market today, YouTube is the vanguard platform. It’s been around since 2005, long before Facebook gained serious momentum, and it is still an essential part of any social media advertising mix.

An important step for success in YouTube advertising is to craft an ad with the correct YouTube ad specifications.

By using the correct YouTube ad specs this 2024, you will deliver a much clearer message to your audience. A well-composed video could go viral and launch your brand’s recognition into the stratosphere.

Remember to optimize your YouTube advertising by also adjusting the content to suit the online viewer preferences (Does you audience watch videos on desktop or mobile?).

To help you with your 2024 YouTube advertising, we’ve outlined YouTube’s ad specifications below.

Types of YouTube ads

• Overlay ads
• Sponsored cards
• Bumper ads
• Standard display ads
• TrueView video discovery ads (now Video Action campaign)
• TrueView in-stream non-skippable ads
• TrueView in-stream skippable ads
• Video View Campaign Skippable in-stream
• Video View Campaign In-feed
• Video View Campaign Shorts placement

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Overlay ads

As of April 6, 2023, Overlay ads have been discontinued in YouTube. Active overlay ads will only appear on desktop view as YouTube Creators shift to newer ad formats for YouTube advertising.

Overlay image: required

• Unit: 480 pixels by 70 pixels
• File type: static GIF, PNG, JPG
• File size: 150KB

Companion banner: optional

• Unit: 300 pixels by 250 pixels
• File type: GIF, PNG, JPG
• File size: 150KB

Think of discovery ads as an online billboards of sorts. These are generally static images or have very minimal movement and animation to them. They appear either to the side of the video or as an overlay on the bottom of the video. They’re good to include in your YouTube advertising mix because they’re less expensive than other ad forms like those that appear before or during videos.

Since they don’t directly interfere with user activity on the site, users might also respond better to their presence. A potential drawback could be that some users have a tendency to tune out these kinds of ads, but a truly great ad can break through the clutter. Whatever size or format you choose is up to you, just make sure that the content is optimized for the ad format and that there is a clear call-to-action for consumers to respond to.

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Sponsored cards

• Platform: Desktop and mobile devices
• Media: image
• Format: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Aspect Ratio: 1:1
• Length: 15 or 20 seconds
• File Size: 2MB max

Sponsored card works as a brief “teaser”, which will be replaced by a card icon after a few seconds. Appearing in the upper right-hand corner of the video they are currently watching, the icon gives users the choice of clicking through to access further information about the sponsored content.

In that sense, a sponsored card ad is similar to display ads except where it’s located and how it functions differs slightly. The commonality among them is the ever critical call-to-action.

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Bumper ads

Assets overview

• Where they appear: YouTube videos and video partner sites and apps on the display network
• Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
  • Maximum file size: 150KB

Video ad settings

• File format: AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4 or MPEG
  • Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
  • Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
• Resolution: 640 pixels by 360 pixels or 480 pixels by 360 pixels recommended
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: native aspect ratio without letter-boxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
• Maximum file size: 1GB
• Length: 6 seconds

A bumper ad is a non-skippable video ad format created to extend the reach of a campaign. It appears before the video the user has chosen to view. Sold on a CPM basis, Bumper ads perform well on mobile devices. In alignment with the 2024 YouTube ad specs, the maximum video length for bumper ads is 6 seconds.

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Standard display ads

Technical specifications

• Dimensions:
  • 300 pixels by 250 pixels
  • 300 pixels by 60 pixels (YouTube Reserve companions)
  • 300 pixels by 600 pixels (Zagat only)
• Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
• Maximum file size: 150KB
• Maximum animation time: 30 seconds (all animations, including loops, must stop at 30 seconds)
• Audio: no sound
• Border: creatives with partially black or white backgrounds must have a visible border of a contrasting color

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TrueView video discovery ads (now Video Action campaign)

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TrueView in-stream non-skippable ads

Scheduled to be eliminated in 2018, these ads play in the video player and last anywhere from 15, 20 to 30 seconds in length. Non-skippable video ads appear before the selected video and much be watched in its entirety before the video can be viewed.

Assets overview

• Where they appear: YouTube videos and video partner sites and apps on the display network
• Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
  • Maximum file size: 1KB

Video ad settings

• File format: AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4 or MPEG
  • Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
  • Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
• Resolution: 640 pixels by 360 pixels or 480 pixels by 360 pixels recommended
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: native aspect ratio without letter-boxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
• Maximum file size: 1GB
• Length: 15 or 20 seconds for non-skippable; 20 seconds for long non-skippable

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TrueView in-stream skippable ads

Assets overview

• Where they appear: YouTube videos and video partner sites and apps on the display network
• Companion: 300 pixels by 60 pixels .jpg, static .gif or .png; 300 pixels by 250 pixels video wall will show on YouTube if no companion ad is provided
  • Maximum file size: 1KB

Video ad settings

• File format: AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP4 or MPEG
  • Preferred video codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4
  • Preferred audio codec: MP3 or AAC
• Resolution: 640 pixels by 360 pixels or 480 pixels by 360 pixels recommended
• Frame rate: 30 FPS
• Aspect ratio: native aspect ratio without letter-boxing (examples: 4:3, 16:9)
• Maximum file size: 1GB
• Length: 12 seconds to 3 minutes

Skippable video ads allow viewers to skip ads after 5 seconds and move on to their viewing selection.

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Video View Campaign Skippable in-stream

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Video View Campaign In-feed

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Video View Campaign in YouTube Shorts placement