YouTube runs more than half a dozen distinct ad placements, each with its own canvas size, file-size cap, and set of text fields. Designing to the wrong spec means soft video, rejected uploads, or truncated headlines. This reference puts every official YouTube ad format in one filterable table so you can build the right asset the first time.
How it works
YouTube ad inventory splits into two broad buckets: video ads that play inside the player, and display ads rendered as static images or overlays. Video formats share the standard 16:9 frame at 1920 by 1080 pixels, except the vertical Shorts ad which uses 9:16 at 1080 by 1920. Each video format carries a different length rule — bumpers cap at six seconds, non-skippable at 15–30 seconds, and skippable in-stream can run far longer because viewers skip after five seconds.
Display formats are governed by file weight rather than duration: companion banners and overlays must stay under 150 KB as JPG, PNG, or GIF. Text fields have hard character ceilings — for example in-feed headlines allow two 40-character lines — and any copy past the limit is silently truncated.
Tips and notes
- Always export video at the listed resolution; uploading higher and letting YouTube downscale costs encode quality on lower-bitrate connections.
- Keep the most important message in the first three seconds — skippable ads lose most viewers right at the five-second skip point.
- Pair a six-second bumper with a longer skippable ad in the same campaign for a low-cost reach multiplier.
- Companion banners are desktop-only, so never rely on them to carry the call to action on mobile.