Creative

A creative is the actual graphical advertisement that a user is exposed to — the visual or multimedia asset delivered by an ad server and rendered in a placement. Common formats include GIF, JPEG, and HTML5 (which replaced Flash as the dominant interactive format), as well as video formats such as MOV, FLV, and MP4.

A creative may incorporate sound, video, animation, and/or traditional text, depending on the placement and campaign objectives.

The size and form of a creative are regulated by Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards, which define accepted dimensions and technical specifications across display, video, and mobile environments. Both the creative's format and the type of action it promotes — clicking through to a landing page, downloading an app, filling in a form — directly influence campaign cost and overall performance.