Creative Requirements - Useful Guide

Creative requirements and recommendations in Kadam

When launching advertising campaigns, special attention should be paid to creatives. In this article, we share general recommendations on selecting and designing images, as well as specific requirements for images when working with different advertising formats in Kadam.

General recommendations

To make sure users pay attention to your creatives and achieve a high CTR, follow these general recommendations. What to use:

• Close-up. Immediately show the user what they should focus on. The more unnecessary details in the image, the more scattered the viewer's attention. This applies to images of both people and objects.
• Realistic images. Especially for the nutra vertical or news.
• Good quality. The creative must be clear and legible.
• Bright, vivid, contrasting colors. These help your creative stand out among the rest.
• Emotions. Make creatives more "lively" and help them resonate with the user.

Examples of good images for creatives:

The following points are likely to leave your creative unnoticed. What not to use:

• Stock photos. Users immediately recognize obvious stock images that have been used many times in other creatives.
• Off-topic pictures. For example, driving traffic to news about a pension increase but using an unrelated picture — this approach doesn't work.
• Wide shots. If the user can't tell what's in the image, they're unlikely to study it — they'll just scroll past.
• Poor quality. Same logic as the previous point.

Examples of bad images for creatives:

When picking pictures online, use different search queries — this reduces the chance of running into an image that's been used a million times. Don't hesitate to use graphic editors to create your own pictures or collages. The following recommendations apply to the text on creatives. What to do:

• Use a Call-to-Action.
• Use catchy words.
• Focus on the problem or pain point.
• Ask a question and provide an answer.
• Keep writing short and clear.
• Provide more specifics.

For teaser and push ads, it's very important that the text and image form a single whole — keep them aligned with each other. It's also recommended that the creatives themselves be tied to a specific and meaningful news hook — especially in teaser and push advertising. The beauty of this is that there are always news hooks, even if it seems like nothing is happening around you. Here are a few examples of "evergreen" news hooks:

• A statement or recommendation from a famous person: "A celebrity didn't hold back and expressed everything they think about…" or "An expert insists that taking XXX is good for your heart".
• Political news: "The UN meeting shocked world leaders".
• Tied to specific holidays or seasons: "This miracle berry will increase your crop 5 times" (in summer and spring) or "TOP-10 gifts for a woman for the New Year" (in winter).
• Perennial health and beauty issues: "Drink this remedy 3 times a day to feel healthy".

An important point about moderation: the harsher and more sensationalist your creatives, the less traffic they can receive due to assigned tags — publishers simply won't approve such creatives. For example, sensationalist news with shocking imagery may have a high CTR, but if moderation assigns the "shock" tag, the campaign will receive very limited traffic. These were general recommendations for image and text design. Below are specific requirements for different advertising formats in Kadam.

Teasers

Images

• Minimum size: 500×500 px
• Format: JPG, PNG
• Maximum weight: 512 KB

A nuance: images can be cropped differently on different sites, so we recommend placing important information within an area of 500×333 pixels (top or bottom doesn't matter; you can adjust this when uploading).

Texts

Maximum number of characters (with spaces): 124. Because the number of allowable characters is limited on some sites, we recommend writing no more than 70–75 characters (50–60 characters for premium sites). This ensures your text won't be cut off. P.S. Not all sites accept texts with ellipses and exclamation marks at the end. If possible, try not to overuse them.

Push

Images

• Icon: 192×192 px
• Main picture: 360×240 px
• Format: JPG, PNG
• Maximum weight: 512 KB

Important: Different platforms crop the main push image differently. Here are variations of how the image can be cropped:

• The image is shown completely

• The image is cropped from the bottom by 60 pixels

• The image is cropped from the top and bottom by 55 pixels

We recommend calculating the optimal zone and placing the main content in the center of the image. Also, pay special attention to the icon — on some platforms only the icon is shown, not the main image (for example, on a Mac). The same applies to mobile devices: in most cases only the icon is shown, with the exception of iPhones — there, only text is displayed.

Texts

• Title: 30 characters
• Text: 40 characters

In-Page Push

This type of push is selected when setting up an advertising campaign.

Images

• Icon: 192×192 px
• Main image: 360×240 px
• Format: JPG, PNG, JPEG
• Weight: up to 512 KB

Texts

• Maximum number of characters in the title: 30
• Maximum number of characters in the text: 70
• Maximum word length: 20 characters

Clickunder

A feature of this format is that the advertiser's site opens in a new browser window after the user clicks any area of the page where the ad is located. Requirements: a Clickunder campaign is active only if there is more than $10 on the account balance. If the balance is $10 or less, the campaign will not receive impressions.

Banners

• Weight: up to 150 KB
• Format: PNG, JPG, GIF

Kadam supports a huge number of banner sizes. We advise checking in advance with your personal manager which banner sizes have the most available traffic, and working with those sizes. Since the banner itself comes without accompanying text, we recommend placing the desired text directly on the banner. Don't make the text long — it's better to add a few large but high-converting words. Alternatively, place a CTA button on the banner. Animated banners (GIFs) perform very well. However, due to strict file weight criteria, it's often difficult to realize your idea. Plan in advance exactly what you want to animate and how. We hope our short guide was useful and you've picked up a few new ideas. If you still have questions about creative requirements, be sure to message your personal manager — they'll guide you and help.