HTML5 banner ads: animated display ads, one file per size, no hosting

Technically an HTML5 ad is an index.html with CSS, a few images and sometimes JavaScript, packed in a ZIP and uploaded to an ad platform. The platform serves it in an iframe of the booked size, the browser plays the animation, a click goes to the landing page. Unlike a GIF the animation is smooth, the text stays sharp on retina screens, and the file is usually smaller.

The catch is the packaging. A hand-built HTML5 ad references fonts, images and scripts as separate files, so every platform has to reassemble them, and any missing asset breaks the ad. myfeedr avoids that by inlining everything: the fonts as subsets of exactly the characters used, the logo and product image as embedded data, the animation as plain CSS. The result is one self-contained HTML file per size that needs no hosting and no external request.

There is no JavaScript in the file unless the platform requires it. That matters for affiliate networks that paste the code into a publisher page, and for ad servers with strict content policies.

Three numbers decide whether an animated ad is accepted. myfeedr builds every file inside them and shows the actual values in the README of each export.

Google Ads takes uploaded HTML5 display ads as a ZIP containing the index.html. There is deliberately no click code inside: the whole ad is clickable and the final URL is set in the campaign. An ad that carries its own click handler or an ExitApi call is rejected as "modifying clickability".

One requirement is often missed: HTML5 uploads must be enabled once per account. Google asks for an account older than 90 days with a compliant history and sufficient spend, and grants access through a short form. Established advertisers usually already have it.

myfeedr exports one ZIP per size for Google Ads. Upload them under Ads, then Uploaded ad, HTML5, enter the final URL, done.

Ad servers and demand-side platforms use the clickTag convention: a JavaScript variable named clickTag inside the ad that the server overwrites with its tracking link, usually through a URL parameter. The ad opens window.clickTag on click. myfeedr writes this into the file and keeps your landing page as the fallback value.

Adform is the exception with its own mechanism: a manifest.json next to the index.html declares the clickTAG, and the ad calls Adform's DHTML library. myfeedr packs both into the ZIP for the Adform profile.

Supported profiles: Google Ads, Campaign Manager 360 (DoubleClick), Display & Video 360, Google Ad Manager, Adform, Xandr / Microsoft Invest, The Trade Desk, Equativ (Smart AdServer), Amazon DSP, AdSpirit. For an ad server that is not listed, the generic clickTag profile follows the IAB standard, which practically every server understands.

Affiliate networks work differently. They do not host a ZIP; the advertiser pastes the HTML code as a rich media creative, the network serves it to publishers and inserts its own tracking link. For that the code contains a placeholder the network replaces at delivery time, for example {target_url_htmlescaped} at Mcanism or the Awin click URL with the !!!affid!!! macro.

Because the network pastes the code into a foreign page or a bare iframe, the snippet has to be robust: unique class names, styles that survive the publisher's CSS, no dependency on the page's character set, no JavaScript. myfeedr builds the snippet exactly that way and adds a preview copy you can open in a browser, because the raw snippet with its placeholder does not render on its own.

Supported profiles: Mcanism, TradeTracker, Awin, Tradedoubler, adindex, ADCELL, Webgains, belboon. Where a network has not confirmed its specification, the export says so and follows the IAB conventions.

Start with the static set: enter your website, myfeedr reads logo, colours, fonts, texts and product images and builds every display size. In the studio you pick one of four fixed animations, reveal, product focus, two scenes or price highlight, and a tempo. The preview plays it live in every size.

The export asks for the platform, wires the click accordingly, subsets the fonts, embeds the images, checks the size and animation limits and delivers a ZIP with all display sizes plus a README with the exact upload steps for that platform. Change a text or the product later and export again; the files are rebuilt in seconds.

Animated HTML5 ads are an add-on to the static set at a fixed surcharge per package, shown in the checkout. Analysing your site and watching the animated preview costs nothing.