• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 12, 2009

In contrast to banner ads, bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to rich media, according to new research conducted by display ad provider Eyeblaster. Rather, choosing the right video, ad format, flash features and expansion are far more important when it comes to rich media display ads.

A breakdown by ad formats across multiple regions suggests that for rich media, half leaderboards -- sized 234x60 -- are the top-performing rich media ad formats, followed by rectangle ad formats, sized 180x150.

"Eyeblaster data suggests that physical size of a banner has less to do with performance than creative execution and rich media," said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-founder at Eyeblaster. "This corroborates other published studies that reveal that bigger banners do not equate to better engagement."

Eyeblaster analyzed data comprised of more than a quarter of a million of ads worldwide, including all sizes, formats and markets served between the third quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.

To demonstrate that size is not a key performance booster for rich media ads, Eyeblaster analyzed the performance of the most popular ad format -- polite banner -- with and without video, across sizes.

Unit sizes were sorted by pixel from high to low and measured in total "dwell time" -- the amount of time a user is exposed and engaged within an ad. Results show that video increases performance significantly by 71%, regardless of size.

For standard banners, unit size is one of the major factors to attract users' attention. The analysis indicated that on average, an increase of 50,000 pixels yields an increase of 0.044% in CTR, compared to the overall CTR of standard banners at 0.1%. To increase performance and consumer engagement, Eyeblaster suggests that marketers reevaluate the role of technology in their ad play, and and consider aligning creative with appropriate metrics in the beginning stages of planning a campaign.