VK Ads formats and technical requirements: short and sweet overview

In 2022 VK developers managed to unite all useful features of russian targered services (myTarget and PRO VKontakte) into a single system of VK Ads, so that marketing experts could work with targeted ads easier, faster, and in a more efficient way. The VK Ads formats and technical requirements instruction below will be short and sweet as well. Read on and discover!

The main difference between VK Ads and PRO VKontakte (will stop working at 31 July) is the ability to use a versatile format of ad placing. Thanks to this, the service automatically selects the most attractive option of a publication for users and platforms.

Versatile ad placement has many options: feed, sidebar, fullscreen, in apps before downloading or when content changes (interstitial), native ads.
 

In-Stream versatile ad format

The principle of how the tool works is the following: at the “Ads” stage, the advertiser must upload all the options of images and videos within one advertising campaign, after which the system generates possible ad formats for websites (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, projects and VK networks).

Technical requirements for versatile format of ad placing:

• icon size is 256x256 pixels. The system loads a default name from the store;
• title – the name of the app store is loaded automatically, the allowed size is up to 40 characters;
• body text of an ad is a short description of up to 90 characters, expanded text of up to 220 characters (displayed only on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki) or 2000 characters for web sites. With this, if both fields are filled out, the system will only show the expanded text;
• button – is selected from a drop-down list with the default text “Install”;
• company information – shows legal details, the maximum limit here is up to 115 characters;
• images – with a maximum size up to 5 MB in JPG, PNG formats and an aspect ratio of 1:1 (600x600 pixels) / 4:5 (1080x1350 pixels) / 16:9 (1080x607 pixels);
• video – up to 180 seconds and weighing up to 90 MB, with a resolution of 640x360 pixels (recommended: 1280x720, 1920 x 1080) and aspect ratio 1:1 / 4:5 / 19:9 / 9:16 in mp4, mov (H.264) formats. Along with this, a video with buttons or other elements, misleading the user, will not pass moderation. As well as low-quality and highly compressed videos will not pass moderation.

Additionally, other formats can be used for some purposes.
 

Advertising object	Available formats
Website	Versatile ads Carousel for websites Banner 240x400 (for Media ads)
Product catalog    - websites and mobile applications - VKontakte communities - marketplaces	Versatile ads Adaptive product banners Carousel for product ads Shoppable Ads
Mobile app	Versatile ads Carousel for websites
Lead form	Versatile ads
Dzen	Article Promotion Channel Promotion
Social networks   - VK group and profile - Odnoklassniki - Videos and streams - Music - VK Mini-apps	Versatile ads

 

Carousel for advertising sites or mobile apps

This is a block of several products or services (from 3 to 6) that can be scrolled through within one ad. Such a block has a high clickability and conversion rate, as it gives the user the opportunity to choose a suitable product or service in the block.
 

Carousel for Alfa Bank sites (3 slides) 

Technical requirements for website carousel:

• image - 600x600px;
• slide title - up to 25 - 40 characters;
• slide description - up to 32 -50 characters;
• there must be a link to the page of the site related to the product or service or tracking link to the app;
• there can be from 3 to 6 slides in total in a carousel.

Banner 240x400 

This is a popular media format with a large, eye-catching banner.
 

Media banners located to VK feed's left side

Technical requirements for banner: 

• image format: JPG or PNG;
• file weight not more than 60 Kb;
• aspect ratio 3:5;
• size 240x400px;
• the content of the banner must occupy the whole allocated area, without frames on the edges, as well as comply with other Rules of placement.

Adaptive product banners

These are smart interactive dynamic ads based on the product catalog. Ads can be placed in all possible ad units on all VK project sites. This means that the ad itself adapts to the site and location in such a way as to show users product cards from your catalog. Depending on the place of placement in the ad can be from 2 to 12 product cards. 
 

Gara Dome ads in adaptive banner format

Technical requirements for carousel for adaptive banners:

• logo - image 256x256px;
• ad title - text up to 25 characters;
• card title - by default, a product macro with the name of the product from the product feed is substituted in this field. It can be removed or replaced;
• card description - by default, this field contains a product macro with the price of the product from the product feed. It can be removed or replaced;
• company information - a field for legal information about the company or IE, up to 115 characters. It is obligatory to fill in the data if goods are advertised and sold online. In other cases (for example, if promoting services or an offline store), the field should be left blank;
• CTA - the text of the call to action button - is mandatory.

Carousel for product advertising

This is a format consisting of several slides in one ad. It is used to advertise online stores: the user sees several offers and then can go directly to the page of the desired product or service.
 

Carousel format for product advertising in the Dzen feed

Technical requirements for carousel for product ad carousel:

• description for carousel - text to be displayed in the carousel of products, up to 50 characters:
• description for banner - text of the ad, up to 125 characters;
• long description - the text of the ad that will be displayed in social networks, up to 220 characters. Optional field;
• card title and card description - by default, a product macro with the name of the product from the product feed is substituted in this field. It can be removed or replaced;
• title of the introductory slide - up to 40 characters;
• introductory slide text - up to 47 characters;
• picture for the introductory slide - not less than 600x600px;
• for website advertising - presence of a link to the site on the introductory slide;
• for advertising of applications - presence of tracking link and diplink.

Shoppable Ads

This is a brand-format that combines a video and a product catalog. While watching an advertising video, users also see a clickable product carousel and can go straight to shopping. The carousel can contain from 3 to 20 products. In this way, the Shoppable Ads format helps to solve the image tasks of brands at the same time.
 

Shoppable Ads format in VK video

Technical requirements for carousel for shoppable ads:

• video aspect ratio - 16:9;
• video timing - from 5 to 30 seconds;
• in the desktop version, part of the video may overlap with product cards and video player elements (blind spots). 

Dzen promo

Article promotion in Dzen is a content marketing promotion format which works for the purpose of content marketing. Within the platform, the user sees an ad that leads them to an article published in the channel. The format can help solve image and content challenges a brand faces on Dzen.
 

Promotional articles in the Dzen feed

Technical requirements for carousel for Dzen article promo:

• cover - the first picture in the published material;
• headline - the title of the article up to 70 characters; 
• ad text - the first 170 characters of the article.

In the ad, the user will see the channel name, channel avatar and the necessary tags for advertising: “Promo” and age labeling. The ad is generated automatically from an article in Dzen. To launch an ad, a brand needs an active channel in Dzen and published articles meeting the content requirements of the platform. 
 

Promotional channel in the Dzen feed

Technical requirements for carousel for Dzen channel promo:

• picture - customizable in VK Advertising;
• format - png or jpg/jpeg;
• size - 200 x 1600 for correct cropping for different devices
• the image must meet the requirements for ad moderation in VK Ads;
• headline up to 40 characters - customizable in VK Advertising;
• description up to 25 symbols - customizable in VK Advertising;
• avatar, channel name, verification check mark - will be added automatically from the channel in Dzen;
• presence of “Subscribe” button;
• tags necessary for advertising: “Promo”, age tag, three dots.

VK Ads has a large selection of advertising formats for any campaign purpose. The effectiveness of promotion will depend on competent targeting settings and well-developed creatives. We have written a special article about working with the advertising platform. 

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