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Banner Ad Best Practices: A Practical Developer Guide

Advertisement requirements

Check our Advertisement requirements page for any restrictions.

Banner ads provide steady, passive income and are a great addition to your monetization strategy. While they don't offer the high revenue per ad of rewarded video, their consistent visibility makes them a reliable revenue stream. The best banner ad placements keep them visible without getting in the way of your game's UI or player experience.

UI/UX Design & Layout Strategy

Placing banners carefully helps keep players engaged and prevents accidental clicks.

1. Reserve Dedicated Space Early

Design your UI with banners in mind, so they don't overlap with buttons or core game information.

  • Responsive Design: You can make your UI canvas dynamically resize to accommodate the banner's dimensions.
  • Background Contrast: Give the banner a solid, neutral background container so it doesn't clash with your game art.

2. Safe Zones & Placement

Keep banners flush against a screen edge (top, bottom, left, or right), not floating over gameplay or core UI.

  • Top Placement: Often better for portrait games where thumbs rest at the bottom.
  • Bottom Placement: Ideal for landscape games where critical UI elements (like health bars or scores) are usually at the top.
  • Left / Right Placement: Works well on wide desktop menu screens with unused side margins. Reserve a fixed-width column (for example 160x600 or 300x250) and keep the main UI centered so the ad does not overlap buttons or text. Avoid tall side banners on narrow mobile layouts where they would shrink the playable area too much.

3. Avoid Clutter

Keep a clear visual separation between the banner and your game's interactive elements. A margin of 10-15 pixels between the ad container and any clickable game UI works well.

Actionable Tips:

  • Keep Controls Away: Keep buttons, joysticks, and menus far away from the banner area.
  • Hide During Gameplay: Hide banners when active gameplay starts, and show them again on menus or transition screens.
  • Transition Buffers: Avoid showing banners immediately after a screen transition in the exact spot the player was just clicking.

Maximizing Viewability & Revenue

Banners only generate revenue if they're on screen and active for at least 5 seconds.

Persistent UI Screens

Use banners on screens where players spend a lot of time:

  • Inventory management and crafting screens
  • City building or base management views
  • Matchmaking lobbies and leaderboards
  • End-of-match summary screens

Optimizing and Iterating on Your Banners

It's always a good idea to experiment with your placements. You can try:

  • Top vs. bottom vs. left/right placement on menu screens
  • Banner on main menu vs. level-complete screens only
  • Banner sizes (e.g., standard banner vs. medium rectangle in menus)

Keep an eye on your Day 1 Retention and Session Length. If adding a banner hurts your retention, you may want to adjust its placement.

Restrictions

Refresh cooldowns, session limits, and clearing can be found in our Advertisement requirements.

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