Static
A static display ad is an image that does not contain any animation. It is faster to produce than a GIF or HTML5 display ad.
GIF
GIF display ads contain animated elements. When requesting a GIF ad, please describe the animated sequence as best as possible. Usually a brief description of each slide’s copy and imagery will suffice. Keep in mind that GIFs cannot be less than 4 frames per second meaning the animation will not be as smooth as a HTML5 ad. They also must be under 150kb in file size so the complexity of the animation is limited to simpler kinds of movement.
HTML5
HTML5 ads also contain animated elements, but instead of a single file it is a zip folder of multiple files. Typically the animation in an HTML5 ad is smoother than GIF animation, but still has the same file size restriction that the GIF has (150k). Due to this limitation, typically HTML5 ads just have text rotating instead of images swapping.