How to Share Banner Ads with Clients for Review (HTML5, Static, GIF, Video)

You finished the campaign. Six sizes in HTML5, the same six as static backups, two videos for the social placements. Now you have to show it to the client, and this is where a good day turns into a bad week. Here is every way I have seen banners shared, why each one fails, and what works.

Why banners are harder to share than any other design deliverable

A logo is a PNG. A website is a URL. A banner campaign is a folder of zips that have to be unpacked and served by a web server before they show anything, sitting next to images that are fine as they are, next to videos that are too big for email. Three formats, three behaviours, one client who just wants to see "the banners".

The specific ways it breaks:

• HTML5 zips: the client double-clicks the zip, sees a folder of .js files and an index.html, opens it, and either gets a blank page (assets blocked from file://), a banner that runs at the wrong size, or a security warning. Then they email you "it doesn't open".
• Static JPG/PNG: works, but the client sees a 970×250 file at 40% zoom in a mail client and judges the typography on that. Or previews it in Finder at thumbnail size.
• Animated GIF: plays once in some viewers, loops in others, doesn't play at all in Outlook's preview. "Is it supposed to move?"
• Video MP4: too big for email, so it goes to Drive/WeTransfer, where it is separated from the banners it belongs to.

And regardless of format: there is no place to comment. Feedback comes back as an email thread, a Slack message, a screenshot with a red circle, and a phone call, and you reconcile them by hand.

Option 1: email attachments

Free, universal, and the worst option. Zips get stripped by corporate mail filters, HTML5 doesn't run from a folder, videos bounce over the size limit, and version two arrives as "Re: Re: Re: banners" with the old files still attached. Use it only for a single static image to someone who will not have feedback.

Option 2: Google Drive / Dropbox / WeTransfer

Fine for transferring files, useless for reviewing them. HTML5 zips still don't run. Nobody can comment on a banner inside a Drive folder; comments land on the folder or on a Google Doc next to it. Versions pile up as banner_300x250_v2_FINAL_final2.zip. And once the link is shared, you have no idea who opened what.

Option 3: Slack / Teams

Good for the "quick look", terrible for anything that needs to be found later. The banner is in a thread; the feedback is in a different thread; the approval is a thumbs-up emoji from someone who may or may not have the authority to approve. Three weeks later nobody can find which version legal signed off. I wrote a separate post about video approvals in Slack and Drive because video is where this hurts most.

Option 4: unzip on your own hosting and send links

The old-school agency way. Unpack each zip on an FTP server, send agency.com/clients/acme/spring/300x250/. It works, it runs the HTML5 correctly, and it is exactly what a preview tool does under the hood, minus everything else: no overview page of all sizes, no comments, no approvals, no versions, and someone has to maintain the server and remember to delete last year's campaigns.

Option 5: a banner preview tool

This is the category built for the problem: Adpiler, BannerPeek and a few others. The idea is the same in all of them:

1. You upload the zips, images and videos of a campaign.
2. The tool unpacks the HTML5, detects each size (from the ad.size meta tag or the file name), serves it from a CDN, and lays every size out on one page, running live at real scale.
3. You send the client one link. No account, no download, no "how do I open this".
4. The client clicks on a banner to leave a comment pinned to that spot (and, in BannerPeek, to that second of the animation), and clicks Approve. Name, time and IP are recorded.
5. You upload the revision; the client refreshes the same link and sees version 2.

The differences between tools are price (Adpiler starts at $49/month; BannerPeek has a free plan and Pro at $12/month), and features around the edges: white-label, social mockups, team seats, preview on real websites. For the core job of "show my client the campaign and get an answer", they are equivalent.

The workflow that actually works

Whatever tool you use, the process that saves the most time is:

• One link per campaign, not per file. Clients review campaigns, not banners. All sizes, all formats, on one page, grouped how the media plan groups them (desktop / mobile / by language).
• Sizes detected, not typed. If you have to fill a form per file, you will skip it, and the client will see "banner_final_v3" instead of "300×250".
• Comments on the creative, not in email. A pin on the banner is worth ten sentences of "the thing at the top right, in the second scene".
• Approval with a name and a time. Not a thumbs-up. When the campaign goes live with a typo, you want to know who approved it and when.
• Versions on the same link. The client should never have to find the new link. The old link shows the new file.
• Password when it matters. Unreleased product, embargoed pricing: one password on the preview page, no account creation for the client.

Static and image banners: don't overthink it

For statics and GIFs the same rule applies: one page, real size, comment on the image. Don't send a 970×250 as an attachment and expect anyone to judge it correctly. Put it on a preview page at 100% next to its siblings, and the "can you make the logo bigger" conversation gets shorter.

Try it on the next campaign

BannerPeek does the above for HTML5, static, GIF and video, with one link per campaign, drag-and-drop groups on upload, pinned comments, approvals and versions. There is a free plan, no credit card. Drop your current campaign in and send the link; you will know in five minutes whether your clients prefer it to the zip.