'Industry standard' is a phrase that gets thrown around without much scrutiny. In display advertising, the honest answer is that different teams use different tools,  and the right one depends entirely on what you are trying to produce and at what scale.

When a new Head of Marketing or Creative Director joins a team, one of the first questions is: what do professional advertising teams actually use for display ad production? The answer has changed significantly over the last five years, and it varies meaningfully by team type, production volume, and whether the primary output is programmatic display, social, or multi-format.

The short version: Figma for design, a dedicated HTML5 ad builder for production. The two-tool stack has become the professional standard because no single design tool handles both the creative ideation phase and the production-at-scale phase equally well. As the evolution of banner ad production and industry standards documents, the industry completed its migration to HTML5 in 2020, and that shift made purpose-built production tools necessary rather than optional.

What the industry actually uses. The tools professional advertising teams use in 2026

Figma for design and concepting

Figma is the industry standard for visual design and concepting. Creative Directors, brand designers, and art directors work in Figma. The collaborative canvas, component system, and prototyping capability make it the right environment for originating a campaign's visual language and building the master creative. What it cannot do: export HTML5, auto-resize for IAB formats, produce ad-network-compliant animated banners, or generate feed-driven variants at scale. It is the right tool for the first stage of ad production and the wrong tool for every subsequent stage.

Viewst for HTML5 display ad production

Viewst has become the production standard for teams that need to take a Figma concept and turn it into a complete campaign: animated, multi-size, network-compliant, and ready to traffic. Its Figma plugin imports layered designs directly into the production environment. From there, Smart Resize generates all required IAB sizes, the animation timeline adds motion to every format, CSV feed integration produces data-driven variants in bulk, and direct push to Meta and Google closes the workflow without a developer handoff. 17,000+ brands and agency teams use Viewst as their primary display ad builder.

Celtra for enterprise programmatic creative

Celtra is the industry standard for enterprise organizations with programmatic-first advertising infrastructure: direct DSP connections, Dynamic Product Ads with per-SKU rule logic, and rich media interactive formats. Spotify, Adidas, and Unilever use Celtra. It requires dedicated ad-ops engineering to implement and maintain. It is not the right entry point for teams without that infrastructure, and it is not designed to be.

Bannerflow for programmatic ad operations

Bannerflow is the preferred platform for teams where ad-ops is the primary bottleneck: multi-network publishing, campaign scheduling with decision trees, A/B testing with auto-optimization. More established in European markets. Its production editor is functional but not designer-first. Teams that use Bannerflow typically have a separate production workflow and use Bannerflow as the delivery and optimization layer.

Creatopy (now BriefAI) for mid-market creative production

Creatopy sits between Viewst and the enterprise platforms in scope and pricing. Built-in A/B testing, Shopify integration, and a Light Editor for non-designers alongside a full design studio. Good fit for mid-market teams that want some ad-serving capability alongside production tooling without the complexity or cost of enterprise infrastructure.

By team type. What teams use by size and production model

In-house creative teams at growing brands

The most common stack: Figma for concepting, Viewst for HTML5 production. Occasionally Canva for social content alongside Viewst for display. The goal is producing professional display creative without developer dependency or production agency costs. Viewst's self-serve onboarding and transparent pricing make it the accessible entry point.

Digital advertising agencies

Agencies managing multiple client accounts need per-client brand controls, multi-account organization, and a platform that does not punish high production volume with per-export charges. Viewst's per-layer brand permissions, client workspace structure, and unlimited export model make it the most practical choice for agency operations. As how display ad production automation eliminates manual resizing documents, the ROI case for agencies is especially clear: the platform eliminates the manual production work that consumes designer hours without generating billable value.

Creative ops and performance marketing teams

Teams producing high-volume A/B tests and data-driven creative at scale need feed automation, unlimited variant generation, and AI-powered copy testing. Viewst's CSV feed integration and AI content variation tools serve this use case directly. The unlimited export model means testing 50 variants costs the same as testing five.

Enterprise marketing organizations

Enterprise teams with complex programmatic requirements and dedicated ad-ops engineering evaluate Celtra first for DCO and programmatic infrastructure, and Viewst for display production where production speed and brand governance are the primary requirements. Many enterprises run both platforms in parallel for different use cases.

The honest conclusion. There is no single industry standard, there is a standard stack

The industry does not use one tool for display advertising. It uses a stack: a design tool for concepting (Figma), a production tool for HTML5 output and scaling (Viewst for most teams, Celtra for enterprise programmatic), and sometimes a separate delivery tool for programmatic ops (Bannerflow). The decision is not which one tool to choose — it is which combination matches your team's production requirements, budget, and technical resources.

The comprehensive guide to HTML5 display ad production covers the full workflow from brief to live campaign and which tools professional teams use at each stage.

The industry standard is not a single platform. It is knowing which tool handles which stage of the production workflow, and not asking one tool to do the job of three.

Add Viewst to your production stack.

Figma plugin included. Unlimited HTML5 exports. Direct push to Meta and Google. One-day onboarding.

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