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The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released mobile ad unit guidelines which address the buying, selling, and creation of mobile ads for smartphones, feature phones and tablets.

The MMA analyzed over 150 billion mobile ad impressions and identified a list of 60 common formats which was pared down to just six which the trade group is calling the Mobile Universal Ad Package.

"The guidelines issued today vastly simplify the mobile ad landscape, creating six standard ad unit sizes, out of the tangle of the more than 60 unit sizes currently in use in the marketplace," said MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart. "By standardizing around a limited and widely accepted set of ad sizes, mobile advertising becomes exponentially easier to add to the marketing mix for marketers everywhere."

The guidelines call for three small size ads meant for feature phones including 120×120, 168×28 and 216×36 (in pixels). Smartphones have three banner ad sizes which are larger at 300×250, 300×50 and 320×50.

Networks and publishers will have until the end of March 2012 to become compliant.