Thirteen Facts You Need to Know About Billboard Advertising

As social media continues to grow, it’s easy for small businesses to think it’s the best place for them to advertise. However, billboard advertising has been proven to be a highly effective format for reaching consumer audiences.

If you’re new to billboard advertising, it can be intimidating and confusing to get started. Many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) are familiar with online advertising channels like paid social media ads or Google ads. As social media continues to grow, it’s easy for small businesses to think it’s the best place for them to advertise.

However, billboard advertising has been proven to be a highly effective format for reaching consumer audiences. Billboard advertising allows businesses to get in front of potential customers in a big and bold way while supporting other advertising initiatives. To help you better understand what to expect from billboard advertising, we’ve collected 13 facts that demonstrate the value of this powerful medium:

The Power of Billboards

1. For each dollar spent on OOH advertising, an average $5.97 was generated in product sales. –OAAA (2017)
2. OOH advertising is over twice as efficient as television, radio, newspaper, and magazines at creating online search activations. – Nielsen 2017
3. OOH advertising also beats television, radio, newspaper, and magazines at creating Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram activations. – Nielsen 2017
4. 80% of billboard viewers looked at the advertisement some of the time, 50% reported they noticed ads ‘all the time’. – Mixed Media Group (pre 2016)
5. 50% of those who’ve noticed digital billboards in the past month report high engagement, noticing them “all” or “most” of the time.  – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020

Takeaway: Billboards and OOH advertising are still effective mediums that will never go away. People notice billboards more than you think, and they are a great way to increase brand awareness while working alongside online advertising mediums.

Return on Investment (ROI)

1. 52% of billboard viewers engaged in mobile actions after seeing a digital billboard. These actions included searching online for a business, visiting a business in person, or making a purchase.  – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020
2. Over 25% of those who noticed a digital billboard in this survey made a purchase after visiting that business.  – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020
3. 46% of adults have used an internet search engine to look up information after seeing or hearing something advertised on a billboard, bus shelter, or other OOH format six months before the survey was conducted. – Nielsen 2017
4. 65% of viewers have engaged in at least one measured action after seeing a digital billboard in the past year.  – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020
5. 34% of digital billboard viewers visited an advertiser’s website or searched for them online after seeing a digital billboard in the past year. – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020

1. 32% have visited an advertised store, restaurant, or other business after seeing a digital billboard.  – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020
2. Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020
3. Over half of viewers (52%) have ever noticed a digital billboard that gave directions to a store, business, or restaurant. 57% of those who noticed directions on a digital billboard have visited the business within 30 minutes of viewing the ad. Of those who visited the business within 30 minutes, 93% have ended up making a purchase. – Nielsen Digital Out-of-Home Advertising Report 2020

Takeaway: Billboards work! A strong billboard design with a clear call-to-action is key to seeing a return on investment from billboard advertising. If you run a local shop or restaurant, we always recommend having billboard ads with directions to your place of business. If you want passersby to visit your website, it’s important to put the URL (or a ghost URL) so they can easily find you online.

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Now that you know what results you can expect to see from billboard advertising, it’s time to start creating your campaign! Head to BlipBillboards.com to create an account and start advertising today.