Great advertising campaigns are all about delivering the right message at the right times to drive someone to action. Critically, great advertising means reaching a target customer multiple times, with recent research pointing to as many as 8 touch points required to move a customer through the sales pipeline.
Since your customers aren't always in the same place, you'll need to employ a strong, data-driven marketing mix that reaches your target customers exactly where they are. Out-of-home (OOH) marketing, like traditional billboards, is one way to ensure that you maintain a presence throughout your customers' day.
Naturally, cost is an important factor to consider when building the perfect marketing mix. Let's explore the cost of a traditional billboard and see if it's the right fit for your marketing mix.
What Determines the Cost of a Traditional Billboard
The cost of traditional out-of-home marketing, like billboards, varies widely. On the higher end, a short campaign can cost upwards of $50,000 for a billboard in Times Square. A staggering figure like that would require a strong justification to incorporate renting a billboard like that into your marketing mix. When budgeting for OOH marketing, the basic who, what, where, and when will help determine how much a prospective OOH campaign might cost.
Out-of-Home Rating
The out-of-home rating combines the who and where questions into one concise metric that helps determine the cost of a billboard. If you're looking to advertise to higher-income demographics, you'll need to advertise near where they go and live, which can impact the overall cost of a billboard campaign. The OOH Rating also considers how many people will encounter the advertisement based on the billboard's location. Understandably, busy roads and walkways in urban areas incur higher costs than a similar sized billboard in a more rural area.
Billboard Production Considerations
What does your dream billboard look like? Its size and design will impact the overall price of the campaign. If the billboard incorporates oversized design elements or complicated attachments, the cost will increase. Costs for graphic designers and other artistic professionals also need to be included in the budget. There are also the costs for materials and installation that can drive the cost of a billboard up.
How Long Will the Billboard Stay Up?
A final consideration impacting the overall cost of a traditional OOH campaign is its length. All other factors being equal, a campaign that lasts a few days should cost less than a months-long campaign.
Where Traditional OOH Falls Short
98% of people will see a billboard this week, so OOH advertising deserves consideration in your overall marketing plan. But that marketing plan must be data-driven and optimized to deliver above average return on investment. Traditional billboards are static, make measuring impact difficult, and aren't targeted, meaning they no longer cut it in the fast-paced and highly competitive race for attention.
Traditional billboards are static, leading to a one-way conversation without room for engagement. You deliver your message but have no way of knowing how that message resonated with target customers. Worse still, you don't have a meaningful method to measure and track impact over the course of the campaign. And because there's no way to precisely target customers, precious ad spending can get tied up in an ineffective traditional OOH campaign.
Basically, if you're considering a traditional billboard, ask yourself, "Does it make sense for my brand to advertise on the side of a highway at 3 a.m.?"If the answer is no, traditional billboards probably don't make sense. You wouldn't advertise on a particular app when your customer isn't using it, so why do the same in your OOH marketing?
Digital Out-of-Home is a Solution for the Future
What if we told you there was a way to communicate your brand's value at the right time to the right customer without wondering if your message was resonating? Maximize the value of every marketing dollar in an instant with Digital Out-of-Home Marketing.
What is Digital Out-of-Home Marketing
Digital Out-of-Home combines the targeted, engaging, and measurable impacts of digital marketing methods with the unparalleled visibility of traditional Out-of-Home marketing. It includes digital messaging displayed on digital billboards, point-of-purchase systems, digital building walls, screens on public transit, and large interior digital screens.
Crucially, all these digital screens are located where your customers go, and you can advertise at the exact moment their eyes meet the screen.
How DOOH Eclipses Traditional OOH
Imagine having a conversation with your customer as they make their way to your location. Starting from the drive to you, continuing on the walk from the car, and ending right at the moment they're going to purchase. That's the power of Digital Out-of-Home marketing.
Digital OOH is more relevant to your customers because it allows you to target customers more precisely than traditional OOH methods. Digital OOH can be targeted to appear only at certain times of day, in a specific location, or around a particular point of interest. And unlike traditional billboards, these ads can be customized to appeal to specific customer segments.
Digital OOH also offers unrivaled measurability compared to traditional billboards. Never question whether an advertisement was effectively placed. Keep track of unique impressions, costs, and locations where the ad appeared, as well as attribution and engagement.
Plus, with programmatic buying platforms, you can save money managing ad buys. Automate your ad to appear when certain conditions are met in particular locations. Deliver an ad for your umbrella at the mall as soon as it starts raining. DOOH did that.
Don't waste a dollar of your marketing budget—turn to DOOH for an unbeatable return on investment.
Trust CMG to Optimize Your Marketing Mix
Work with us and gain access to more than 500,000 screens in 210+ markets. With that reach, CMG can put you in front of your customers whenever they leave the house. Create a targeted, dynamic, engaging campaign that adapts to real-time feedback.
From the start of your campaign to the analysis that informs the next one, our expert team of digital marketers will steer your DOOH campaign. Optimize your marketing mix with CMG—before the weather changes.
