Is outdoor advertising worth it in 2023?

Outdoor advertising is an iconic advertising channel. But is it worth it today? Read more to find out.

Next to television, outdoor advertising is one of the most familiar to the average consumer. But for businesses, it’s one of the worst types of advertising investments. Or is it?

Outdoor advertising has clear benefits and disadvantages, and its worth ultimately depends on your business’ strategic goals. That said, it’s a more opaque type of advertising compared to modern options like search, display, and social ads.

So is outdoor advertising right for your brand? Let’s look at its pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

What is outdoor advertising?

First, let’s be clear about what we mean by outdoor advertising. When you hear the term, your initial thought is probably billboards dotting highways. While billboards are definitely the most well-known, they’re certainly not the only kind of outdoor advertisement. Other mediums include:

Transit benches, shelters, and wraps
Construction or commercial building advertisements
Banners
Mall and airport advertising

With the increasing accessibility of digital signage, the options are only increasing. Generally, outdoor advertising refers to any type of advertisement that your potential customers could see when they’re on the go. For that reason, outdoor advertising is often referred to as out-of-home advertising.

The benefits of outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising is popular with many businesses. The benefits can help us understand why.

1. Outdoor advertisements off a familiar format

Like television ads, outdoor advertising is typically an extremely-familiar format for most viewers. This actually carries two advantages in itself:

It’s easily digestible. Messages on outdoor advertisements are about as brief as it gets.
It’s trusted. Your audience knows it’s an ad, and they’ll never be duped or feel wronged by it, which could be a risk with some forms of advertising like influencer advertising.

2. They can help build brand awareness

Building brand awareness is the main advantage of outdoor advertising. You’re getting your business in front of people. Say you’re an HVAC business: you might run a billboard ad about air conditioning ahead of the summer months to build brand awareness as people begin checking in on their AC units.

3. You have a semi-captive audience

When people are at a bus stop, on the highway, or walking through a mall, they can’t really escape your ad. Compared to most forms of digital advertising, you can’t simply scroll past it.

The disadvantages of outdoor advertising

If you find yourself reading an article boasting the wonders of outdoor advertising, there’s a 98.7% chance that it’s been written by—you guessed it—an outdoor advertiser. Let’s be clear, outdoor advertising has its share of advantages. But these are often used to mask the fact that outdoor advertising has a fair share of problems for the modern business.

Let’s examine those issues now.

1. Outdoor ads are extremely difficult to measure

In the world of advertising, two of the most important measurements are your cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and your return on ad spend (ROAS). With outdoor advertising, it’s next to impossible to measure these critical metrics.

You might be tempted to use outdoor advertising to build brand awareness, but it’s realistically not a great strategy. How will you know if it’s working? You won’t, because there’s no way to attribute new business to it, unless a customer flat-out tells you.

Let’s say you run an HVAC business. You want to run outdoor ads to get in front of potential customers so that you’re top-of-mind when they need a service pro to help them. It sounds like an OK plan, but it requires constant spending and there are numerous other points in the customer journey that can be pinpointed more effectively and efficiently.

2. The format restricts your messaging

Outdoor advertising isn’t ‘skippable,’ but it doesn’t stand a chance to engage viewers. Viewers are driving or walking past—they’re not going to stop and read on. Thus, your message needs to be incredibly concise. Even directing viewers to a website or phone number is a big ask.

Compare this to paid social media advertising. While engaging your target customer can still be difficult, you’re meeting them on a channel more conducive to engaging messaging. And if they bite, you could reel that fish into the bottom of the funnel in a single interaction.

3. Your ability to target customers is virtually nonexistent

With outdoor advertising, the most specifically you can target customers is by geographic area. Compare this to digital advertising, where you can target potential customers who have recently viewed certain things, have searched specific terms, or even people who have searched your competitors.

Outdoor advertising has a low cost per thousand impressions (CPM), and it swiftly gets a lot of eyes on your brand’s messaging. The problem is that they’re not the right eyes.

Tips for successful outdoor advertising campaigns

Modern advertising has dramatically shifted how we perceive and use traditional advertising channels like outdoor ads. For these investments to be successful and worth your business’ resources, they need to be a cut above the average billboard.

If you ultimately choose to use outdoor advertising, follow these three tips to get the most out of it:

Make it measurable (if possible): If you’re doing a campaign on transit shelters, mall signs, or airport signs, consider adding a QR code that links to a page with a UTM code. This way, you’ll at least get some insight into how effective your campaign was.
Lean into virality: If you want to build brand awareness with outdoor advertising, a great way to do that is to… get the ad online. Jaw-dropping, share-worthy designs can earn you more exposure than your advertisement would have alone.
Account for seasonality: If your outdoor ads aren’t timeless, make them timely. ‘Winter is coming—get ready with…’ You’ll see many eCommerce stores with countdown timers encouraging you to buy now. The same principles can be applied to outdoor advertising. Create urgency. Drive action.

Want to head online instead? We’re here to help.

If you’re looking to advertise outdoors, we’ve got good news and bad news. First, the bad news: we don’t do outdoor ads. Now, for the good news: we can help you get in front of the right customers. If you want to learn more about what digital marketing can look like for your business, get in touch with our team today.