Business spending on out of home advertising grew 16.7 percent in 2021. This was after the industry experienced a decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you’ve never run an out of the home advertising (OOH) campaign before, you might be wondering whether the return on investment is worth it. After all, in a world that’s increasingly becoming digital, internet marketing is the go-to strategy for most small businesses.
OOH advertising, whether you’re putting up ads on Times Square billboards or displaying posters in airports, trains, and buses, offers powerful benefits.
Let’s explore some of these benefits.
Expansive Audience Reach
When you’re out and about, how many times do billboards and posters catch your attention?
Of course, not all ads will make sense to you, but one or two will pique your interest and maybe you will take some action, such as looking up the business online or saving the contact number on your phone. Now imagine the sheer number of people seeing those ads every day!
While it’s not possible to accurately measure the number of people an OOH ad reaches, there are ways to get estimates. For example, if a train system serves 100,000 people every day, you can rest assured that your poster ads in the trains will reach a good number of those people.
How big of an audience your OOH ads reach will depend on the channels you use. City square and highway billboards will reach millions of people, while posters in taxis or buses will reach fewer people.
What’s more, unlike in digital channels where users have the power to install ad blockers, OOH ads cannot be blocked by anyone. They’re visible to everyone who can see!
Raise Brand Awareness
With a broad audience, reach comes great brand awareness.
As a consumer, you’ve probably learned of some brands for the first time after seeing their ad on a billboard. That’s how out-of-home advertising works to help brands raise awareness.
OOH, marketing is an attractive prospect for new and small businesses that want to introduce themselves to a wider audience. Increased brand awareness results in more sales.
Cost-Friendly
Many small businesses shy away from running out of home advertising campaigns because they’re perceived to be expensive, especially when compared to internet advertising.
It’s true that city center billboards don’t come cheap. In Times Square, for example, advertisers pay anywhere from $10,000 to $22,000 for two weeks.
However, billboards aren’t the only medium for OOH advertising. There are many OOH mediums that are cost-friendly.
For example, did you know you can use your own car to run an OOH campaign? Just create your ad on a vinyl wrap and install it on the exterior of your car. As you drive around, people will see the ad. In effect, your car becomes a mobile billboard.
There are more cost-effective forms of OOH advertising you can implement. Local transport companies are always offering affordable opportunities for small businesses like yours to run OOH ads.
You Can Run a Targeted Campaign
Target marketing is key to running a successful campaign. There’s not much value in displaying ads to people who don’t need your product or service.
So, if OOH ads are visible to everyone, how is it possible to run a targeted campaign?
Although the level of targeting won’t be as high as what you get with internet advertising, you can still zero in on your target audience with OOH ads. You just need to settle on OOH channels that are more accessible to most of your target audience.
If you’re a travel agency, for example, running OOH ads in the airport gives you a great chance of reaching your target audience. Putting your posters in tour transport vehicles is also ideal.
Content Format Flexibility
Out of home advertising gives you the flexibility to work with different types of content formats.
Want to do a print ad? Spoil yourself with pamphlets, brochures, and newsletters.
Want to do a visual ad? Billboards are all about great, eye-catching images.
Is an audio-visual ad something you’d want? Wait, audio-visual? Yes, these ads aren’t a preserve of internet marketing. With digital out of the home advertising, you can run an OOH ad just like you would on YouTube!
We’ve all seen those massive digital billboards that look like a television. Your ad can run there if you’d like.
There are networks that run these digital billboards, so you have to get in touch with your preferred company and learn more about their requirements.
OOH Advertising Compliments Your Digital Efforts
Of all types of marketing, internet marketing is the clear favorite for many small business owners. It packs major benefits over OOH advertising, but this doesn’t mean they can’t work together.
Smart management of your marketing budget calls for an innovative approach. This is because OOH advertising can complement your internet marketing efforts.
48 percent of consumers are more likely to engage with a digital ad after exposure to the same ad on an OOH medium. So if your internet ads aren’t delivering the results you want, try incorporating some OOH advertising in your campaign.
Reap the Benefits of Out of Home Advertising
Out-of-home advertising might not be attractive in a digital world, but as we’ve demonstrated, there’s a lot for your business to gain. OOH advertising offers a wide audience reach, which is perfect for building brand awareness, is cost-friendly, and can complement your online marketing.
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