December 20, 2020 Published by Maria De La Peña

Top Advantages of Billboard Advertising You Need to Know

The advantages of billboard advertising can help your business gain visibility, reach a wider audience, and provide brand awareness.

Photographer: Trent Denson | Source: Unsplash

One of the advantages of billboard advertising is it can help you reach more people. It is still applicable even with the wide use of online marketing and other forms of advertising.

Some magazines and newspapers have gone digital as subscription and advertising revenues continue to decline. Similarly, radio and TV now have online alternatives. Meanwhile, billboards on the roads and in almost all available public places are here to stay. It will remain an essential marketing tool just as similar advertising platforms.

Does Billboard Advertising Still Work?

Businesses can benefit from the advantages of billboard advertising to make it work for their marketing. For instance, OOHToday.com mentioned an established car dealer in California increased its market share to at least 97% in five locations. The company used outdoor advertising in 2019. Geetha Ranganathan, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said that digital billboard companies generate almost 20% to 25% of revenue.

Therefore, billboard ads are an effective way to get your message across. Here you can discover the benefits of outdoor advertising.

What Are The Advantages of Billboard Advertising

1. Visibility

When you are on the road, you can’t help but notice the billboards on display along the highway. You can skip YouTube ads, close a website, and change the radio or TV channel. On the contrary, you cannot ignore those large displays.

Billboards do not need more effort from its audience. You do not have to turn on the TV, read a magazine, or log on to social media. It captures people’s sight in an instant, one of the advantages of outdoor media. Furthermore, you’re not paying for a limited number of exposure as billboard ads are visible to the most number of people.

According to Statista, traffic volume in the United States reached 3.3 trillion vehicle-miles of travel between January to July 2019. Then it’s estimated to be about 213 billion vehicle-miles in May 2020.

2. Practical

Rain or shine, outdoor media are on display. It likewise serves as a semi-permanent exhibit of your products and services. Billboards are available to be seen throughout the day. It is shown without the need for the technical know-how and is not difficult to manage. Internet ads require you to dive into a lot of data, thus making it hard to implement.

Billboard advertising is now available in various formats. It’s not limited to the usual static printed ads. There are digital LED screens, mobile versions on vehicles around town, interactive displays, and even online billboard ads. You only have to choose which form of billboard advertising will better suit the needs of your business.

Maintaining billboard ads is not an issue as the outdoor advertising provider handles it. They make sure your ad appears the way you want it displayed. You don’t have to manage and optimize your ads now and then.

3. Specific Location

From busy intersections to sidewalks, location is one of the advantages of billboard advertising. It depends on your marketing goals as you target vehicle traffic or foot traffic, or both.

An outdoor billboard ad is all the more crucial if your business requires people to visit your location in person. You can use billboard ads to provide directions to your store or showroom. Another use of billboards is to direct them to a nearby area - where your product is available.

Furthermore, a report by the United Nations shows that the volume of people on the road expects to be more than 80 trillion passenger-kilometers by 2030. That’s a lot of movement. Your billboard ad could be along the way, being noticed by people as they go about their day. It is about choosing the most appropriate area where your target market is walking or driving through.

4. Wider Audience

Advertising on the Internet gives you the option to target a specific location or audience. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV focuses on a group of people who are reading or watching content.

It’s indeed great to target people who are already interested in your business as they’re more likely to convert. But ads like these provide a narrow reach. The broader aspect of a billboard ad takes on a limited approach to advertising.

In billboard advertising, you get the advantage of spreading the word to a diverse population from different backgrounds. You cannot, of course, predict who is going to be a customer. With a billboard ad catching everyone’s attention, you can attract even the type of customers you never expect to buy what you offer.

Among the advantages of billboard advertising is that it can help convince noncustomers to take a look at what your business can do for them. Billboard advertising not only helps retain existing customers; it can also make you acquire new ones.

5. Brand Awareness

People who have seen a billboard may not immediately do what the ad instructs. It may include visiting the website, downloading an app, or using a promo code. Customers do not engage right away. Yet, it’s more effective when it comes to brand recall. One advantage of using billboards as an advertising medium is that it boosts your brand identity.

The more your brand is consistently visible in various locations, the more people have an introduction to your brand. You are already one step ahead in the sales funnel. Customers will then see you as an option if they need your product or service. Take an example, when customers are looking where to eat. A restaurant with a mouth-watering billboard ad will entice them to try and taste the meal.

Another advantage of billboard installation is it can also become a landmark. Such was the case of a Coca-Cola sign in San Francisco that became a recognizable part of the Interstate 80 skyline before its removal. In the same way, Times Square in New York has a lot of billboards where you can’t avoid the outdoor ads to be a background in your selfies and pictures.

If you have ever taken a picture of a busy urban area, chances are there is a visible billboard or signage captured in the photo. Outdoor media does that, and it is truly one of the benefits of billboard advertising.

Are Billboards Worth it?

With the advantages of outdoor advertising, putting up a billboard ad has benefits for a business.

Want to know how much it costs? Massive billboard advertisements have a price tag of up to $50,000 a month, according to Ron Schultz of Billboard Connection Outdoor Advertising. An LED digital billboard costs anywhere from $5,000 to $180,000 to install. It also depends on the size you want for your ads to appear.

The cost of billboard ads is lower than a mere 30-seconds spot on TV, which can reach up to millions of dollars. On the other hand, it’s also way higher than online advertising. Despite the costs, the dollars spent on a billboard ad outweighs the benefits of outdoor advertising.

AdQuick, an out-of-home advertising platform, claims that around 0.1% to 5% of people convert from the billboard ads. It’s more or less the same with the 0.72% conversion rate from the Google Ads Display network. The result is according to a Wordstream analysis in July 2020.

It takes effort to have an Internet ad running smoothly. If you wish to run the ads by yourself, you have to know the bidding process and how to set it up. Accordingly, if you want to hire a third-party company to manage your ads, you need to be aware of management fees on top of the advertising costs. Thus, it is one of the advantages of billboard advertising. You’re able to reach out to more people with less effort.

Billboard Advertising Effectiveness

You need a design that will best appeal to your brand and your customers. It is one way to get started with a billboard ad. Outdoor advertising companies will require a file in the proper media format. So it’s best to trust design experts for the right image or video.

Have a visually-appealing design that pops out of the space to direct even more eyeballs to your billboard ad. Working with the right designer can help you translate your concept into an imposing image that sticks to people’s memory. Striking outdoor advertisements will make your business stand out. On the whole, a billboard ad may even convert to a bill from a customer.

Ready to put up a billboard ad? Delesign has design services for your image and video requirements. You work directly with a designer who will take on your project. Additionally, there’s no need for a per-project costing as Delesign provides a flat monthly fee. Hence, you get to have unlimited revisions until the right billboard design matches your needs.

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Maria De La PeñaMaria is a Content Writer with keen interest in eCommerce and Internet Marketing. She is a Communications graduate and understands what it takes to write persuasive copy and blog posts. Outside of work, you can find her mini-blogging about her life on social media.