Factors That Affect LED Screens Advertising Cost, Advantages to the Advertiser

Billboard advertising costs are referenced in cost per mille (CPM), or cost per thousand impressions, and are affected by circulation, demographics, and impressions. Together, these factors inform the billboard’s out-of-home (OOH) rating, as determined by Geopath, an audience location measurement tool.

A billboard’s OOH rating is based on three factors:

• Circulation: Circulation is the total volume of traffic that passes the billboard, as derived from transportation authorities. The circulation does not take into account whether passersby see your ad.
• Demographics: A billboard’s demographics are a breakout by age, gender, and income level of people who typically pass a billboard. Expect to pay more to advertise to people with higher income levels.
• Impressions: Impressions are the likely number of people who actually see the ad, based on the size of the billboard, visibility, the speed at which people are passing, and other factors. This is derived from the circulation and the location of the billboard.

Advantages to the Advertiser

• Zero production cost (with a static billboard the advertiser has to be pay to produce a vinyl to post)
• Quicker posting time/no posting window (with a static billboard, you need to account for a few days to a week to print your vinyl and then the outdoor company technically has a 5 day posting window to get you up) – with digital they can “post” you almost immediately
• Creative rotations, copy changing & day-parting – with a digital bulletin you run multiple different creative executions, or change them out hourly/daily/weekly or even by day-part (i.e. different creative in the morning vs afternoon vs evening)
• Additional creative flexibility for dynamic creative – digital boards can do countdowns, live score updates, weather triggers and so many other things
• More flexibility for short-term flights (typically billboards are sold in 4-week flights but with digital you can easily buy a shorter duration)