5 costly mistakes to avoid with outdoor advertising

The opinions expressed by entrepreneurs contributors are their own.

Inflation is hitting marketers hard, with broadcast and digital media costs rising 31.2% from pre-pandemic levels. This is the biggest jump in two decades, according to Warc's August 2022 global advertising trends analysis. As a result, brands are increasingly allocating a larger share of their budget to outdoor advertising (OOH).

In these difficult times, this medium remains remarkably profitable and offers a good return on investment, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). However, while OOH advertising appears to be fairly straightforward, strategy mistakes can be costly. Here are the top five mistakes to watch out for and how to avoid them:

Related: 9 Good Reasons to Consider Outdoor Advertising

Mistake #1: Launching a test campaign in a top 5 DMA

Most of the big brands are based in big cities. So it makes sense that they want to start in their own backyard. However, this is a costly mistake. Large DMAs require 20 times the budget to achieve the same level of penetration as a smaller market. With test budgets, marketers often make the mistake of allocating initial budgets to high-cost, high-noise markets.

For example, an online OOH shopping platform shows that an entry-level campaign in New York would represent an investment of $420,000, while similar levels of penetration in markets like New York -Orleans, Tulsa or Nashville would be $15,000 to $18,000. Most brands with customers across the country would need to expand their reach and take advantage of lower cost markets to properly measure the impact of their outdoor advertising.

Mistake #2: Tracking the wrong metrics for a campaign

Most see outdoor advertising as a building channel, and of course it is. However, it is also so so much more. When it comes to modern OOH, it would be a mistake to ignore other key metrics that advertisers can benefit from. These include:

Increased website traffic and online conversion events

Increased CTRs on digital advertising

Increase in mobile app downloads

Increasing sales through causal impact analysis

When a consumer has been exposed to outdoor advertising, there are a number of positive actions they can take. For example, consumers who view a billboard from their vehicle are more likely to notice the ad, read it, and respond favorably to it. However, these stats are often overlooked because marketers aren't looking at the right metrics.

Related: 4 Tips for Designing an Attractive Outdoor Advertising in 2022

Mistake #3: Losing inventory cheaply

One of the best features of OOH advertising is the number of formats that can be used and from where. Think outside the box (or off the billboard) and cast a wide net for available inventory when planning a campaign – this includes working outside of big vendors. For example, there is a misconception that a few companies own most of the outdoor advertising space. In fact, there are thousands of media owners in the United States and dozens in every market. Regional and local media owners account for about 50% of inventory, so if you...