Out of home advertising: types, costs and how to measure it in store
Short answer: out of home (OOH) advertising is any ad people see outside their home: billboards, digital screens, bus shelters, transit and screens in malls or gyms. It is a $9.46 billion market in the US. It is sold on estimated impressions. For a retailer, the number that matters is how many of those people walk into your stores.
OOH is growing again, and digital screens now make up more than a third of it. Retailers use it to stay visible around their stores. This guide covers the formats, what they cost, how the industry measures them, and how to read OOH on real store visits.
Types of out of home advertising
| Format | Examples | Typical use for a retailer |
|---|---|---|
| Billboards | Highway bulletins, roadside posters | Awareness on the roads customers use |
| Digital billboards (DOOH) | Rotating LED screens | Short flights, timed messages, quick tests |
| Street furniture | Bus shelters, benches, kiosks | Neighborhood reach around a store |
| Transit | Buses, subway cars, stations | Urban commuters |
| Place-based screens | Malls, gyms, gas stations, airports | Reach close to the point of purchase |
The US OOH market
US out of home revenue reached a record $9.46 billion in 2025, up 3.6% on 2024, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). Digital OOH made up 36.3% of that total and grew 10.5% in a year.
More digital screens means shorter flights, programmatic buying and more ways to test. It also means more inventory to choose from, and more ways to spend on screens your customers never pass.
How much OOH costs
| Format | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Traditional billboard, small to mid-size market | $750 – $3,000 per month |
| Traditional billboard, major metro | $10,000+ per month |
| Digital billboard, shared rotation (small to mid-size market) | $300 – $1,500 per month |
| Transit ads | $300 – $1,000 per month |
| Benches and small formats | $100 – $400 per month |
| Programmatic digital OOH | About $3 – $15 per thousand impressions |
Printing and installation come on top for static formats. Full details by market in our billboard cost guide.
How OOH is measured today
OOH audiences are estimated, not counted. Geopath, the industry’s audience measurement body, starts from traffic counts and travel surveys, then applies a visibility adjustment based on eye-tracking studies to estimate how many people are likely to see each panel.
- Could see, not did see. Impressions describe the opportunity to see an ad, not actual exposure.
- Modeled, not observed. Figures come from traffic data, surveys and models.
- Response tracking is partial. Promo codes and vanity URLs only capture the few people who respond.
- Before-and-after is fragile. It only works if nothing else changes during the campaign.
The question that matters for retailers
An impression report tells you how many cars drove past. It doesn’t tell you how many of your customers were in them.
Kairos measures OOH in real store visits, with sensors in the stores of the retailers we work with. Across our barometer of 45,000 equipped stores, 46% of a billboard budget and 46% of a digital OOH budget are spent on people who never visit the advertiser’s stores.
Calculate your own media waste with your channel and budget.
How to measure OOH in store
- Count real visits. A sensor in each store records visits. No third-party location data. Why beacons beat GPS.
- Match visits to panels. Reconcile store visitors with each panel’s location and flight dates, or each screen’s play logs.
- Read each panel. Share of your store visitors reached, cost per exposed visitor, and contribution to store revenue.
- Reallocate. Keep the panels that reach your customers. Move the rest before you renew.
Buying OOH for a store network
- Start from your real customers. Map where your store visitors actually come from before picking locations. Trade area analysis.
- Don’t assume closer is better. A panel next to the store can miss the routes your customers take.
- Test on digital first. Short DOOH flights let you compare locations before committing to a long static contract.
- Decide renewals panel by panel. Contract terms are long. The read should come before the renewal date.
Frequently asked questions
What is out of home advertising?
Out of home advertising is any advertising people see outside their home: billboards, digital screens, bus shelters, transit ads and screens in places such as malls, gyms and airports.
What are the main types of OOH advertising?
The main types are billboards, digital billboards, street furniture such as bus shelters and benches, transit advertising, and place-based screens in venues like malls, gyms and gas stations.
How much does out of home advertising cost?
A traditional billboard costs about $750 to $3,000 a month in small and mid-size US markets, and $10,000 or more in major metros. Digital screens in shared rotation start around $300 a month. Programmatic digital OOH runs about $3 to $15 per thousand impressions.
How is OOH advertising measured?
The industry estimates audiences with Geopath data built from traffic counts, travel surveys and visibility studies. These are estimates of who could see an ad. Retailers can go further by measuring the share of their real store visitors each panel reached.
Is digital OOH better than static billboards?
Neither is better by default. Digital allows short flights, timed messages and quick tests, but you share the screen with other advertisers. Static gives you the panel full time. The right choice depends on which panels reach your customers, which you can only see by measuring store visits.
Sources: 2025 market size from OAAA via Billboard Insider; cost ranges from Adwave’s 2026 local advertising cost guide and Billboards America; measurement method from AdQuick’s guide to OOH impressions. Media waste figures: Kairos AI barometer.
Know what your OOH earns in store.
Bring your current OOH plan. We’ll show you which panels reach people who walk into your stores, and which don’t.