How to measure the ROI of an outdoor campaign

So, how exactly are you going to track the number of people who looked at that classy billboard you recently created? Unless you have some kind of numbers, there is no way to justify spending that much on advertising in OOH as compared to other media. The answer is, yes, you can measure the performance of an OOH campaign and you can have solid numbers to back your strategy.

There is probably no other industry that has benefitted from the advent of location intelligence than the OOH industry. The availability of mobile location data for better audience targeting and offline attribution helped transform this industry into the only traditional channel whose growth is accelerating with technology. Before we begin, here are a few things we need to know:

DEC = Daily Effective Circulation = the number of people and vehicles that pass by an OOH billboard per day.

OTC = Opportunity To Contact = The number of visitors that go past and gaze at your OOH ad.

VAC = Visually Adjusted Contact = a statistic of people who observed the ad during the campaign.

Measuring the traffic pool

In order to measure ROI, it is essential to measure the traffic pool in the proximity of your billboard. It will give you an idea of how much sales boost would probably be via the billboard ad campaign. You can track the OTC and DEC numbers by either using GPS tracking of smart devices, commuting data, road traffic figures etc.

Measuring the before and after numbers

Another method to calculate the ROI of your OOH campaign is by looking at the sales conversions before and after numbers. The sales numbers before the campaign started and the sales numbers after. If there is even a slight improvement, the campaign seems to be working – and you can plan on how to improve! The only drawback of this method is that, if there is any other campaign – using any other media running simultaneously, then it is difficult to track the numbers separately.

Code specific campaigns

Using campaign oriented discount vouchers, QR codes or coupons is another way to calculate the ROI of your outdoor campaigns. If the discount code is kept unique, you can check how many sales actually took place using this code.

Landing page for the campaign

Building a campaign specific landing page for your campaign is another way to measure how many people actually saw your ad and took action. Those who visit your landing page are obviously who saw your ad. Landing page analytics are easy to get and you can understand a lot of important aspects of your campaign with this method.

Campaign success or failure analytics does not have to be an online thing. Traditional media such as billboards, hoardings and gantries as well as kiosks can also be measured for ROI when a campaign is run. Outdoor media still remains as one of the most powerful means of reaching out to the masses to build brand awareness and even generate sales!