Key Takeaways
- Owning a billboard transforms unused exterior property space into a significant passive income stream without requiring additional square footage.
- Billboard ownership increases property valuation by creating income streams independent of the building’s primary purpose.
- Digital technology has revolutionized billboard advertising, offering property owners enhanced revenue through multiple advertisers and interactive features.
Owning a billboard can be an excellent investment for building owners, business professionals, and those who fit into both categories. Thousands, if not millions, of people see billboard ads every day, and whether or not they’re interested in the content displayed, they’ll likely know people who are. If they remember your ads, they’ll share what they’ve learned with family and friends, which brings in more customers for the business using billboards to display ad content.
If you’re thinking about buying a billboard for advertising, keep reading. We’ll go over the types of billboards you might want to consider, the advantages of owning a billboard, the challenges you may need to work around, and what to do next if you want to step into billboard advertising.
Types of Billboard Advertising
Billboard ads come in several forms, as do the mediums they use. Here are five of the most common types of ads under the umbrella of billboard advertising.
- Static Billboards: Traditional billboards with 1-2 static ad slots, posted on metal posts or building sides so that they float above the street.
- Digital Billboards: Similar to traditional billboards, these versions can flip through a selection of different ads throughout the advertising playlist.
- Interactive Billboards: Billboards whose ad content attempts to interact with the audience. For example, the massive moving cat billboard in Japan or the street-level touchscreen ads that passersby can engage with.
- Mobile Billboards: Mobile billboards are usually attached to moving vehicles, such as trains, cars, city buses, and more.
- Wallscapes/ Banners: These billboards are posted at street level in most cases, and they are either painted onto an open wall or printed on a large sheet of advertising material and attached to the wall.
Advantages of Owning a Billboard
Billboard advertising has been one of the most popular forms of out-of-home advertising for decades, and for good reason. Billboard advertising has a lot to offer, including size, visibility options, the opportunity to increase your income, and the ability to engage with your audience.
Size & Visibility
Traditional billboards are much bigger than other physical ads in a given location, and because of this, people are more likely to see any ads printed on the billboard in question. In the right location, the size of a billboard can greatly increase its visibility, which means that more interested parties will take notice.
Interactivity
Using interactive billboards can enhance the public’s reception of the ad being posted, so if you have the opportunity to make your ads interactive, take the chance and create something that your target audience can relate to or identify with.
Income Potential
Even if you aren’t actively using your billboard to advertise your business, owning a billboard still makes financial sense. This is because you can rent out your billboard space to other businesses. If your billboard is in a prime location, you could stand to make thousands of dollars in passive income just by renting your space to other companies.
Potential Setbacks to Overcome
While billboards can be an excellent way to announce your products, services, or messages to the public, there are a few challenges that may arise when using this ad method. Fortunately, the location, cost, and interactivity issues you might experience have a few solutions you can use to overcome them.
Inopportune Location
Location is an essential component of an ad’s success, so if your billboard happens to be located in a less-than-stellar area, there are a couple of things you can do to get around the inconveniences that it brings.
- If your billboard is digital, you can quite easily move your ad to another area.
- Determine whether your billboard is in an undesirable location 24/7. While your location may look like a dead zone at 10:00 in the morning, the same area may be bustling with traffic at 6:00 in the evening.
- If the obstruction in the way of your billboard is movable, consider talking to the owner of the object blocking your view.
- In some cases, you can have your billboard moved to an open location.
Cost
Billboards can come with significantly different price tags depending on their size, location, and capabilities. If you want to save on billboard investments, consider buying a unit that’s a little smaller, in a moderately opportune area, and static in its features.
Blending In
Billboards in urban locations tend to blend in with the scenery, especially when a selection of other billboards are nearby. To make sure your billboard advertising is seen, try doing something that draws attention to the content your billboard is hosting. For example:
- Paint the billboard frame (if applicable)
- Add lighting
- Ensure that your ad content is crisp, clear, and engaging
Quick Impressions
Even if people passing by look up at your billboard, they’ll likely only look at the ads for a couple of seconds before going about their day. Don’t worry about convincing people to stick around longer. Instead, make sure that those few seconds really count when it comes to displaying your ad content. Make it interesting, informative, and memorable so that your audience thinks about your billboard even after they’re no longer looking at it.
Considerations for Owning a Billboard
Billboards are not likely to diminish in popularity in the near future, so there’s hardly a better time to invest in billboard advertising. Since the pandemic has passed, more and more people are getting outside and visiting physical locations for work and leisure. If you want to make sure that your audience is going to see your content (especially if that audience is local), a billboard is a great way to accomplish that goal.
Let Pearl Media help you compound your advertising success with billboard ad options. We’ll help you find the right options for your unique business needs.
At Pearl Media, we build partnerships with building owners to create advertising opportunities for the best brands. By pairing premium properties with great-looking ads, we generate new revenue for the building owner in places where a brand’s ideal client lives, works, and plays.
