Should you run more YouTube Ads or buy billboards in your markets?
By Jeremy Flynn, Senior Vice President, Data Products & Strategy, Clear Channel Outdoor
A few years ago, many marketers would have dismissed the idea of choosing OOH over digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. However, the situation has changed dramatically and marketers face the dual challenge of capturing consumer attention while also driving long-term brand performance, all while grappling with tightening budgets.
With so much emphasis on performance marketing—particularly digital channels—many marketers may unknowingly be over-allocating resources to short-term gains at the expense of broader, long-term brand-building efforts and performance outcomes. Wharton Business School marketing professor Cait Lamberton points out that digital measurement capabilities have made it so simple to track direct sales from advertising, unlike traditional media channels, but cautions that excessive focus on performance marketing channels can lead brands toward a dangerous uniformity that weakens brand effectiveness as consumers become desensitized, ultimately preventing businesses from establishing meaningful differentiation in the marketplace. The result? A mismatch in ad spending across increasingly fragmented audiences and performance media channels leads to diminished returns, wasting precious advertising dollars that could otherwise be invested in channels that provide greater long-term value. As marketers have become increasingly data-driven, so too has there been an over-focus on performance marketing, especially at the cost of long-term brand building their companies need for sustained success. While there has long been a tension between brand-building and performance marketing – with many CMOs still dividing their teams into separate groups focused on these distinct areas – a growing body of evidence shows that a single-minded focus on performance marketing can actually “crowd out” essential brand-building activities, risking commodification of the brand itself.
Without consistent investment in brand-building, and recognizing how branding uniquely addresses customers’ needs, you run the risk of eroding consumer awareness, loyalty, and affinity over time. Additionally, overreliance on online metrics, (that are inherently overused because they are so easily quantifiable), doesn’t necessarily mean you’re delivering performance outcomes for your brand. If the goal is to stand out, and improve awareness, intent, and sales, a marketer cannot just be chasing the same metrics every other performance marketer is pursuing. When marketers focus solely on immediate returns, however, they tend to over rely on (and over-emphasize) siloed metrics like ROAS or last-click attribution. The problem? These metrics are misleading, and worse, underestimate the full impact of brand advertising because performance media channels are measured predominately in isolation. Since every media engagement with consumers/customers has the potential to influence brand perceptions and brand meaning, measuring every channel’s contribution to performance and brand matters.
Brand-building provides customers a reason to buy repeatedly, and strong brand equity creates the tailwind for performance marketing – strengthening every subsequent marketing effort – not the other way around. If you are a brand advertiser or marketer and you think you may be over-invested in a walled garden media solution, (hint: you are!), you should consider reorganizing how you allocate “performance” and “brand” spending and consider running a more balanced portfolio that includes OOH in your media mix. This shift in strategy can increase efficiency and better support brand and performance marketing goals. As Jasmine Presson of Mediaplus puts it: bridging the gap between performance and brand marketing requires “brandformance” measurement – or the need for attribution to measure both short-term performance and long-term incrementality. To scale, brands need to shift from purely performance-focused metrics to a more holistic view that incorporates full funnel media contribution to brand performance, demonstrating how effective omnichannel advertising increases loyalty, retention, and repeat purchase. Enter OOH.
OOH is the media channel that best bridges Performance and Brand ad spend.
OOH is proving to be as performative, if not more so, than other media channels in driving both immediate and long-term results. When digital ad performance begins to plateau or reaches a point of diminishing returns, OOH provides a fresh alternative that can help marketers achieve better outcomes by reaching incremental audiences and performance-wise, lengthening the conversion window for consumer engagement and action, and importantly, strengthening the long-term demand curve of product sales for a brand. With an increasing library of measurement programs to analyze, we’re observing consistent patterns highlighting OOH as a highly measurable and effective media channel and proving it can be just as performative as Digital, TV, and Social. (And in some cases, even moreso!)
By integrating mobile location data and other digital enrichment signals, in a privacy-conscious way, OOH has evolved to provide performance-based insights and optimization metrics as well as a deeper understanding of how it drives performance for digital-first campaigns and performance marketers. This “plus-one” approach showcases OOH’s unique ability to complement walled-garden performance marketing tactics, which are inherently limited to engaging audiences already within those ecosystems. OOH strengthens brand development by reaching broader audiences and fuels performance by filling the top of the funnel, driving consistent action over longer conversion windows, and creating opportunities to optimize the media mix when other channels become oversaturated.
Emerging Patterns in OOH Brand Measurement
Branding plays a crucial role in building trust, differentiation, and long-term success for businesses, especially in a competitive marketplace, and the interaction between branding and performance marketing is essential for driving sustained customer engagement and behavior. According to recent research, OOH delivers performance outcomes that are at least as effective as, if not more effective than, other media channels.
Case Study: Data Shows OOH Outperforms CTV and Digital Channels
We’re seeing compelling evidence that Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising offers a unique and powerful proposition: the ability to drive both brand growth and performance in a single medium. A recent benchmark of comparative norms by Kantar provides compelling evidence that OOH consistently outperforms connected TV (CTV) and digital platforms in key metrics such as Ad Awareness, Brand Favorability, and Purchase Intent. In today’s fragmented media environment, OOH stands out for its additive nature, delivering short-term conversion intent while simultaneously building long-term brand loyalty—making it an essential component of any modern marketing strategy.
Source: Kantar Milward Brown 2019 – 2024 Digital n = 10,201, CTV n = 898, TV n = 363, OOH n = 50
Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising has traditionally been valued for its perceived ability to “drive brand.” Now, with benchmark evidence showing that OOH not only consistently outperforms other media in awareness and favorability, OOH rivals linear TV in driving favorability and purchase intent, delivering TV-like impact at a more efficient price point. Moreover, OOH significantly outperforms connected TV (CTV) and digital channels across all key brand and performance measurement indicators, reinforcing its role as a high-performing channel that drives strong results and positions itself as a cornerstone of a balanced media strategy.
And as digital ad performance plateaus, OOH emerges as a critical medium for addressing gaps that other channels cannot fill or have stopped filling. Whether the goal is to build awareness for a new product launch or to enhance brand affinity, OOH bridges the divide between performance marketing and brand building. Its unique ability to reach incremental audiences, amplify awareness, and influence purchase intent makes it indispensable for short and long term results-driven marketing strategies.
The fact that OOH also significantly outperforms CTV and digital media when it comes to purchase intent suggests that OOH is even more powerful in motivating consumers toward action than initially thought.
OOH’s Sustained Performance Impact Across the Funnel
For a long time, marketers relied on anecdotal evidence to assert that “OOH works.” Today, advancements in measurement technology provide tangible proof of OOH’s effectiveness across the entire marketing funnel. Beyond its well-established strength in driving brand awareness, OOH’s impact extends to mid- and lower-funnel behaviors, enabling marketers to track and optimize engagement, consumer actions, and even sales conversions. By leveraging mobile location data, in a privacy-conscious way, digital integration, and attribution modeling, OOH can now provide measurable insights into how it drives in-store visits, website traffic, app downloads, and online purchases. This ability to demonstrate performance at every stage of the customer journey makes OOH an indispensable tool for marketers looking to balance brand-building efforts with actionable results, solidifying its place as a measurable and versatile channel in the modern media mix.
Research from a leading mobile marketing platform (MMP), Kochava, further highlights OOH’s mid-funnel and long-term performance benefits compared to digital and CTV. OOH advertising becomes particularly effective for acquiring new customers when combined with a broader video marketing approach. What makes OOH unique is its positive impact on conversion rates – while other advertising channels may see diminishing returns from repeated exposure, OOH (and DOOH) actually benefits from increased frequency. Marketers can take advantage of this by concentrating their ads in busy DOOH locations, where multiple viewings help drive better conversion rates rather than causing audience fatigue.
The study showed that while digital mobile ad conversions typically peak within 4.5 hours of the initial impression, OOH campaigns sustain the campaign performance curve over a much longer period—between 14 and 21 days. This extended window of effectiveness highlights OOH’s ability to deliver lasting impact, driving both immediate sales and longer-term brand-building efforts and customer brand affinity.
Understanding these granular conversion patterns also allow marketers to recognize the incremental value that OOH can provide and make better tradeoffs when driving direct conversions and supporting broader branding initiatives. With the ability to evaluate metrics such as incremental cost per install (iCPI) and incremental cost of acquired customer (iCAC), marketers can make more informed decisions about allocating budgets across channels and geographies, comparing OOH to social platforms like TikTok or mobile DSP traffic.
Case Study: comparing OOH to Digital & Social
Take the following comparison of cost per installs of apps for OOH compared to a social platform like TikTok, as reported by Kochava. These metrics can be applied in a way that allows for an apples-to-apples comparison across media types and locations, such as comparing the performance of a TikTok ad buy to a billboard ad. The table shows a comparison of the iCAC and iCPM metrics for a major brand, allowing them to assess the relative performance of their mobile DSP traffic versus out-of-home advertising in specific geographies. It looks at both incremental cost of install (iCPI) and incremental cost of acquired customer (iCAC), where a customer is defined as someone who installed the app and signed up for the loyalty program (in this case). OOH is also more efficient than other media at driving better spend decisions and performance outcomes.
It turns out that OOH is more efficient at acquiring customers than some social media platforms. For these marketers buying OOH ads in Chicago or Boston would have driven better and more efficient performance than putting more budget into TikTok or Instagram. So if you want to get more bang for your performance marketing dollar, buying OOH ads in Chicago or Boston would drive more efficient performance than allocating more budget to TikTok or Instagram.
Can OOH really deliver on Product Sales? Yes!
Larger national brands are also starting to lean into brand as performance measurement when determining media channel allocation. A recent study by Kroger and Campbell’s highlighted the critical role that brand-building plays in driving long-term sales performance. Kroger’s eCommerce business saw a 5.4x higher sales lift in the post-campaign period, thanks to increased brand favorability, while Campbell’s used its advertising strategy to reinforce the iconic status of its condensed soup brand, leading to significant growth. Although OOH was not directly measured in these campaigns, similar research into OOH’s impact on product sales aligns with these findings.
Case Study: Beer brand attracts new customers with billboards
OOH has been shown repeatedly to deliver significant lifts in purchase intent and product sales, especially in competitive categories such as beverages, where brands face constant pressure to stand out. We observed repeatedly in the consumer beverage category that there can be significant house sales lifts driven from OOH ad exposure. What is most interesting, however, is the primary driver for these increased purchases is the OOH campaign’s ability to create awareness and bring in new additional customers who might not have otherwise purchased the brand. Specifically, OOH campaigns resulted in a sales lift double that of the category benchmark for beer beverage campaigns, with a 20% increase in purchase intent among those exposed to the advertisements. Furthermore, 36% of all purchases from OOH-exposed audiences were made by incremental or new customers, leading to an overall 6.7% sales lift per household. This is particularly compelling when compared to the average sales lift benchmark of the beer beverage category (which is 2.66%), and shows that OOH outperformed other media channels including the social platforms.
Case Study: Offline Media Influencing Online Behaviors
OOH’s impact is not confined to offline purchases either – it also influences online digital purchase behaviors. For example, a campaign for a sleep technology brand resulted in a 43% increase in online product sales, driven by sustained OOH messaging. The brand also saw a 90% lift in repeat orders among OOH-exposed audiences, showing how OOH can create lasting engagement and drive high lifetime value (LTV) customers.
Repetition Amplifies Impact: OOH Ad Frequency delivers where other media cannot
It’s no secret that OOH boosts brand visibility, but what sets OOH apart from online media is how repetition and ad frequency amplify OOH impact across brand, engagement, and sales. While newer ad formats need to resolve frequency capping to avoid the negative impact of repeated adds that are tiring (and annoying!) to consumers, increasing OOH ad frequency has the opposite effect.
So whether the goal is to drive app installs, boost online orders, or increase foot traffic, frequency in OOH directly correlates with results. When OOH has the ability to cover the market, repeated ad exposures remind consumers of the brand’s omnipresence and relevance, strengthening the brand’s message and driving deeper engagement. Data from research conducted between 2021 and 2024 using CCO RADAR, Clear Channel Outdoor’s proprietary suite of data solutions for audience and measurement insights, reveals a critical insight: frequency of OOH exposure is a key driver of consumer behavior. The more often people see an OOH ad, the more likely they are to take action—whether that’s downloading an app, placing an order or visiting a physical store. High-frequency exposure across multiple locations doesn’t just spark initial interest—it builds long-term loyalty, turning first-time customers into repeat long term brand buyers. OOH’s ability to repeatedly engage consumers in ways that drive these meaningful and measurable actions should place it at the heart of any performance-driven marketing strategy and makes OOH no longer just a tactical consideration but a strategic imperative.
Case Study: From Repetition to Action: App Installs and Orders
The case for high-frequency OOH campaigns is further supported by the correlation between exposure and digital engagement. High-frequency OOH campaigns are uniquely effective because they provide a positive, non-intrusive ad viewing experience. Unlike other formats that may interrupt consumers, OOH integrates seamlessly into their daily lives, delivering consistent exposure due to repetitive consumer travel patterns and journeys. This reliability fosters familiarity and trust, laying the groundwork for building brand awareness and creating a positive brand experience.
Data supports this: as consumers encounter a brand’s OOH ads more frequently, they become increasingly curious, which translates into meaningful actions such as app installations, online orders, or store visits. OOH serves as the perfect setup for conversion behaviors by establishing awareness and a favorable impression during the consumer’s journey. By the time they reach a point of qualified need, OOH has already primed them for action, bridging the gap between brand building and performance marketing with measurable impact, such as installing an app, visiting, or place an order (or better yet, a repeat order!) It’s a natural progression—the more they see, the more curious they become, and eventually, curiosity evolves/transforms into action.
For example, consumers exposed to OOH ads 10 or more times are far more likely to install the app and make a purchase compared to those exposed only once or twice. This correlation between frequency and action showcases OOH as a direct driver of consumer behavior, making it an essential element in an integrated marketing strategy, especially for digital-first brands.
Case Study: Variety Matters: The Power of Multi-Location Exposure
While frequency is crucial, the placement of those ads also plays a key role in driving consumer engagement.
Same for brands that are not digital-native, but are increasingly recognizing the need to drive online behavior to remain relevant. Here’s an example on how increased frequency of ad exposure (and good market coverage) drove consumers to increasingly visit a brand’s website after seeing an OOH ad at least 9 times.
Research reveals that consumers are even more likely to place repeat orders when they encounter ads in varied OOH locations. It’s this diversity of touchpoints that keeps the brand fresh in the consumer’s mind, enhancing relevance across different contexts.
Case Study: Driving Foot Traffic: From Screens to Stores
Perhaps the most compelling argument for high-frequency OOH campaigns is their ability to drive foot traffic. While digital channels can feel increasingly fragmented, OOH has the unique ability to bridge the gap between online and offline interactions. It encourages consumers to take action in the physical world, pushing them beyond the digital screen and into the store.
The data shows that visitation rates increase exponentially with higher ad frequency. Consumers exposed to OOH ads 14 or more times visit stores nearly four times as often as those who only see the ad once. This is a vital insight for retail brands that rely on in-person traffic. High-frequency OOH doesn’t just amplify digital engagement—it drives real-world conversions, bringing people through the door.
Bottom Line: OOH delivers balanced, efficient marketing performance & it’s now a must-use channel for modern brands
The proliferation of media platforms, combined with consumers’ tendency to split their time across multiple channels, has made it harder for advertisers to get their message across. In an era of increasing digital fatigue and ad-blocking, OOH offers a unique advantage. It is un-skippable, un-missable, and fraud-free—and unlike so much of the digital media world, your OOH activity is actually seen by real consumers in the physical world. This stands in stark contrast to the growing concern over digital ad fraud, where billions are wasted each year on invalid impressions.
There are obvious concerns that many advertisers continue to pour their budgets into platforms like Facebook and Google, even though these platforms may not be as effective as they once were in capturing and holding consumer attention. For example, in 2023, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) accounted for a massive 19.5% of U.S. digital ad spend, yet consumers spent only 7.6% of their time on the platform. This clear mismatch highlights the inefficiencies in media spending, with ad dollars being disproportionately allocated to platforms that are struggling to maintain consumer engagement. At the same time, more than 80% of consumer transactions still occur offline, and the platforms that dominate digital advertising are not as effective in reaching consumers in the moments that matter most—when they are making purchase decisions in-store or in their daily lives. This creates a significant opportunity for offline channels, like OOH, which can effectively capture attention in the real world and drive both brand awareness and performance outcomes.
As consumer behavior continues to evolve and audience fragmentation becomes more pronounced, marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to effectively reach and engage their target audiences while spending their marketing budgets wisely. In today’s media-saturated world, capturing consumer attention has become a monumental challenge. The digital landscape is cluttered, and cutting through the noise is increasingly difficult. Yet, as brands search for ways to stand out and truly engage with their audiences, Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising is emerging as a powerful solution. Its strength doesn’t just lie in visibility but in the ability to drive consumer action—especially when ad frequency is leveraged effectively.
Smart marketers today know that balancing branding with performance marketing is key to long-term success and that they need to find more efficient ways to allocate their budgets. It is no surprise that many national brands are turning to OOH to complement their digital efforts and drive success. The reason? OOH offers a robust solution that spans the marketing funnel—from building brand awareness to driving conversions. Adopting OOH into omni-channel marketing strategies drives successes both in short-term performance gains and long-term brand equity, setting brands up for sustained success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. And when digital ad performance plateaus or delivers diminishing returns, OOH becomes a fresh alternative for incremental audience reach where frequency reinforces positive consumer action and repeat behavior, and advertising actually helps deliver consistently positive brand outcomes.
This blog originally appeared in ANA Magazine.
Published: March 10, 2025