Place Exchange recently released its semi-annual Programmatic OOH Trends Report,
analyzing US programmatic OOH spending patterns in H2 2024 compared with H1 2024. Here are some of the key takeaways and drivers behind the growth of programmatic OOH. Place Exchange recently released its semi-annual Programmatic OOH Trends Report, analyzing US programmatic OOH spending patterns in H2 2024 compared with H1 2024. Here are some of the key takeaways and drivers behind the growth of programmatic OOH.
Programmatic OOH continues to attract advertisers across a wide range of categories. On the Place Exchange platform, Food/Drink, Health/Fitness, and Personal Finance led the way, collectively accounting for 42% of H2 2024 spend, followed by the Tech/Computing, Style/Fashion, Shopping, Travel, and Automotive categories.
Outdoor (including billboards and street furniture) remained the largest venue category, with 52% of spend, followed by retail with 15% of spend, Transit with 11%, and Entertainment venues with 8%. We foresee the retail category in particular growing rapidly, as advertisers increasingly start to think of OOH as an extension of their retail media strategy.
The growing availability of programmatic-enabled screens is creating new opportunities for brands to engage consumers across a more diverse OOH ecosystem. Between H1 and H2 2024, the number of programmatic screens available via Place Exchange grew by 25%, driven primarily by new inventory in entertainment, retail, transit, and healthcare venues.
Programmatic OOH CPMs remained strong, averaging $7.62 in H2 2024 as compared with $7.16 in H1 2024. Point of Care, Transit, and Entertainment CPMs saw significant increases, while Retail and Healthy/Beauty venues also saw higher CPMs. The most notable decline in CPM was for the Education category.
Private deals, accounting for 95% of spend on the Place Exchange platform, remained strongly preferred over open auction buying, as they offer highly flexible campaign delivery, transparency around media pricing, and certainty around inventory quality – all factors that are growing in importance to buyers. Notably, Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals, while still a small percentage of overall transactions, saw a significant relative increase in H2 2024, doubling from 1% to 2% of total spend. PG deals allow buyers to access premium OOH inventory on a guaranteed basis while still enjoying the many benefits of executing programmatically via their DSP of choice.
As more brands recognize the unique value of programmatic OOH—whether for upper-funnel brand-building or performance-driven campaigns—the number of unique advertisers leveraging programmatic OOH continues to grow. On Place Exchange’s platform, that number grew by 31% between H1 and H2 2024, demonstrating the expanding appeal of programmatic OOH.
Download the full report here.
Published: February 20, 2025