As you may already know or even likely seen billboard ads are a large outdoor advertising structure typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads or highways. Billboards present large advertisements to drivers passing by and foot traffic in the hopes of creating a new customer. Think for a moment you’re driving and are stuck in rush hour. To your left is a large billboard ad you quickly glance at it, but soon bring your attention back to the road. Why? Because we are driving our main focus is on the road and also when we are driving we are usually driving to or from work with our destination being the main focus on our mind not an advertising we saw on the road. Likewise imagine this time there’s no traffic when you’re driving you may see the billboard ad, but pay little or no mind to it. When was the last time you saw someone stop their car to look at a billboard ad? This is just one of the many inherent issues of billboard ads.
Major flaws to billboard ads. One of the primary flaws of billboard ads is that they are simply not effective. Of the many billboard ads that are seen very few people who viewed the ad would become a new customer. Likewise think of the many times you have seen a billboard ad how many actually include a phone number, website, contact info, or call to action to gain a new customer? This doesn’t include the fact that many billboard ads are unable to provide true lead generations unlike with digital marketing. Another major flaw in billboard ads is that no analytics is provided on new customers. Furthermore how will you know that your new customer was directly linked to him or her seeing your billboard ad? Without any data or analytics you won’t be able to optimize your ad to target better demographics. Another aspect of billboard advertising is in the fact that it is all derived from cold traffic of which very few of this traffic is highly targeted potential customers. Most people viewing your ad aren’t interested in the service or product. This simply adds to the cost of advertising and the low conversion rates. Lastly in terms of cost. A billboard ad for four weeks can cost $3,000-$4,000 on the low end but as much as $11,000-$23,000 per month! For larger cities. When you take into consideration how much it costs and the low conversion rate of billboard ads each new customer can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars or more! Clearly a better way must exist right?
A sound solution. One solution to billboard ads is digital marketing. Unlike billboard ads with digital marketing you can reach highly targeted potential customers! To top it off all of the new potential customers you gain will be trackable and generate analytics and data you can use to create more effective advertising that brings higher returns on advertising spent. And just with billboard ads a carefully made ad with the right targeting and geography you can target millions of people for a fraction of the cost! In fact with Facebook advertising the average cost per click was below $1 while with Google ads the average cost per click was between $1 and $2 for search engine marketing. Not only will you be able to reach a large audience your audience will be targeted prompting for higher conversion rates and a higher likelihood of your targeted audience of becoming an actual customer. Unlike billboard ads digital marketing also offers re-marketing techniques you can use to re-market to people who’ve already seen your ad increasing the likelihood they turn into paying customers. Lastly with digital marketing you’re able to generate leads. Any business that has high ticket products/services knows how valuable lead generation is. With leads you can directly contact your clients and re-market to them via email marketing drastically increasing the chances of them becoming a customer. View All Marketing Services we have to offer to help your business grow.
When should you use billboard ads? We are certain you are now considering if billboard ads are useful at all now? The truth is although billboard ads aren’t as effective as digital marketing. There are a few occasions where using billboard ads are a good idea. One of the primary usage for billboard ads is for brand awareness and building your companies image. A great example of this is McDonald’s or Coca-Cola whose constant logo appearance and advertising both on billboards, and TV have made them name brands known all over the world! Secondly billboard ads are a good way to reach a large reach in your local area to gain new customers provided the right contact info and address is provided.