Hi there! Have a question? Talk with us here.
Billboard measurement starts with traffic. The first question is: how many vehicles or people pass the sign?
In the outdoor advertising industry, Geopath is one of the major audience measurement organizations. Geopath independently audits inventory locations and aggregates circulation data according to national procedures approved by the buying and selling community. It also describes traffic counts as a basic component of out-of-home measurement.
Measurement can include traffic counts, road data, direction of travel, visibility, audience modeling, location data, and other factors. Modern out-of-home measurement increasingly uses mobile location data, consumer insights, and market research methods to estimate audience exposure.
It is important to understand the difference between traffic count and actual ad exposure. A traffic count may tell you how many vehicles pass a road segment. But the useful advertising question is how many people are likely to see the sign. Visibility, angle, speed, distance, lighting, obstructions, and creative design all affect that.
A sign with huge traffic but poor visibility may underperform. A sign with lower traffic but a perfect angle near a stoplight may perform extremely well.
Billboard measurement is part science and part real-world judgment. The numbers matter, but so does the field view.
Best rule: traffic count matters, but visibility and approach determine the real value.