What Are the Best Practices in Out of Home Measurement & Attribution?

November 19, 2024

Measurement and attribution for out of home advertising are more robust than ever.

Over the past five years, our industry has significantly enhanced its measurement capabilities, transforming how we assess the impact of OOH ad exposure on consumer’s attitudes, behaviors and actions.

With large canvases for brands to advertise on ranging from billboards along major highways to prominent locations in city centers, to ads on the sides of buses running throughout a market, it’s indisputable that OOH is a great way to achieve mass reach and create brand awareness. This solidified out of home’s place in the minds of agencies and advertisers as being a top-of-funnel medium, because that was how the channel was leveraged and ultimately what OUTFRONT’s attribution studies were dedicated to measuring.

But over time that has changed due to some important industry disruptions:

• Format proliferation and greater digitization

• The rise of privacy-compliant mobile measurement

• Performance marketing and measurement becoming table stakes for budget allocations

With these developments, we noticed that advertisers’ measurement focus had shifted to lower-funnel metrics such as in-store visitation (aka footfall) and website visitation, app downloads, and tune-in. While advertisers haven’t abandoned awareness, we are now seeing that over half of our attribution research is now dedicated to lower-funnel metrics, resulting in greater insights about what drives successful outcomes like brand lift. Additionally, we offer attribution solutions to account for every OOH format we sell, inclusive of buses and below-ground media.
Here are some of the most important best practices in OOH measurement and attribution that we’ve learned.

Time in Market Matters.

Longer campaigns are best for ensuring the ability to measure lower-funnel metrics such as footfall or website visitation. Since consumers need time to move down the funnel, a campaign needs time to breathe and settle in.

How quickly consumers move down the funnel after exposure depends on factors like the brand, the promoted product or service, consumer interest level, and price point.

Time in market is especially important for campaigns impacting high-involvement decisions such as buying a car, a large household product, or a luxury item. Low-involvement decisions such as buying the latest drink at Dunkin’, a small appliance, or a new toothpaste require less time.

We’ve seen from our studies that over time, the gap in response between those exposed to the campaign and those not exposed gets wider. The difference between the two is called lift rate.

Repeated Exposure Is Essential.

Part of the reason why time in market is so important is because it allows the number of exposures to build over time. This what leads consumers to become aware of the ad (ad recall), process its messaging (brand awareness) and take secondary steps that lead to a conversion, such as visiting a store or website or making a purchase.

Repeated exposure also helps to keep a brand top of mind. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a lot of exposures within one campaign; we’ve also seen that when an advertiser runs sequential campaigns over a period of time, with every subsequent campaign, both ad recall and brand awareness increase.

Don’t Forget the Creative!

Creative is still the most important factor in a campaign’s success. Creative should be noticeable. It should grab and hold the attention of the consumer. The brand logo should be prominently placed, the message clear and concise. But these are just the tip of the iceberg – STUDIOS, the in-house agency at OUTFRONT, has compiled a comprehensive rundown of OOH creative best practices.


Today’s out of home measurement and attribution capabilities empower marketers with the data that drive better marketing decisions. Contact OUTFRONT today to learn more about how we can quantify your campaign’s impact!

Authors: Suzette Jacobowitz, Sr. Director, Marketing Research & Insights and Christina Radigan, VP, Strategic Research, Insight & Analysis @ OUTFRONT

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