Billboards / Roadside Ads

[bonusmedia]

Has anyone here tried running billboard or motorway ads for websites? If so, how did you find it?

I have no idea how much traffic it would drive and obviously it will be difficult to track results.

However the cost per eyeball seems low, so perhaps a good way to build brand recognition.

If anyone knows anyone in the business then a recommendation would be great.

 

[Edwin]

I would have thought they'd be one of the most expensive form of advertising if your goal is to get traffic to a website.

You've got to do ALL the following to get one visitor:
- Make an impression when somebody's driving by (not every driver will even look at a billboard, not by a long way)
- Have a message simple enough for them to read in a couple of seconds AND compelling enough to hold their interest
- Have them memorise a URL from a moving vehicle
- Have them remember it later (after they get to destination)
- Have them type it into a browser (a lot of people don't know how to do this)

That's why billboards tend to be "branding" ads for lifestyle products.

 

[martin-s]

I have wondered about this myself in the past. You'd imagine it could work well for a high quality generic, particularly if you ditch the concept of a typical advert and just have a massive domain name.

It might provoke curiosity by making people wonder what it all means?

That said, because I'm very interested in marketing, I'm also hyper-sensitive to it. I notice it everywhere, whereas most people are wired to completely ignore it!

 

[bonusmedia]

I would have thought they'd be one of the most expensive form of advertising if your goal is to get traffic to a website.

You've got to do ALL the following to get one visitor:
- Make an impression when somebody's driving by (not every driver will even look at a billboard, not by a long way)
- Have a message simple enough for them to read in a couple of seconds AND compelling enough to hold their interest
- Have them memorise a URL from a moving vehicle
- Have them remember it later (after they get to destination)
- Have them type it into a browser (a lot of people don't know how to do this)

That's why billboards tend to be "branding" ads for lifestyle products.

I think a very simple ad using a short and memorable EMD where the URL is the brand would achieve most of those things.
If someone doesn't know how to type a web address in a browser I can't imagine they would buy much online.

You're probably right. Certainly 'proper' billboards in cities seem to be mostly 'branding' - less so motorway ads though.
I've been noticing a lot of website ads recently - the M62 has loads - speckyfoureyes.com, ebuyer.com, laptopsdirect.co.uk, just-eat.co.uk, insureandgo.com etc.
I notice and remember them, but then I have an interest, so maybe others don't.

Apparently prices work out somewhere between 25-50p per 1,000 passing vehicles.

Let's say 25p, and let's say average customer value is £25.
We need to convert 1 in 100,000 people to break even.
Let's say 25% see and 'take in' the ad - 25,000
10% of them are potential customers - 2,500
10% of them are actively in the market - 250
10% of them visit the site - 25
The site converts at 4% = 1 sale

That seems basically plausible to me... Obviously it would need to be a mass market product

You can't easily attribute those customers to that source which makes it hard to track.

I don't know, maybe it's a bad idea. I think it may be worth a test though - I bet a lot of us here are entirely reliant on Google

 

[bonusmedia]

I have wondered about this myself in the past. You'd imagine it could work well for a high quality generic, particularly if you ditch the concept of a typical advert and just have a massive domain name.

It might provoke curiosity by making people wonder what it all means?

That said, because I'm very interested in marketing, I'm also hyper-sensitive to it. I notice it everywhere, whereas most people are wired to completely ignore it!

That's what I was thinking MassiveLogo.co.uk - the size of a HGV trailer

 

[Edwin]

Some interesting comments about billboard advertising...
http://grasshopper.com/blog/billboards-for-small-businesses-7-reasons-to-think-twice/
http://www.relevance.com/is-billboard-advertising-effective-in-2015/

Also worth thinking very carefully about how traffic is counted, because if it's in a location that people pass every day on the way to/from school or work, then there's a good chance that the same person is being counted 20-60 times as they drive past again and again. I would be astonished if any of the outdoor advertising companies offer "deduped stats" i.e. unique vehicle counts. So that repetition may be good for reinforcing the message, but it also massively affects the numbers since a location with 100,000 monthly visitors might only be 5,000 unique vehicles and therefore the total universe of possible customers your billboard would address is tiny.

I notice this stats problem every time I walk to the station - there's an ad on one of the bus stops for advertising on bus stops (I guess because the management firm hasn't found an advertiser yet, or because they need a steady trickle of new advertisers and therefore have to... advertise for them!) The poster goes on about the thousands of people who pass the spot every week - yet it's also the main route for commuters walking to the bus station from the train station, and students going to 4 large local schools. So the same people will be passing the billboard again and again and again, week after week, month after month. (Tourists wouldn't ever choose to walk that way, it's not towards the town centre)

Bonus problem: there could be 3-4 people in the car (all will no doubt be counted for stats purposes - never met a company that doesn't want to put the best spin on its stats) yet only 1 "potential consumer" since the others are kids/teens, seated on the side of the car away from the billboards, etc.

 

[Edwin]

BTW, there are endless success stories out there... but most of them seem to be on the hundreds of sites that sell outdoor media space!

 

[wonder_lander]

What do the costs look like? I wonder if it's a good way to sell a domain name?

Maybe a Geo or a Geo Service?

 

[bonusmedia]

All good points Edwin. I'm well aware it's easy to waste fortunes on ineffective advertising.

I think if you stuck to the major motorways you could reasonably expect to get far more than 5% unique 'impressions'.
And the traffic numbers they talk about are more like 100k per day than per month.
So let's say 50k of them are the same day in day out, that is at least quite a lot of reinforcement of the brand for those people.
Once the banners are made you can always rotate them around different sites too.

I might try asking people what ads they remember from the motorway.

ROI aside it would be pretty cool to have a 40 foot domain name

What do the costs look like? I wonder if it's a good way to sell a domain name?
Maybe a Geo or a Geo Service?

They vary widely depending on size, location, type of banner etc. Ballpark guide - £750/month for one motorway ad, plus £200 one-off banner printing. I imagine it's highly negotiable

I wouldn't have thought it would be effective for anything without mass market appeal.
Your potential market for a domain is a tiny % of the population so you're better off targeting them

 

[Murray]

woops.. wrong thread

 

[Azam.net]

Edwin's advice is very sound.

I tried billboard advertising several years ago. We negotiated set-ups whereby we'd pay several hundred pounds one-off to shopkeepers and businesses throughout Yorkshire to place large billboards on the sides of their walls.

If you can negotiate such one-off deals it might be more profitable for you than paying neverending monthly fees. Many people are happy to saw yes if you wave a wad of hundreds of quid infront of their noses.

I think it works more for 'brand building' to use the old cliched phrase than for a direct ROI. Probably best to leave it to the big guys.

 

[boxerdog]

I have a pretty big solid fixed banner ad on a fence of a football ground that is on a busy dual carriageway, rush hour is great because cars just creep along side it. off the top of my head costs roughly 3k+vat a year plus i have one inside the pitch placed right next to the goal. it has paid for itself many many times over so i my experience its well worth it.

 

[wonder_lander]

I have a pretty big solid fixed banner ad on a fence of a football ground that is on a busy dual carriageway, rush hour is great because cars just creep along side it. off the top of my head costs roughly 3k+vat a year plus i have one inside the pitch placed right next to the goal. it has paid for itself many many times over so i my experience its well worth it.

What sort of thing are you advertising on it?

 

[boxerdog]

What sort of thing are you advertising on it?

Bricks and mortar Ecigarette shop, the amount of people that have come in and said they saw it is really quite surprising

 

[martin-s]

I was struggling to find any good data about where to go for pitch side advertising boards, which is something we're considering for next season.

Anyone else in the same boat might find a website we've thrown together useful: www.pitchside.co.uk

 

[wonder_lander]

Good resource that, should add the Rugby League clubs to it too

 

[Edwin]

Yes, great little summary there. Clear and easy to use.

 

[martin-s]

Thanks guys. Will add more leagues and other stadiums in due course.