DOOH advertising explained: How digital out-of-home transforms modern marketing

Tatev Malkhasyan

November 17, 2025

9

minutes read

Digital Out-of-Home is no longer a niche experiment. Accounting for nearly 60% of all OOH revenue in the U.S. and with programmatic spending set to hit $5.68 billion in 2024, DOOH is reshaping modern marketing. If you're not leveraging its dynamic screens and data-driven targeting, you're missing a critical piece of the omnichannel puzzle. Here’s everything you need to know to get ahead.

Table of contents

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is reclaiming consumer attention in the real world, and at AI Digital, we see it as the essential layer for unifying digital and physical audience engagement. This isn't a niche channel anymore; in the U.S., DOOH now represents nearly 60% of total OOH revenue, a dominance that is reshaping out-of-home marketing. The most explosive growth is driven by automation. According to Statista, spending on programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) advertising is projected to hit $5.68 billion in 2024 and soar to over $8.5 billion by 2028. This programmatic shift is core to our Open Garden philosophy, allowing advertisers to buy vetted DOOH inventory with unparalleled efficiency and data-driven precision.

Beyond massive billboards, place-based advertising delivers targeted digital out-of-home media in specific venues. For brands seeking impact, modern DOOH measurement connects exposure to real-world actions. As these DOOH statistics confirm, the digital OOH market offers powerful DOOH solutions for any brand looking to integrate this essential media into their omnichannel strategy.

What is DOOH advertising?

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising is the dynamic, screen-based evolution of traditional out-of-home (OOH) media. It uses digital displays, such as billboards, transit screens, place-based networks in venues, and interactive kiosks, to deliver targeted, contextually relevant, and easily updatable ad content to audiences in public spaces.

Unlike static posters, DOOH advertising is not printed; it's powered by software, allowing for:

  • Capturing attention with dynamic creative through motion and video
  • Changing messages based on time, weather, live data, or events.
  • Serving relevant ads based on audience demographics, location, and behavior.
  • Programmatic buying, which is automating the ad-buying process through DOOH DSPs for greater efficiency and scale.

DOOH transforms passive ad spaces into responsive communication channels, bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds to create more impactful and measurable brand experiences.

💡 For inspiration, see our roundup of innovative implementations: DOOH advertising examples: Best practices and creative campaigns that drive results

DOOH vs traditional OOH

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) represents a fundamental evolution from traditional billboards, transforming a static, one-way broadcast medium into a dynamic, data-responsive dialogue with audiences. At its core, DOOH advertising uses digital screens connected to a content management system.

The gap between traditional OOH and DOOH is vast, moving from a fixed physical product to a flexible digital service.

Why DOOH Outperforms Traditional OOH?

The dynamic nature of digital out-of-home advertising translates into tangible performance advantages that justify its growing share of the digital OOH market:

  • Full-motion video and bright digital screens are scientifically proven to capture far more effectively than static imagery.
  • An ad for iced coffee that appears on a scorching day, or a ride-share ad that pops up during a sudden downpour, is inherently more effective. This data-driven relevance, a hallmark of programmatic DOOH, dramatically increases the likelihood of consumer action.
  • DOOH marketing doesn't exist in a vacuum. It can be programmed to display social media feeds, use QR codes for direct response, or serve as the physical-world anchor for a mobile retargeting campaign. When a user sees a digital out-of-home ad and later receives a targeted mobile ad, the combined effect powerfully reinforces the message.
  • With programmatic out-of-home advertising, you pay to show your ad to the right people in the right context, rather than paying to show it to everyone who might pass by. The ability to use DOOH inventory more strategically, day-parting and optimizing in real-time, ensures the budget is spent more effectively.

💡 To understand the principles of creating ads that feel native to their platform, you can explore our guide: What is Native Advertising?

By connecting an offline physical presence with digital precision, DOOH offers the best of both worlds: the unmissable, trusted impact of out-of-home and the smart, measurable attributes of digital media.

How DOOH advertising works?

A digital billboard might seem like a simple screen, but behind it lies a sophisticated ecosystem that merges the physical world with digital precision. Understanding how DOOH advertising works reveals why it's such a powerful tool, moving far beyond simply displaying an ad to delivering a contextually intelligent brand experience.

Infrastructure and Delivery

The foundation of any DOOH advertising campaign is its robust technical infrastructure. This network ensures that the right creative is delivered to the right screen at the right time.

  • The Screens is the most visible component, encompassing everything from large-format billboards and transit shelter displays to digital screens in elevators, gyms, and retail checkouts. This vast network is the DOOH inventory available for purchase.
  • Content Management Systems (CMS) is the central brain. Advertisers and DOOH advertising companies use a CMS to upload, schedule, and manage ad creatives across thousands of screens remotely. This allows for instant updates and rotation of multiple ads.
  • Each screen is connected to a media player (a small computer) that receives instructions from the CMS and ensures the ad is played correctly and on schedule.

⚡ This infrastructure enables the seamless delivery of dynamic content; setting the stage for intelligent targeting.

Data and Triggers

This is where DOOH transforms from a broadcast medium to a responsive one. DOOH targeting is powered by a constant flow of data that triggers specific ad creative to play.

  • Real-Time Data Feeds campaigns can be programmed to react to live data inputs. This includes weather, time, live events, traffic conditions etc.
  • Using anonymized mobile data and other sources, screens can infer the demographic profile of a passing audience. This allows them to target commuters, lunchtime crowds, or weekend shoppers.

This data-driven approach is supercharged by programmatic DOOH, which automates the buying process. Through a DOOH DSP, advertisers can set rules to automatically purchase DOOH inventory that matches their desired data triggers and audience criteria. 

Optimization and Analytics

The final, crucial piece is DOOH measurement and optimization, which closes the loop and proves ROI:

  • Unlike a static billboard, a DOOH marketing campaign can be tweaked in real-time. If certain creatives or locations are underperforming, they can be paused or replaced. The budget can be shifted to the best-performing screens or times of day to maximize impact.
  • Modern DOOH solutions provide detailed reporting that goes far beyond estimated impressions. Key metrics include verified plays, foot traffic lift, online conversion lift and brand lift studies. 

By integrating infrastructure, real-time data, and robust analytics, DOOH advertising operates as a responsive, measurable, and highly effective channel in the modern marketer's toolkit.

What media-buying models are possible with DOOH? 

The flexibility of digital out-of-home advertising extends to its media-buying models, offering advertisers a spectrum from guaranteed, high-impact placements to efficient, data-driven auctions. Understanding these models is key to executing an effective DOOH marketing strategy.

1. Direct Buying

Direct buying involves negotiating directly with a media owner or DOOH advertising company for a fixed placement on a specific screen or network. It's ideal for long-term, high-visibility brand campaigns where premium placement is the priority. 

2. Private Marketplace (PMP) Deals

PMPs are invitation-only auctions for premium DOOH inventory. Publishers offer their best screens to a select group of buyers, combining the curated quality of direct buys with the efficiency of programmatic. This is a popular model for programmatic DOOH campaigns seeking brand-safe, premium environments.

3. Programmatic Guaranteed Buying

Programmatic guaranteed buying automates the direct-buy process. Advertisers secure specific inventory at a fixed price, guaranteed. It offers the same commitment as a direct buy but with the streamlined workflow and data integration of a DOOH DSP, making it efficient for planned, upfront campaigns.

4. Open Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

In this fully automated model, DOOH inventory is bought and sold through a live, open auction. When an ad slot becomes available, multiple buyers bid simultaneously, and the highest bidder wins the impression. This offers maximum flexibility and efficiency for DOOH targeting based on real-time data and value. 

 5. Omnichannel programmatic integration

The most advanced DOOH media buying model integrates out-of-home directly into a cross-channel programmatic strategy. Instead of operating in a silo, DOOH is planned and bought alongside online video, display, and CTV within a single DOOH DSP platform.

This allows for true synergy, such as using a single budget to sequence ads, exposing users to a broad-reach digital out-of-home message before retargeting them on their mobile devices. This model unlocks superior frequency capping across channels and unified DOOH measurement, attributing how the physical ad exposure influenced digital conversions and overall campaign ROI. 

It represents the pinnacle of programmatic out-of-home advertising, transforming DOOH from a standalone tactic into a powerful orchestration layer within the modern marketing mix.

Each model offers a unique balance of control, price, and efficiency, allowing brands to tailor their programmatic out-of-home advertising approach to specific campaign goals.

DOOH campaign types and use cases

Digital Out-of-Home advertising is incredibly versatile, supporting a wide range of strategic goals. Common campaign types include:

  • Using large-format digital billboards in high-traffic areas to build dominant brand awareness, such as mass-reach branding.
  • Targeting specific neighborhoods, streets, or even individual venues like shopping malls with place-based advertising to drive foot traffic.
  • Leveraging real-time data triggers (weather, sports scores, news) to make messaging feel immediate and relevant

Using DOOH as the top-of-funnel awareness driver that is then retargeted through mobile and social media, creating a seamless customer journey

Benefits of DOOH advertising

The shift to digital OOH is driven by a powerful set of advantages that deliver measurable value to advertisers.

High visibility and brand awareness

DOOH advertising offers an unskippable, large-scale canvas in the real world. Placed in high-traffic transit hubs, highways, and urban centers, it commands attention in a way cluttered digital channels often cannot, building brand prestige and recall effectively.

Dynamic and contextual messaging

Unlike static ads, DOOH media can be updated instantly. This allows for dynamic creative that responds to context—like promoting umbrellas on a rainy day or a cool drink on a hot afternoon—dramatically increasing engagement and relevance.

Programmatic buying capabilities

The automation of programmatic DOOH brings unprecedented efficiency and data-driven precision to outdoor advertising. Advertisers can use a DOOH DSP to buy vetted DOOH inventory based on specific audience and contextual parameters. 

💡 For a deeper dive into the automated ad buying landscape, see our comparison: Programmatic Advertising vs. Real-Time Bidding (RTB): What Advertisers Need to Know.

Precise targeting based on audience data

Modern DOOH targeting moves far beyond simple location. Using anonymized mobile data and other sources, advertisers can target audiences by demographics, behaviors, and even past purchase intent, ensuring messages reach the most relevant consumers.

Seamless integration with mobile and CTV campaigns

DOOH marketing excels as part of an omnichannel strategy. It can be sequenced with mobile campaigns for retargeting or paired with Connected TV to create a cohesive "big screen to big screen" narrative. 

Real-time performance tracking

Sophisticated DOOH measurement provides actionable insights. Advertisers can track verified ad plays, measure foot traffic lift to physical locations, and correlate exposure with spikes in website visits or online sales, providing a clear view of campaign impact and ROI.

DOOH ad formats and inventory types

The power of digital out-of-home advertising lies in its diverse formats, each designed to capture attention in specific environments and consumer mindsets.

Large Format

These are the massive digital billboards and signage along highways and in major urban centers. Designed for maximum impact and broad reach, they are the modern evolution of the classic billboard, using high-resolution, dynamic video to command attention from a distance.

Place-Based

This digital out-of-home media targets audiences based on their location and activities. Screens are found in venues like gyms, office buildings, airports, and university campuses, allowing for tailored messaging to a captive, contextually relevant audience.

Point-of-Purchase

Located at the final step of the customer journey, these screens appear in retail environments, such as supermarket aisles, checkout counters, and on pharmacy shelves. This format is a key component of in-store retail media networks, allowing brands to influence buying decisions at the most critical moment. 

💡 To understand the broader ecosystem this fits into, explore our guide: Retail Media Networks: what they are, how they work, and why they matter in 2026 

DOOH targeting and capabilities

The true power of digital out-of-home advertising lies in its sophisticated targeting capabilities, which enable brands to deliver the right message to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Location-Based Targeting

This foundational capability allows advertisers to target screens in specific geographic areas, from entire cities down to hyper-local levels like a single street or venue, ensuring relevance to the immediate environment.

Weather-Based Targeting

Campaigns can be triggered by real-time weather data. An ad for a cooling beverage can appear during a heatwave, while a soup brand can promote its products on a cold, rainy day, making the message instantly relatable.

Time-Based Targeting

Also known as dayparting, this allows for messaging tailored to the time of day—such as promoting coffee during the morning commute and a food delivery service in the evening.

Behavioral and Audience Targeting

By using anonymized mobile data and other sources, DOOH can target audiences based on their demographics, inferred interests, and even past purchase behavior. This moves DOOH targeting beyond simple location to true audience buying. 

💡The next evolution of this is AI-driven optimization, which you can explore here: How Artificial Intelligence Transforms Programmatic Buying in DSPs.

DOOH measurement and analytics

Modern DOOH advertising has moved beyond mere visibility to deliver tangible, data-driven results. Core metrics like verified impressions, reach, and frequency are now standard, providing a clear picture of campaign scale. Advanced analytics go further, measuring audience dwell time and engagement.

The most significant advancement is in attribution. By integrating with mobile location data, advertisers can track the lift in foot traffic to physical stores following a DOOH campaign. Programmatic DOOH platforms can also track online conversions, such as website visits and purchases, by users exposed to the ads. This robust data enables true ROI analysis, allowing for real-time optimization of creative, targeting, and budget allocation to maximize performance. 

The future of DOOH advertising

The trajectory of digital out-of-home advertising points toward a more automated, intelligent, and integrated future, solidifying its role as a core component of modern marketing.

Growth of Programmatic DOOH and Automation

The adoption of programmatic DOOH will continue to accelerate, bringing unprecedented efficiency and scale to outdoor media buying. Automation will streamline operations, allowing advertisers to focus on strategy while algorithms handle execution.

💡Learn the fundamentals of this shift: What is Programmatic Advertising?.

Integration with AI and Real-Time Data Sources

Artificial intelligence will revolutionize DOOH marketing, enabling predictive targeting and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) at scale. Campaigns will automatically adapt to complex, real-time data streams—from traffic patterns to social media trends—maximizing relevance.

💡Discover how AI is reshaping the entire landscape: AI in digital marketing: how artificial intelligence is transforming strategies in 2026

Cross-Channel Synergy

The future is omnichannel. DOOH will increasingly function as the broad-reach anchor for campaigns, seamlessly sequenced with targeted mobile retargeting, complementary CTV messaging, and synchronized social activations for a unified customer journey.

Privacy-Safe Audience Measurement

As data privacy regulations tighten, the industry will shift toward advanced, privacy-compliant measurement techniques. This includes greater reliance on aggregated and anonymized data, contextual signals, and clean-room technologies to prove campaign effectiveness without compromising user privacy.

Sustainability and Energy-Efficient Tech

A growing focus on sustainability will drive the adoption of energy-efficient LED displays, solar-powered screens, and smarter power management systems. This commitment to eco-friendly practices will become a key differentiator for media owners and brands alike. 

💡To implement a more efficient and transparent media strategy today, explore our service: Smart Supply.

Challenges ahead

Despite its rapid growth, the DOOH advertising industry must navigate several key challenges to sustain its momentum. A primary obstacle is standardization and fragmentation. With numerous DOOH advertising companies, platforms, and measurement methodologies, creating unified campaign metrics and buying processes remains complex. Ad fraud and viewability also present concerns, as the industry must develop robust verification standards to ensure ads are seen by real people in suitable environments.

Furthermore, privacy regulations continue to evolve, impacting the granularity of DOOH targeting and measurement based on mobile location data. Finally, proving direct ROI beyond brand lift and foot traffic, especially for upper-funnel campaigns, requires continued innovation in DOOH measurement and attribution models to satisfy performance-driven marketers.

Conclusion: How to Integrate DOOH Advertising Into Your Marketing Strategy

At AI Digital, we believe Digital Out-of-Home is more than a channel. We believe that it's the connective tissue between the digital and physical worlds. To truly harness its power, it must be integrated into a holistic strategy.

Start with a clear goal and embrace contextual creativity. Prioritize reaching audiences, not just locations, and plan your DOOH campaign as an integral part of an omnichannel journey, not an isolated tactic. Most importantly, demand transparent measurement from the outset.

This is where our Open Garden philosophy comes to life.

  • Through Smart Supply, we provide access to a curated, efficient, and high-quality DOOH inventory, ensuring your campaigns run in brand-safe environments. And with our analytics platform, Elevate, you gain the unified measurement needed to prove impact, from verified impressions to foot traffic and online conversion lift, closing the loop on ROI.

As programmatic buying and AI mature, DOOH will become an indispensable, intelligent layer within the marketing ecosystem. With AI Digital's ecosystem, you can leverage this powerful channel today to deliver personalized brand experiences at a mass scale.

Inefficiency

Description

Use case

Description of use case

Examples of companies using AI

Ease of implementation

Impact

Audience segmentation and insights

Identify and categorize audience groups based on behaviors, preferences, and characteristics

  • Michaels Stores: Implemented a genAI platform that increased email personalization from 20% to 95%, leading to a 41% boost in SMS click through rates and a 25% increase in engagement.
  • Estée Lauder: Partnered with Google Cloud to leverage genAI technologies for real-time consumer feedback monitoring and analyzing consumer sentiment across various channels.
High
Medium

Automated ad campaigns

Automate ad creation, placement, and optimization across various platforms

  • Showmax: Partnered with AI firms toautomate ad creation and testing, reducing production time by 70% while streamlining their quality assurance process.
  • Headway: Employed AI tools for ad creation and optimization, boosting performance by 40% and reaching 3.3 billion impressions while incorporating AI-generated content in 20% of their paid campaigns.
High
High

Brand sentiment tracking

Monitor and analyze public opinion about a brand across multiple channels in real time

  • L’Oréal: Analyzed millions of online comments, images, and videos to identify potential product innovation opportunities, effectively tracking brand sentiment and consumer trends.
  • Kellogg Company: Used AI to scan trending recipes featuring cereal, leveraging this data to launch targeted social campaigns that capitalize on positive brand sentiment and culinary trends.
High
Low

Campaign strategy optimization

Analyze data to predict optimal campaign approaches, channels, and timing

  • DoorDash: Leveraged Google’s AI-powered Demand Gen tool, which boosted its conversion rate by 15 times and improved cost per action efficiency by 50% compared with previous campaigns.
  • Kitsch: Employed Meta’s Advantage+ shopping campaigns with AI-powered tools to optimize campaigns, identifying and delivering top-performing ads to high-value consumers.
High
High

Content strategy

Generate content ideas, predict performance, and optimize distribution strategies

  • JPMorgan Chase: Collaborated with Persado to develop LLMs for marketing copy, achieving up to 450% higher clickthrough rates compared with human-written ads in pilot tests.
  • Hotel Chocolat: Employed genAI for concept development and production of its Velvetiser TV ad, which earned the highest-ever System1 score for adomestic appliance commercial.
High
High

Personalization strategy development

Create tailored messaging and experiences for consumers at scale

  • Stitch Fix: Uses genAI to help stylists interpret customer feedback and provide product recommendations, effectively personalizing shopping experiences.
  • Instacart: Uses genAI to offer customers personalized recipes, mealplanning ideas, and shopping lists based on individual preferences and habits.
Medium
Medium

Questions? We have answers

What does DOOH stand for?

DOOH stands for Digital Out-of-Home advertising. It refers to dynamic, screen-based media—like digital billboards and place-based screens—used for advertising in public spaces, offering greater flexibility and targeting than traditional static OOH.

Which is more effective: traditional or digital OOH advertising?

Digital OOH is generally more effective. It offers superior engagement through motion, real-time content updates, and data-driven targeting capabilities that traditional static billboards cannot match, leading to higher recall and impact.

How much does DOOH advertising cost?

Costs vary widely based on format, location, and campaign duration, ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars monthly. Programmatic buying has also introduced flexible, auction-based pricing for many digital OOH inventories.

What is programmatic DOOH?

Programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) is the automated buying and selling of digital out-of-home ad space using a DSP. This enables data-driven, real-time bidding on inventory, bringing efficiency and precise targeting to outdoor advertising.

Which industries benefit most from DOOH?

Industries like retail, automotive, entertainment, and travel benefit greatly. These sectors leverage DOOH's ability to drive foot traffic, promote new releases, and target audiences in specific, relevant environments like malls or transit hubs.

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