Ad fraud's on the rise - but OOH remains one of the safest forms of advertising
Ad fraud manifests in many different shapes and forms – from domain spoofing to ad stacking, fake social media profiles, and bots, among others
The outlook isn’t all doom and gloom, though. There are ways to protect your budget, starting with a broader funnel that incorporates a one-to-many approach like out-of-home (OOH) advertising. No ad medium is completely immune to fraud, but OOH - inherently a one-to-many medium - holds unique advantages that make it a safe and powerful play in your omnichannel strategy in 2023. Here’s why.
Get what you paid for, and then some
What you see with OOH is what you get, and you get a lot. According to the OAAA, globally, the average CPM for an OOH ad with an 18+ aged target audience is $6.41 compared to the all media average of $12.20 for the same audience, and a PJ Solomon US Media Comparison report found that OOH buys offer more reach value than television, radio, print, and most online executions.
When you book an OOH campaign on a Times Square marquee in the middle of the day, you know when and where it will appear and that you’ll have an audience – no ad blockers, fast-forwarding, bots, or fake clicks or traffic. You can work with a list of defined and limited screens where your creative will run versus other mediums where your content can run in infinite places. You can also buy an audience, in which case you can pick and choose any screens or screen types you want to include. These options ultimately translate to more transparency, accountability, and verification while decreasing your risk of fraud.
If this isn’t enough, proof of performance (POP) reporting, also known as “proof of posting” or “proof of play,” shows you when and where your ad ran. POP looks different depending on the media owner; some include photos of campaign creatives as displayed on OOH inventory, while others show statistics, audience size, or a combination of all three.
The medium has also perfected the art of tracking geolocation data to understand when and where select audiences are most likely to be reached. Most OOH transaction platforms today provide a street level view of inventory, so you can ensure you’re placing ads in the most suitable locations. Additionally, OOH ad exposure has been shown to drive online activations more than five-to-six times expected.
Tap into the power of trust
In a world that’s become accustomed to third-party targeting, OOH is generally viewed by consumers as a less intrusive, more trustworthy medium. This is crucial at a time when social media is under strict scrutiny, and advertisers are reconsidering their presence on platforms mired in controversy. Half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers fled in less than a month last year, and findings in recent years have revealed that 5-30% of Twitter followers are fake, but Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok aren’t immune to fake profiles either.
From a perception standpoint, consumers are also more likely to see a brand that advertises on OOH platforms as legitimate, and any collected data is anonymous in OOH, so privacy is less of a concern than it has been in the online and mobile space.
Distinguish yourself from the competition
When booking an ad, you often want to avoid having it play next to or in close timing to a competitor’s ad, or perhaps you strategically want it to. Either way, you’ve got options with OOH.
Most DOOH screens display content full-screen, preventing other digital ads from playing at the same time. OOH media owners also often build brand separation rules into their network to prevent competitive ads from running in proximity. That said, advertisers looking to target their competitor’s audience, or engage in conquest advertising, could opt to display messages on screens located in and around their competitor’s storefronts.
Looking to the future, OOH ad tech developers are exploring additional ways to help media buyers gain a competitive edge via support for OOH buys that include exclusivity on a set category for a predefined period, or gain insight into competitive static ads that may be running near your DOOH placements at the time you want to launch your campaign.
Separately, continued technological advancements in the space, from EV charging displays to augmented reality and 3D visuals displayed on anamorphic screens and beyond, are opening up new creative opportunities to deliver experiences that help set brands apart.
There’s no denying that ad budgets are tight across the board for the foreseeable future, which means that making smart choices to maximize your spend value is more important than ever. An ROI Genome Intelligence Report even found a benefit to increasing ad spend during uncertain economic times. According to its research, more than half of brands that increased media spend during the last recession saw ROI improvements, while those that cut spending risked a 15% loss compared to brands that increased spend.
If you’re looking to get the most ROI out of a tighter budget or increase your spend this year, OOH is a sure bet. This is especially the case when brand messaging, one of OOH’s sweet spots, has proven to outperform performance messaging 80% of the time.