If you are a business that wants to advertise, you might be considering so many options. Your goal is to get the word out so your specific audience can patronize your business and become recurring customers. One of those ways to market could be digital billboards.
Sure, regular billboards may still be one of the best options. However, with everything going digital, this kind of advertising is evolving as well. We’ll talk about the benefits of them in this guide.
If you are considering the best ways to advertise your business, keep reading. With that said, let’s get started.
What are digital billboards?
Digital billboards include digital images that change over time. Unlike standard billboards, there can be space used by businesses that want to use it for advertising. For example, a digital billboard can display different ads over the course of a certain period.
For example, one digital billboard will display an ad for a plumbing service for a couple of minutes. Then it can switch to another advertisement for a real estate company. With digital, there can be space provided in one place rather than having a standard billboard and struggling to find a place to display it.
These billboards use LEDs, which make them cost-effective and more attractive compared to standard billboards. What makes them even better is that they can be changed at any given time. This also means that it reduces the time and frustration of having to take down the old image and replace it with a new one the old fashioned way.
It can all be done on a computer. All you need to do is paste the appropriate ad to the digital billboard and you’re good to go. Plus, these ads can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the duration of the campaign.
At the end of the day, digital billboards will give advertisers more control. At the price that it’s going for compared to standard billboards, going digital is a steal of a deal.
Pros and Cons of Digital Billboards
There are upsides to digital billboards. And yes, there are downsides. We’ll take a look at each of them so you know what to expect.
Let’s start with the following pros:
Pros
- You choose the time slot: What time do you want your billboard to appear? In the morning, afternoon, or night? You’ll have to do it strategically. If you are a restaurant and it’s breakfast, it would make sense to display an ad for breakfast in the morning instead of later on in the day (unless your Denny’s).
- They are in prime locations: You won’t have to jockey for position in terms of prime locations. Digital billboards are already placed there. All you need to fight for is space and the right time frame. Yes, the competition can still be fierce in the age of digital billboards.
- You can have several ads at a time: You can run one ad in the morning and one at night. Depending on your budget, you can have several ads going at a time. However, your competition might be planning the same thing, so plan accordingly on which ads you want to run in the space available.
Cons
- They can be distracting: While standard billboards are not distracting, digital billboards can be. Especially when people are trying to drive and keep their eyes on the road. That’s because the ads will switch over time and that can be enough to catch someone’s eye.
- They can waste energy: Yes, LEDs can be beneficial for energy consumption. But since they are running all day and all night, it will consume plenty of energy overall. However, with solar energy being one of the growing sources for power, this issue can be mitigated. The real question is: when will this become a thing?
- It can be costly depending on location: The more prime the location, the more costly it can be. Like real estate, it comes down to ‘location, location, location’. High traffic areas will be more desirable than low traffic. Because of this, the price for displaying your ad will be much higher compared to a billboard located in a low traffic area.
Final Thoughts
If you are a business that needs to display ads for your business, digital billboards will be perfect for you. We live in an age where digital is the way to go. No, it won’t kill off standard billboards any time soon.
But you can take advantage of the space available and choose the best times to display your ads. Even better, you won’t have to worry about hunting for real estate on where to put your billboard. If you have more than one ad to run, a digital billboard will be perfect.