Measuring What Matters: Effective Metrics and Attribution in DOOH Advertising

Measuring What Matters: Effective Metrics and Attribution in DOOH Advertising

The global Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) market is projected to reach $12,970.78 million by 2032, highlighting its rapid growth and importance in modern advertising. To harness its full potential, marketers must evaluate campaign performance effectively, focusing on two key areas: ad exposure and post-exposure actions. Metrics like impressions, unique reach, frequency, and ROI, alongside advanced methods such as brand studies, foot traffic analysis, and online conversion tracking, provide critical insights into what drives success.

Tools like device ID passback, computer vision, and promo codes further enhance these evaluations, offering a comprehensive view of audience behavior and engagement. By leveraging these techniques, businesses can fine-tune strategies, optimize outcomes, and maximize the impact of their DOOH investments in an increasingly competitive market.

Key Success Metrics

When evaluating the effectiveness of DOOH campaigns, companies should focus on two primary areas: exposure, which measures the reach and visibility of the ad, and post-exposure, which tracks user behavior and actions after encountering the ad. Exposure metrics focus on the timing and location of the ads, as well as identifying who saw them, including key demographic data. Post-exposure metrics analyze user behavior after viewing the campaigns, particularly in terms of engagement and interest. This stage answers questions such as: Did viewers visit the advertised locations? Did they use the QR codes in the ads to learn more about the brand or product?

Methods Involved in Measuring

Each of these methods offers unique insights into campaign performance, helping marketers fine-tune their strategies. Here's how some of the key methods work:

1. Brand Studies:

Conducting brand studies allows companies to assess consumer’s interactions with their brand/products ,comparing those who have seen the ads versus those who have not. With these studies, we are better able to understand how consumers perceive the brand/product also known as favorability , brand awareness, as well as their actions upon having seen the advertisement in the scope of campaigns in terms of purchase intent. 

2. Foot Traffic Tracking:

Within foot traffic tracking, the general intent is to see how many people visit a location within a given time frame. This data is collected with device ID tracking, GPS data, mobile app data, and Wi-Fi or bluetooth beacons. Upon collecting this data, companies can see how to increase brand action and intent with making efforts to increase the number of individuals coming to the location. More exposure leads to more awareness and intent to buy products. Geofencing and control groups can be used during this process to get more accurate results. Geofencing includes measuring how many people come within a specific radius of the ad placement. 

3. Online Conversion Tracking:

This method of tracking DOOH marketing success involves measuring campaign metrics such as but not limited to the number of individuals that visit your site and how many of those individuals that make actionable changes afterward. These metrics allow us to see the impact of campaigns throughout the customer journey in real time. There are two types of conversions: micro-conversions and macro-conversations. Micro-conversions are conversions such as newsletters and sign-ups. Macro-conversions are conversions such as direct purchases. Attribution models are also commonly used in this method to directly see what factors affected actionable changes made by consumers. Platforms like Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics can help us accomplish this.

4. Sales Lift:

With this method, the hope is to compare how typical sales compare to the sales that occur during campaigns. This allows for us to directly see the difference in sales made before and during marketing campaign efforts. One thing that definitely needs to be taken into consideration when using sales lift as a method is that there are other factors that can affect the during-campaign sales such as seasonality, campaigns from competitors, the state of the economy, and product demand. To work around this, companies can use control groups and also adjust to other competing factors. 

5. Device ID Passback:

Device ID Passback involves marketers getting a hold of device IDs for consumers exposed to the campaigns. This is done through the use of Wi-Fi, bluetooth, and/or mobile apps. This method allows for assessing exposure and behaviors that follow exposure. With this information, marketers can learn about the demographics that are being exposed to the campaign and how to better target them while still protecting their privacy.

6. Computer Vision:

Within computer vision, AI and machine learning are equipped to analyze the data that comes from devices placed in physical environments such as cameras and screens. A few of the analyses that can be done with this data is seeing what type of demographic has the most exposure to the campaign, how long viewers view the ads in physical locations, how to optimally cater ads to the popular demographics in an area, and seeing people’s real time reactions to the ads they are seeing. By being able to see who is engaging with these ads as well as the duration of this, companies can fine tune their creatives in a way that caters more to high-engagement audiences. 

7. URL Links, Promo/QR codes:

The metrics collected from the data resulting in using URL links and QR/promo codes allows companies to directly see consumers visiting their page and interacting with their brand during campaigns. 

8. Surveys and Direct Feedback:

Amongst all of the other helpful methods of measuring campaign performance is the need for direct feedback from consumers. This can be done by having surveys that can be qualitative and quantitative to directly hear from consumers on how they felt about the campaign, helping companies better understand where there is room for improvement. 

By combining these methods companies can not only see the current effectiveness of their campaigns but also make improvements through the valuable insights they gain and also change the budget allocation accordingly.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced digital world, knowing how well your DOOH campaigns are working is vital to making sure that your marketing efforts are successful. With the right blend of traditional and more advanced metrics—like impressions, brand studies, foot traffic tracking, and online conversions—you can really understand what’s driving your results. Newer tools like device ID passback, computer vision, and sales lift analysis go even deeper, giving you a clearer picture of how your audience is interacting with your ads and what’s catching their attention. As DOOH continues to grow, staying on top of these techniques will give you the edge you need to make the most of your campaigns and see real, measurable results. At Dolphin Digital, we specialize in programmatic DOOH advertising, leading the way in helping businesses tap into the full potential of digital out-of-home media. For more insights and details, feel free to visit us.                  

 References

1. AdMobilize. (2024, April 23). How to measure the effectiveness of your DOOH campaign. https://admobilize.com/2024/04/23/how-to-measure-the-effectiveness-of-your-dooh-campaign/#:~:text=In%20conclusion%2C%20evaluating%20the%20effectiveness,and%20power%20their%20programmatic%20connections.
2. AdPlanet. (2023, July 24). DOOH vs OOH: Measurement tools for effective outdoor advertising. https://adplanetads.com/spotlight/dooh-vs-ooh-measurement/#:~:text=Venue%2Dspecific%20counts:%20Venue%2D,the%20action%20of%20tangible%20activity.
3. Vistar Media. (2022, November 02). The essential guide to DOOH measurement solutions.        https://www.vistarmedia.com/blog/dooh-measurement-solutions