Do Billboard Sizes Matter?

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From down to earth trade show exhibits to VR (Virtual Reality) campaigns, we live in a world today with numerous avenues available for marketing. However, one of the most recognizable forms is the billboard. Dating back to the 19th century, a billboard is capable of capturing the attention of a consumer while leaving a lasting impression that is not only favorable towards the brand being advertised, but also more likely to move the consumer to take real action. 

What is a Billboard?

Simply put, a billboard is a large outdoor board for displaying advertisements. Many studies support evidence that consumers view out-of-home (OOH) advertising, like a billboard, as an acceptable enhancement to their outdoor experience. They can be static flat posters that are seen adorning state roads, highways, interstates, and freeways or they can be digital electronic boards that are able to run advertisements from multiple unique brands at once. They can also be interactive. Here are a few of the most common sizes of billboards:

Bulletins

Of all the standard-sized billboards, bulletins are the largest. They are generally fourteen feet high and forty-eight feet wide which equates to 67.2 square feet for your business’s advertisement. With a billboard this big, visibility is never an issue. 

Posters

The second largest are poster-sized billboards which are typically ten feet tall to twenty-two feet wide giving brands 220 square feet of ad space. Although this billboard is a little smaller than bulletins, the large size is still capable of creating the same impact and can also be placed in locations where the larger billboards can’t fit. 

Junior Poster

The size of a junior poster varies, but rule of thumb is that these billboards allow for about 11% of the advertising space provided by a bulletin sized billboard. At first, you might think it is too small to be effective, but these billboards provide excellent advertising space in much smaller, suburban, and urban communities, near retail establishments to increase foot traffic. They can be attached to a building or other structure or simply anywhere else where a larger billboard would not fit. 

Okay, so does size actually matter?

Now that you understand what the different billboard sizes are, you might be scratching your head trying to figure out which size is best. Is a small and compact billboard better to get your message across or is a large and loud billboard a better option? The question, does size matter, can only be answered with, “it depends”’. 

Many people are under the impression that the bigger an ad is the more effective it will be. This could not be further from the truth because small ads can have a big impact too – if used properly. With that in mind, it is true that large outdoor ads can achieve something that the smaller ads are not able to. This is because large ads can influence people in extremely specific ways:

  • They grab people’s attention simply due to their large size helping them to stand out from the crowd.
  • They send a message to consumers that your brand has authority. Many people associate “big” with expensive which is associated with high quality. 

So, how big should you go?

At the end of the day, when you are trying to figure out how big your billboard should be, you should take into account your business goals and what you hope to achieve with your outdoor ad. If you are looking to “wow the crowd” and make a huge impact by showing the world that you mean business, a large bulletin billboard is a great option to do just that! If you are looking to target smaller ethnic groups or demographically smaller areas for specific products or services, but have no room for a large billboard, a junior poster will do the trick!