What Are the Different Sizes of a Billboard?

One of the most recognizable forms of out of home advertising is the billboard. More than just a large sign on a freeway, a billboard has the ability to capture the attention of a consumer and leave a lasting impression.

What Are the Different Sizes of a Billboard?

One of the most recognizable forms of out of home advertising is the billboard.

More than just a large sign on a freeway, a billboard has the ability to capture the attention of a consumer and leave a lasting impression that is both favorable toward the brand being advertised and is likely to move the consumer to take action.

Much research has been done that tells us consumers view out of home advertising, like billboards, as acceptable and as an enhancement to their outdoor experience.

Billboards can be static-the flat posters that see adorning highways, state roads, freeways, and interstates.

They can be digital-electronic boards capable of running advertisements from multiple different brands at once.

They can also be interactive.

Billboards can be large structures cemented on the sidewalk and storefront areas of urban areas that encourage engagement from passersby.

Billboards are one of the most effective modalities of outdoor media.

If you are considering billboards for your next advertising campaign, you should know the different sizes of a billboard and what sizes will be most effective for your target market.

Here are five different sizes of billboards.

Bulletins

Bulletins are the largest among standard-sized billboards. Of course, there are some media owners who own boards larger than this size, but those are considered specialty, non-standard billboards.

The bulletin is generally fourteen feet high and forty-eight feet wide. That equates to 672 square feet for your advertisement.

There’s truly no greater way to make your brand and product visible to your target audience, and just about anyone else.

With a bulletin size billboard, visibility is never an issue. A bulletin billboard can be seen from vehicles on expressways and busy roads or people traveling by foot or bicycle.

While your target audience for a bulletin billboard placed along a heavily trafficked commuter roadway might be those commuting workers, numerous other travelers and passersby will be exposed to your advertisements as well.

Regardless of whether or not those consumers make a decision to purchase your product, they may make a response to your advertisement by suggesting it to a friend or family member.

Bulletin sized billboards are the most recognizable, familiar, and static form of outdoor advertising available. They create a huge impact on consumers and provide maximum visibility for your brand.

Deciding where to purchase bulletin size billboard space can be complicated and time-consuming:

How can you know if the media you are purchasing has performed well for brands like yours in the past?

Is it possible to get a better price than the one you are being offered by the specific media owner?

Is there any allowance for a discount if you decide to repeat business with them?

These are all legitimate questions that can really take up valuable time and in the end, cost you money you don’t want to spend.

Using a company like AdQuick to broker the purchase of outdoor advertising for you ensures you always get the best price possible and secure a location that has proven to drive sales in your market.

Posters

The second largest in standard billboard sizes are poster-sized billboards.

While poster-sized billboards can come in different sizes, they are generally about ten feet tall by twenty-two feet wide, giving you 220 square feet of advertisement space.

At this size, posters are still capable of creating the same impact as the standard sized bulletin billboard, but their slightly smaller size allows them to be placed in locations larger billboards cannot fit or would be unsightly.

Secondary roads, smaller intersections, and less densely populated areas are very popular spots for poster-sized billboards.

These billboards are still great for advertising to commuters as well as travelers passing through a town.

They are also noticeable by pedestrian passersby and other consumers enjoying the surrounding outdoor space.

Because of their smaller size, there are more of these spaces available for purchase.

A company considering the use of posters for their advertising campaign is looking at the possibility of mass production, as that is typically how posters are sold.

Because of their smaller size, they offer better results when placed in numerous locations and markets.

Navigating through the numerous media owners to determine the proper location in which to advertise can be nightmarish.

Allowing a company like AdQuick to do the job for you saves time, money, and sanity.

Junior Poster

Rounding out the three primary sizes of the standard billboard are junior posters.

While the size of these posters varies to such a degree that attempting to list a standard size would be impossible, you can estimate a junior poster allowing for about 11% of the advertising space provided by a bulletin billboard.

Initially, you may think this is too small to be effective, but junior posters provide excellent advertisement space in smaller, urban and suburban neighborhoods, near retail space to increase foot traffic, attached to a building or other structure, or anywhere else a larger billboard would not fit.

Junior posters are incredibly effective in targeting smaller ethnic groups or demographically smaller areas for specific products and/or specials and services.

For instance, you might see certain products marketed in Spanish on a junior poster in a neighborhood where the demographic is largely Spanish speaking.

Digital Billboards

Although a billboard’s ability to display digital messages does not determine its size, it is important to note that these types of billboards are available.

Typically for purchase are bulletin sized billboards with digital capabilities, these billboards are able to display ads for multiple companies in a slide show style fashion.

Aside from being more attention-grabbing and captivating than a standard, static billboard, these billboards offer a great advantage to companies over a static billboard; the company can choose to change the advertisement with no production cost.

Some media owners will even allow the message or advertisement to be changed multiple times over the course of the lease.

This means you can promote your brand in numerous ways, advertise new products, and even make consumers aware of specials or specific promotions.

There’s also very little downtime between your purchase of the media location and the time in which it can appear to the public.

Interactive Billboards

Finishing off the list of billboard sizes are interactive billboards. As with digital billboards, the focus here is not necessarily size, but feature.

An interactive billboard is a marketing promotion that requires interaction from a passing consumer.

Typically found in locations like mass transit areas, densely populated urban areas, malls, shopping centers, and city stations, these billboards are generally large enough to capture the immediate attention of passing consumers but small enough for them to interact via touching the billboard itself, speaking into a microphone attached to the billboard, listening to a message, or following along on their mobile device.

As a consumer we love interaction, and interactive billboards provide us the opportunity to interact with a brand and experience it in a way we could not by simply looking at a static message.

Interactive billboards can also appear on larger, bulletin-size billboard space.

Typically, these types of interactive billboards offer the consumer an invitation to engage by using their smartphone or other devices while messages are scrolled across the actual billboard.

When consumers feel a brand is targeting them specifically, they are more likely to make a response to an advertisement.

This response can range from talking about the brand to making a purchase based on the advertisement experience.

Billboards are available in numerous shapes and sizes. The most standard sizes are available all over the world in just about every location imaginable.

When attempting to create maximum exposure for your brand and product, there is no better way than to use billboard advertising.

From standard, bulletin sized billboards that line major roadways and freeways to junior posters that can be located in smaller less populated urban areas, if you want your brand to be noticeable and create a lasting impression with consumers, billboards will accomplish the task.

Using an outdoor media marketplace company like AdQuick can help you navigate your next outdoor advertising campaign by procuring data pertinent to your specific brand, determining the best markets and neighborhoods in which to place your advertisements, and working with individual media owners to make sure you are getting the lowest possible price for the media which you want to use.

Using billboards in any size or form can help achieve brand familiarity, and ensure you are achieving visibility with your target audience.

Repetitive viewing of billboard advertisements creates brand and product recall with not only your target audience but also with every passerby who sees your advertisement.

The use of digital and/or interactive billboards gives consumers the opportunity to be presented with media that is eye-catching and alluring.

Interactive billboards give consumers the added benefit of engaging with your brand by requiring a response from them for the ad to proceed.

Determining the specific size and area of your next outdoor billboard campaign can help you fine-tune your budget and manage outcomes and projected sales.