Total OOH ad spending in the US will surpass $10 billion for the first time in 2027, on moderate growth

• OOH ad spending has recovered from the pandemic and will continue to grow steadily. OOH ad spending hit a new high in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic. The channel doesn’t have the flashy double-digit growth rates of many digital media formats, but it will continue to grow at steady annual rates of between 3% and 5% through 2028, the end of our forecast period. TV, in contrast, will grow a mere 0.7% YoY this year thanks to an election-year boost, before dropping 13.3% in 2025.
• OOH ad spending’s share of overall media ad spending is slipping. Moderate growth won’t be enough for OOH to maintain its relatively small share of the total US ad market, which will drop from 2.4% this year to 2.0% in 2028. One in 40 US ad spending dollars went to OOH in 2023, but that ratio will be 1 in 50 ad dollars in 2028, mainly due to the very rapid increase in ad spending going to connected TV (CTV) and other digital formats.

• Advertising for local services and entertainment accounts for almost one-third of all OOH spend. Local services and amusements accounted for roughly 27% of total OOH ad spending in 2023, per Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). That figure rose to 30.0% in Q1 2024. The figure for all local advertising, including retail and political advertising, would be even higher.
• Billboards remain the dominant format. OAAA reported that 72.5% of US OOH ad spend in 2023 went to billboards. Transit ranked second, but it has grown quickly in the past few quarters. It increased by 18.8% YoY in Q1 2024, as ridership finally recovered from pandemic slumps.

• OOH remains mostly a brand advertising format. According to a November 2023 survey of US advertising decision-makers by Proximic, 7% of advertisers said DOOH was the most effective ad medium for brand marketing. In contrast, only 1% of advertisers said DOOH was the most effective channel for performance marketing goals. That said, lower-funnel OOH ads are becoming more common.

Read the full report, Out-of-Home Forecast and Trends 2024.