Billboard Advertising Statistics for 2026 — The Numbers That Actually Matter

Every budget meeting needs numbers. Here are the billboard advertising statistics worth bringing to yours — not vanity metrics, but the ones that prove the medium works and show where it’s heading.

The market is growing

• Global out-of-home advertising spend reached $54.2 billion in 2025, up about 15% year on year (World Out of Home Organisation).
• OOH accounts for 5.1% of total global advertising spend, forecast to climb to $56.4 billion in 2026.
• Digital billboards drove the growth: DOOH hit $25.5 billion in 2025, about 47% of OOH revenue, and is set to overtake static outdoor in 2026.

The takeaway: billboards aren’t a legacy line item. They’re the fastest-growing traditional channel in most major markets.

The reach is enormous

• Billboards reach over 90% of U.S. travelers each month.
• At Times Square alone, roughly 380,000 pedestrians and 115,000 drivers pass daily — about 1.5 million daily impressions, with peak counts exceeding 460,000.
• Times Square visitors spend an average of 81 minutes in the area, with about 8 minutes actively viewing billboards — a level of attention no feed ad can match.

The effectiveness is documented

• Outdoor advertising delivers the highest ad recall of any media format at 86% (OAAA/Solomon Partners).
• Nielsen’s analysis of 1,200+ campaigns found billboard ROI averages 497% — roughly six dollars back for every dollar spent.
• Billboard advertising produces 55% brand recall versus 21% for digital banner ads.

Attention beats the feed

• Digital billboards capture attention for an average of 2.4 seconds versus 1.6 seconds for static billboards (Nielsen).
• 71% of drivers and pedestrians consciously look at billboards while navigating (University of Cincinnati).
• 74% of mobile users take action on their phone after seeing a DOOH ad — including 44% who search for the advertiser.

The formats behind the numbers

The standard highway billboard, the bulletin, is 14 feet by 48 feet — about 672 square feet of ad face. Digital billboards now dominate growth because they’re shared, flexible, and measurable. And the 3D billboard segment is expanding fast, with eye-tracking showing naked-eye 3D screens hold attention for ~4.8 seconds versus ~1.2 seconds for flat ads.

What to do with these numbers

If you’re building a case for billboards, structure it around three facts:

1. Reach — over 90% of travelers, repeatedly.
2. Recall — 86% recall, 55% brand recall, the highest in media.
3. Return — 497% average ROI, documented across thousands of campaigns.

That’s a channel that reaches broadly, gets remembered, and pays back.

Numbers you can act on

The data behind billboards is strong enough to justify real budget. The skill is turning reach into results: choosing locations that match your audience, designing for seconds of attention, and measuring the outcome.

That’s where Globalstars comes in. We operate premium billboard inventory around the world — highway LED screens and landmark spectaculars — and help brands turn the medium’s strong statistics into actual campaigns. We plan to your audience, handle the placement, and set up the measurement that proves the return.

The numbers say billboards work. [Let’s turn them into your campaign](https://www.globalstarscn.com/AdvertisingFormats/dooh/).

Data sources: World Out of Home Organisation; OAAA/Solomon Partners; Nielsen; University of Cincinnati; Times Square Alliance.