Billboard, Google or social ads: where a local business should put the next dollar

They do different jobs, and they work best together

Online search ads catch people who are already looking for what you sell, social ads reach people by interest and habit, and billboards put your name in front of everyone on the road, every day, before they start looking. For most local businesses the question is not which one is better, but which job you need done next. If people searching for your service cannot find you online, fix that first. If they can, but too few people know your name to search for it, outdoor is often the missing piece.

I work with owners at Lamar's Dallas–Fort Worth Billboard Office who already run Google or social ads, and the ones who get the most from a board treat it as part of the same plan, not as a competitor for the same budget.

What each channel actually does

It helps to describe each channel by the job it does rather than by how modern it sounds. Each of these has strengths the others cannot copy.

• Search ads: appear when someone types what you sell, so they capture demand that already exists
• Local search and your Google profile: let people who search find, compare and call you, often without any ad spend
• Social ads: reach people by interest, age and location while they scroll, good for offers and stories
• Billboards: show your name to everyone on a route, every day, building familiarity before the need arises
• Digital billboards: the same reach on the road, with messages you can change by the hour

Where billboards are strong

A billboard cannot be skipped, blocked, muted or scrolled past. It is large, it is there every day and it reaches people who are not looking for you yet, which is something search ads by design cannot do. For a local business, that means building the familiarity that makes people choose your name when the need comes up.

Drivers also notice boards more than many owners expect. In a 2015 study Nielsen conducted for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, 71 percent of people who had noticed a digital billboard in the past month agreed that ads on digital billboards stand out more than ads online. The study was commissioned by the outdoor industry, so read it as one input, but it matches what I hear from owners: people mention the board.

A board also says something about the business behind it. A name on a highway board looks established and local in a way a small ad in a feed does not, and owners tell me customers bring it up in conversation. For a company asking people to trust it with their home, their health or their legal matter, that sense of being a real, visible part of the community is worth a lot.

Where online ads are strong

Online ads have clear advantages of their own. Search ads reach people at the moment of need, which makes them excellent for urgent services. Online campaigns can start small, be paused any day and be targeted narrowly, and they report clicks and calls directly, which makes testing easy. If your customers are a small, specific group, online targeting will waste less money than any broad medium.

The weakness is the flip side of the strength. Search ads only reach people who already know they need you and choose to search, and they put you on a page alongside your competitors. If nobody knows your name, you compete on that page mostly on price, ratings and position.

Social ads have a similar limit. They are good at reaching people by interest, but each ad lives for a second in a fast-moving feed, and many people scroll past ads by habit. Both channels also tend to cost more as more competitors bid for the same customers, which is why owners in crowded categories often look for a way to stand out that does not depend on winning an auction every day.

How a board and online ads feed each other

The two channels connect in a simple chain. A driver sees your board for a few weeks. Later, when they need what you sell, they search, and your name stands out on the results page because they recognize it. They click your listing or your ad, and they call. In the reports, that customer usually appears as a search click, even though the board did the early work.

That is why turning off search ads when a board goes up is a mistake, and why judging a board by click reports alone undervalues it. The board raises the number of people who search for you by name; your search presence turns those searches into calls. My guide on measuring whether a billboard is working explains how to see that effect in your own numbers.

The connection works best when the board and the online presence look like one business. Use the same name, logo and colors on the board, the website, the Google profile and the social pages. The person who half-remembers your board should recognize you instantly on a results page, and that recognition is what earns the click.

Which to do first, by situation

Every business is different, but these are the patterns I see when owners ask which channel should come first.

• Nobody can find you online: start with your website, Google profile and search presence, then add outdoor
• You rank well but few people search for your name: outdoor is a strong next step to build that demand
• You sell to a short list of specific companies: targeted online and direct outreach usually beat any broad medium
• You are opening a new location: a board on the approach plus an updated Google profile work well together
• You need calls this week for an urgent service: search ads first; outdoor builds the name for the months ahead
• Your customers are everyone in one part of the metro: outdoor reaches them all, and online ads fill in the gaps

Buying digital billboards the way you buy online ads

The line between the two worlds is thinner than it used to be. Lamar sells digital billboards programmatically, which it describes as the automated purchase and management of digital ads. According to Lamar, its programmatic inventory is available through leading demand-side platforms, including Google Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk, and transactions are based on impressions. Creative can also be adjusted to conditions such as weather or traffic.

For a business or agency already buying online media that way, programmatic outdoor can sit in the same plan. It also lets a brand that targets an audience online extend the same audience strategy to screens on the road, instead of treating outdoor as a separate silo with its own logic. For most small owners, booking a board directly with me is simpler, and on a standard digital board Lamar says you can still change the message weekly, daily, hourly or in real time with no production cost.

Thinking about the budget split

I will not give you a formula, because the right split depends on your business, your customers and what you already have working. A few principles hold up, though. Keep enough in search to catch the extra demand a board creates. Put outdoor money into one area long enough to work rather than spreading it thin. And measure the whole system, total calls and customers, not each channel in isolation. If total new customers rise while a board is up and your online spending stayed the same, the board is doing its part even if the click reports credit search.

If you are deciding how to divide your search budget itself, the guide on local SEO, Google Ads or both is a clear explanation from the search side. If you are also weighing print, the guide comparing community magazines, postcards and digital ads covers the neighborhood-level options.

Mistakes owners make when mixing the two

Each of these breaks the chain between the board and the sale, and each one is easy to prevent with a little planning before launch. Keep the brand consistent everywhere a customer might see it, so recognition from the road carries through to the search results.

• Judging the billboard only by clicks, when its job is to create the searches that get clicked
• Cutting search ads to pay for a board, leaving no one to catch the new demand
• Using different logos, colors or names on the board and online, so people do not connect the two
• Sending people to a website or profile that is out of date
• Changing everything at once, so no one can tell what worked

Planning outdoor around what you already run

When we talk, tell me what you already do online and what it delivers. I will look at where outdoor can add something your current channels cannot, show you the boards that reach your customers and quote each one. If your search presence needs work first, I will tell you, because a board that sends people to a weak listing helps nobody.

If you are still deciding whether outdoor fits your business at all, my guide on whether a billboard is worth it for a small local business is a good starting point. Lamar's Dallas office designs the ad free, so you can see what your board would look like before you decide.

Questions people ask me