Choosing a billboard location in DFW: where your customers actually drive

Start from your customers' routes, not from the map

The right billboard location is one that your customers pass regularly, on their side of the road, at a spot where the board is easy to see and read, and ideally close to where they would buy from you. Start by mapping where your best customers live and work and which highways connect them to you, then look for boards on those routes. Audience data, visibility and the direction of traffic separate a good board from one that only looks good on paper.

Location is the decision I spend the most time on with owners at Lamar's Dallas–Fort Worth Billboard Office, because no design can rescue a board in the wrong place. Here is the process I use.

Step one: know where your customers come from

Before looking at any board, pull a list of your recent customers and look at their ZIP codes or addresses. Most businesses find their customers cluster in a few areas, often closer to them than they expected, sometimes along one corridor that connects home and work. That cluster is your target. A board that sits in front of heavy traffic from somewhere else is exposure to people who are unlikely to buy.

Then think about how those customers move. Where do they commute? Which highway do they take to the shopping they already do? Where would they be on the way to you? The goal is to put your name on the road they already drive, not to persuade them to drive somewhere new.

• Your customer ZIP codes or service addresses for the past year
• The areas where you want to grow, if they differ from where you are today
• The highways and interstates that connect those areas to your location
• Any secondary locations, such as a second office or a planned opening

What the DFW inventory looks like

Lamar's inventory in the Metroplex sits almost entirely along high-traffic interstates and highways, and it covers Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties plus the surrounding counties. That means most of the choices I show owners are highway boards built for volume, seen by commuters and travelers rather than by pedestrians on a neighborhood street. Lamar also has displays at Dallas Love Field, which reach a different audience altogether; I cover them in my guide to advertising at Dallas Love Field.

Because the metro is so spread out, the same business can face very different choices depending on its customers. A company serving one suburb wants depth on the roads into that suburb. A company serving the whole region may want presence in several corridors, either with several boards or with a rotary package that moves the ad between locations over time.

Direction, side of the road and the approach

Every board faces one direction of traffic. A board on the right highway can still be the wrong board if it faces drivers heading away from your customers' neighborhoods or away from your location. If your goal is to get people to stop in, a board that drivers see on the way toward you, before their exit, is usually more useful than one they see after they have passed it.

Ask about the approach too. A board that drivers can see from a long way off, straight ahead or at a comfortable angle, gets more reading time than one that appears suddenly around a curve or behind an overpass. When I compare boards for owners, I look at how long the face is visible from a moving car, not just whether it is visible.

Reading the audience data

Outdoor audiences are estimated, not counted at the board. The industry's audience measurement company, Geopath, builds its numbers from road network data, points of interest and mobile device location and movement patterns. It reports both opportunity-to-see impressions and audience impressions, also called likely-to-see impressions, which adjust for whether a person was actually likely to notice the display.

When you compare two boards, make sure the audience numbers you are given use the same measure, and ask what the estimate is based on. A board with a larger number on a broader measure is not necessarily seen by more people than a board with a smaller number on a stricter one. The audience profile matters as much as the size: where the people passing the board live is often more useful than the total.

Close to the sale or across the market

There are two different location strategies, and it helps to know which one you are following. A board near your location works as a pointer: it catches people already in the area and tells them you are right there. Restaurants, retailers, clinics and anyone who depends on walk-in or drive-in business usually start here.

A board across the market works as a brand builder: it puts your name in front of people long before they need you, so they think of you when they do. Home services, law firms, healthcare systems, homebuilders and regional companies often choose this. Some campaigns combine the two, with one board near the door and others on the main commuter routes.

How the goal changes the right spot

The same board can be perfect for one business and wrong for the next, because each goal asks something different of a location. These are the patterns I see most often when I match a goal to a board.

Notice that none of these start with the busiest road in the metro. They start with what you want a driver to do and where that driver will be when the idea is useful.

• Grand opening or new location: boards on the approach to the new site, facing traffic heading toward it, so drivers learn you are there before their exit
• Restaurant or retail: as close to the point of purchase as possible, where a driver can act on the message the same day
• Home services: the main routes in and out of the neighborhoods you serve, so homeowners know the name before something breaks
• Professional services or healthcare: commuter corridors used by the households or employers you want, with a steady brand message
• Hiring: roads near your facility and the areas where the workers you need live, often on digital so the open roles can change
• Event or seasonal promotion: boards the target audience passes in the weeks before the date, often digital so a countdown can run

Why you rent an existing board instead of building one

Owners sometimes ask whether they can simply put up their own billboard on land they control. Outdoor advertising along highways is regulated. The federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965 controls outdoor advertising near the Interstate and primary highway systems, with the states responsible for compliance, and in Texas the Department of Transportation runs a Commercial Signs Regulatory Program for commercial signs along Texas highways, with its own licensing and permitting. Cities add their own sign rules on top.

That is why most businesses rent space on existing permitted structures. The sign on your own building is a different matter, governed mainly by local rules; if you are opening a new location, the guide on getting the storefront sign, permit and landlord approval right covers that side.

Location mistakes that waste a campaign

Most of these come down to choosing a board for how it feels rather than for who passes it. Each one is easy to avoid once you know to look for it.

The location and the length of the run work together. A good board needs time for the same commuters to pass it enough to remember you. A slightly less prominent board that you can afford to hold for the whole campaign often does more than a premium board you can only keep for a few weeks, because familiarity comes from repetition on the same route. If you want to cover several corridors, a rotary bulletin package, which Lamar says moves your ad between bulletin locations usually every 60 to 90 days, lets one campaign be seen in more than one part of the market.

My guide on how long a billboard campaign should run covers this in detail. If you are still deciding whether outdoor suits you at all, start with my guide on whether a billboard is worth it for a small local business.

• Choosing a board because it is on the owner's own commute rather than the customers'
• Buying a board facing traffic heading away from your location or your customers' neighborhoods
• Comparing audience numbers that use different measures as if they were the same
• Spreading one small budget across boards in unrelated parts of the metro
• Ignoring how long the face is visible from the road
• Picking the location and then running it for too short a time to work

Choosing locations together

When we talk, bring your customer list or at least the ZIP codes you serve, and tell me where you want to grow. I will match those areas against the boards available, explain which direction each one faces and who passes it, and quote each one. You will see the options side by side, with the reasons I would choose one over another.

If none of the available boards fit your customers, I will tell you that too, and we can wait for the right one or look at digital or airport options instead of forcing a location that will not work.

Questions people ask me