Mobile Advertising: How to Create Ads that Drive Results

In the world of marketing, advertisers have the advantage of producing outstanding static billboards, radio ads, print media, and more. With the vast enhancements of technology, ads have become a lot more enticing and consumers are much more interested.

With various types of ads to choose from, people may think that mobile billboard advertisements shouldn’t be at the forefront. However, these statistics prove otherwise: 

  • A reported 24% of U.S. adults surveyed claimed that this ad helped them discover a new brand.
  • 27% of adults discovered a new business in their local area thanks to this form of advertising. This form of advertising can generate an average of 30,000 to 70,000 impressions.
  • 83% of people say they notice this advertisement while driving on the highway.

So, how do you cut through the exponentially growing heap of ‘advertising clutter’? The answer is mobile billboard advertisements.

Studies by Statista and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America show that 71% of consumers feel that OOH ads stand out better than online advertising. Mobile billboards are by far the most impactful form of out-of-home advertising. 

Let’s analyze what makes them so great, and how this rich media can help your business.

What is Mobile Billboard Advertising?

A mobile billboard advertisement is an umbrella term for any analog or digital billboard attached to a moving or parked vehicle. These ad formats move around an area to display advertisements to a specific audience. 

They come in multiple forms, like vinyl vehicle wraps, trailer billboards, truck-side advertising, and mobile digital billboards

Car wraps and truck-side mobile ads are usually made of vinyl or painted onto the vehicle. Even advertisements on the side of public transport – buses, trains, or streetcars – fall under this category. 

Meanwhile, digital or trailer billboards are mounted on a specially designed vehicle. These are the fastest-growing sectors of the mobile billboard market, as they combine modern digital technology with traditional OOH messaging.

If you live in a big city, you’ve seen mobile billboards advertising with music, mobile apps, tech companies, and more. 

Why are mobile billboard advertisements so successful? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits.

Benefits of Mobile Billboard Advertising 

In a world where we’re all attached to our mobile devices, seemingly unable to pull our heads out of our smartphones, you’d think that billboards don’t work. That’s not what the stats say. 

Instead, they point to mobile billboard advertising being extremely user-friendly and engaging to new customers.

Why is that?

Versatility

Mobile billboards are an incredibly versatile, impactful, and cost-effective advertising strategy – for three reasons. Billboard advertising has one of the highest ROIs in marketing, at $5.97 per $1 spent (OAAA).

It inherently satisfies three crucial needs that in-home marketing can’t satisfy: engagement, localization, and trust. 

Mobile billboard advertising meets these needs the best out of any billboard type. Mobile billboards have a few other things to thank for the sky-high ad revenue they generate.

Engaging

Second, they are more engaging. In a 2020 Statista study, 57% of respondents were “highly engaged” with mobile outdoor ads – significantly more than static ones.

This is because they utilize a biometrically proven strategy to capture an audience’s attention and stimulate memory. 

Brain scans conducted by Hoop Research and neuro planning specialist, Neuro-Insights, showed that a mobile ad is biologically guaranteed to catch attention and increase brand recognition.

If you have children, you already know this to be true. Anecdotally, various ad formats pale in comparison to the joy a child excludes when their favorite movie character, app, or food drives by.

Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other forms of mobile advertisement are losing the attention of younger generations.

Who would have thought that? Privacy laws are making it increasingly difficult for advertisers to target specific demographics. Especially true for localized demographics, which segues nicely into our next point.

Localized

Next, mobile marketing is inherently localized. By placing mobile billboard advertisements in a certain location, you can laser-focus an ad campaign on a target demographic.

Or, you can reach the vast majority of potential customers by driving along a route. Best of all, a mobile ad can dynamically localize itself per your needs.

You can immediately refocus your campaign, and change its location or audience; if you need to target a set of new consumers, you can simply move your billboard to reach them. 

Google mobile ads revolutionized advertising with their AdWords platform, but they only took what mobile billboard advertising had already perfected – localization.

Trusted

Lastly, mobile ads are trusted. A Nielsen study found that 56% of customers trust OOH more than other sorts of advertising. So, if you want an ad that will cut through the noise, target the right audience, and engage them to maximize conversions, you can’t get much better than a mobile billboard.

Native ads were all the rage as a way to enhance user experience. That’s not the case since the novelty has worn off.

Ad types served away from mobile devices are recapturing the attention of consumers who want to spend less time consumed by their mobile phones and more time in the real world.

As consumers leave their homes more and more after the pandemic, you can target a hyper-focused audience using mobile billboard advertisements.

Are your target audiences tech salespeople? Then run an ad in South of Market, San Francisco. Maybe your target audience is baseball fans? Then run a mobile billboard advertisement through the city before and after a big game.

Showing people your ads in a non-invasive way, where they expect to see you, establishes trust and credibility.

Mobile Billboard Strategies and Costs

Any advertising campaign aims to produce a healthy ROI – whether through boosted online engagement, a higher number of impressions, or increased conversions.

In general, mobile billboard advertisements have a higher ROI than static billboards. Research suggests it costs around $2-10 per thousand impressions for a static billboard ad or $5-32 per thousand impressions.

Meanwhile, mobile billboard ads usually cost between $800 and $3600 in total, with a higher cost for digital or LED displays. This works out as a much higher level of impact than different types of billboards when compared to cost. 

Strategically speaking, you can boost your ROI even further by leveraging the localizing power of the mobile billboard. For example, a billboard in Times Square can range from $5,000 for a 1-day presence, to well over $50,000.

This would reach a broad demographic of around 161,212 high-income individuals. Alternatively, you could gain the same group and number of individuals by driving a day-long mobile billboard campaign around New York’s shopping district – for a fraction of the price. 

To see the power of mobile advertising in action, let’s look at an example. In 2022, Texan loan company, Johnson and Starr, promoted brand awareness by driving three truck-side advertisements around Houston for 12 weeks.

They both focused on their specific target customer by driving through residential areas and targeted the wider public by driving through populous areas.  

Even just from this short campaign, they achieved 14.6 million impressions. Plus, Google Analytics data showed a 130% increase in organic search click-through rates (CTR).

On average, DataBox surveys show that lending and real estate companies only received an 8.55% click-through rate in 2022; Johnson and Starr’s mobile billboard ad campaign was instrumental in pushing them ahead of the competition. 

As a rule, you should always coordinate your OOH campaigns with your digital ones.

Studies show that OOH consistently converts brand advertising into brand behavior; 66% of smartphone users will take action (either search or social) after seeing an OOH ad. So, ensure that your online and offline campaigns feed into each other, and you’ll see better results. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, mobile billboard advertisements are the most cost-effective, impactful, and accessible form of out-of-home advertising.

In our increasingly online world, it’s more important than ever to focus on advertising strategies that cut through ‘advertising clutter’ and effectively engage your target audience. No method does this better – and at a lower cost – than mobile ads. 

Of course, mobile billboard advertising won’t be a perfect fit for every business. As with every form of advertising, you must weigh out if the outcome of your campaign will justify the costs.

However, the exceptional effectiveness of mobile billboard advertising campaigns in the current market should give you confirmation that they have impressive potential.

Do you feel that a mobile billboard ad could help you achieve your goals? With Jungle Communications, we will help you design, plan, and launch a mobile billboard campaign.

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