Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) ads are everywhere. Since DOOH can be programmatic, advertisers can buy spots on digital screens in a growing number of physical spaces. The result is more touchpoints across an increasingly complicated customer journey, and the more touchpoints you have, the better your chances of converting customers.
What do DOOH screens look like? We’ve put together 16 creative examples, and tips on creative best practices, to make you instantly successful with DOOH advertising.
There are many key benefits to good DOOH creative:
Creative is one of the biggest factors in ad effectiveness. In fact, successful creative can result in anywhere from a 50 to 86% sales lift.
With DOOH ads being highly visible, they will be some of your audiences’ most memorable exposures to your brand.
DOOH is incredibly effective at increasing brand recall and awareness, which is what often boosts your name into customers’ consideration sets.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some effective examples of creative to better learn why DOOH has these effects.
Many traditional billboards in urban areas have been swapped for digital — this gives you large format real estate in high traffic areas.
For digital billboards, follow the 10-second rule. Drivers have limited dwell time. Use high-contrast visuals, keep the copy brief, and let the vibrant LED colors do the heavy lifting.
Like digital billboards, digital screens in urban centers are replacing static ads.
Use high foot-traffic areas to build brand awareness or encourage impulse buys — bonus points if your product is available locally.
Pedestrians waiting for a bus are looking for a distraction. A bus shelter is a good place to use dynamic triggers (like the weather or time of day) to offer contextually relevant solutions, such as an ad for an iced coffee when it’s over 80°F.
Bus shelters are also great to deliver your messaging at street level to car traffic passing by.
Mall screens allow you to reach consumers when they are in the mindset to make purchases. Similar to urban panels, you can reach consumers as they are walking past the screens.
Airports have high dwell time, and travelers are often in a waiting mindset. Airports can be a good spot for luxury, tech, or B2B services that require more brand awareness.
Ads in elevators or lobbies are viewed as community info. You can use this space for hyper-local advertising and promo for events, products, and services.
DOOH can target the 9-to-5 crowd during their morning coffee run or elevator ride. If you’re targeting particular verticals or industries with your product, consider running your ads in office spaces.
Much like you can target digital spaces related to your brand’s niche, you can also target physical spaces your audience would visit. Visualizing the result of a product is the fastest way to trigger a sale in-aisle, so many advertisers in the beauty industry use tutorials and how-to ads.
Looking for an audience who are paying customers for media and entertainment? Digital advertisers can target screens in movie theaters to reach their target audience.
Gyms and fitness centers bring a "captive audience" with strong dwell time. They’re a good place for building brand awareness and giving viewers information that may be denser than ads for passersby.
Grocery stores are a perfect place to promote BOFU ads if your product is in the store. It’s also a good place to promote seasonal deals and upsell!
Transit ads have been a time-honored tradition. Now, they’re digitized and can dynamically change in real-time. You can catch travelers in subway and train stations with DOOH.
DOOH ads in nightlife and bars can be used to promote other social activities and events. In this example, CBS promotes streaming local NFL games in a sports bar.
These screens are also good for new product roll outs, gambling apps/products, quick-service restaurants, and impulse purchase products
While restaurants often have digital menu displays, some are now breaking into DOOH advertising with partial or full screens. Restaurants are a good place for ads with more information because viewers will have longer dwell time.
Have you noticed the screens above gas pumps and the autoplay ads as you pump gas? Programmatic DOOH can be used to buy ad space at these locations.
These screens are the only DOOH formats with audio capabilities, making them a great space to repurpose social content.
Rideshare TVs have been cropping up more in the past few years; some are inside the rideshare vehicle, or some are atop the vehicle. Rideshare TVs are a good place for more intimate, conversational copy.
Most viewers will look at a DOOH screen for only a few seconds. Your message has to be communicated at a glance.
Use a single, clear focal point. Avoid cluttered backgrounds and walls of text that compete with your primary CTA.
Outdoor screens have to compete with direct sunlight, while indoor screens compete with bright retail lighting.
In either environment, contrast is key in both creative and copy. Avoid thin serifs or pastel colors that wash out in high-light environments.
Unlike social media ads or CTV ads, DOOH motion shouldn't be complex. Subtle movement can capture attention without taking away from the overall message. Avoid using long video clips that would require viewers to pay full attention.
DOOH allows you to change your creative in real-time based on external data feeds. You can swap creative during weather, live events, and time of day. This allows DOOH to feel hyperpersonalized even when you’re targeting large audiences.
Consider the text sizes you’ll need for larger DOOH ads and how they’ll be parsed from a distance. Follow accessibility guidelines for text size and keep your main message the largest text in your hierarchy.
At AdRoll, we’re masters of full-funnel advertising. Let us help you launch a DOOH campaign that works with your other ad channels to increase conversions and reach the right customers.
DOOH creative doesn’t have to be hard. Our team of experts can give you points on DOOH creative that will draw attention and ROI.
In DOOH, geo-fencing involves drawing a virtual perimeter around a specific location (like a retail store or a stadium). You can target geofenced locations to ensure your ads are showcased in a particular area. This can be useful for location-based products and services.
One of the most common metrics to measure success of a geotargeted campaign is footfall attribution. By analyzing anonymized mobile location data, brands can see if people who were exposed to a specific DOOH screen later visited the advertised physical location.
There are many other ways to measure DOOH success, which we outline in our DOOH Measurement Guide.
Don't look exclusively for a high traffic DOOH campaign opportunity; Consider the environments where your ads/messaging will be relevant.
Look for screens with high dwell time in areas that are contextually aligned to your brand. Place-based DOOH targeting is perfect for this.
For the best optimized DOOH creative, choose high resolution formats with high contrast. Consider that your creative will be viewed in both bright (outdoors) and low light (transit stations) environments. Your creative can also be on large or small screens, but they’re typically larger than laptops and desktops.
Use minimal words so viewers can understand your ad at a glance, and keep your logo clearly visible.
Yes. For certain DOOH formats, it does make sense to repurpose creative from other formats. You can even use a screen grab of a social post and repurpose it for DOOH, saving you time and money. CTV and social creative can be leveraged on gas station screens that have audio-supported formats.
Last updated on February 20th, 2026.
