Billboards for Small Businesses

Billboards are perhaps the most impressive form of advertising. From gigantic roadside signs to expressive, neon-lighted digital billboards in the heart of a city, billboards are towering and capture the attention of passersby. But how feasible are billboard advertisements for small businesses?

The most expensive billboard spaces in Times Square can cost several million dollars per year, with the single most expensive digital billboard costing over $2.5 million for a single month. While this cost may sound inhibitive to small business owners, it is an outlier, and there are cheaper advertising options for small businesses that are equally effective.

Size, Location, and Cost

These are the most important factors for small businesses to consider when purchasing a billboard. A large billboard will attract more attention than a small billboard, but will be more expensive. Likewise, billboard spaces in premium advertising locations will likely be more expensive than billboard spaces elsewhere. Outside of the largest cities in the United States, billboard prices are relatively affordable. While the average billboard in New York City costs nearly $25,000 per month, the average billboard in a city as sizable as Houston costs roughly $5,000 per month. Smaller cities are even more affordable, as the average billboard in Tucson is less than $2,500 per month, and the average billboard in New Orleans running about $2,000 per month, with medium-sized billboards costing even less. Over the course of a year, a medium-sized billboard in New Orleans costs about $17,000, which is less than the price of the average New York City billboard for a single month.

Digital or Traditional?

There is also the choice between a traditional billboard or a digital billboard. A traditional billboard is the more typical large poster you often see, while a digital billboard, as the name suggests, is electronic and encompasses the same amount of space as a billboard. Digital billboards tend to be more expensive and are often only found in certain areas, usually the downtown area of a city. However, digital billboards are sometimes less costly, since these spaces can shift among multiple advertisements in a single day. A cheaper digital billboard advertisement may be ideal if you are willing to share a billboard with other advertisements.

Alternative Advertisements

But what if you are a small business owner in New York or another big city? If you want to advertise in the city and feel priced out of the billboard market, you can still advertise effectively on a smaller scale. Some cheaper alternatives include bus, poster, and bench advertisements, which cost from a few thousand to a few hundred dollars a month. See our previous post about bench advertisements here.

There are several paths available for small businesses to advertise using billboards, with many available locations at affordable prices that will allow you to attract future customers.

Check out BillboardsIn.com now to get started.

Image description: Billboard on Canal Street, New Orleans