The first flight, in order
Buying digital out of home advertising is five decisions in sequence. Direct buys take 2-6 weeks end to end (quotes, contracts, creative approval); self-serve routes can be live in days; programmatic sits between once the seat exists. Work the steps in order; skipping to step 3 is how plans end up vendor-shaped.
- 01
Set the budget
Size the flight against published anchors ($3,500-$25,000 per 4-week digital board, AdQuick 2026) and your market tier. The planner turns a number into an impression range.
- 02
Split the format mix
Allocate across bulletins, place-based, per-play and (rarely) spectaculars. Worked splits: $25k single-market, $50k two-market, $100k launch.
- 03
Pick the buy route
Direct, marketplace, self-serve, or programmatic. Route floors run from no-minimum self-serve to quote-only enterprise seats; the working-media math decides.
- 04
Negotiate the quotes
Rate cards are asks. Get loop mechanics in writing, time your ask against unsold loops, and make competing quotes visible to each other.
- 05
Build the deck slide
Present ranges with sources attached, the measurement plan on the same slide, and the register behind every number. That slide survives a CFO.
The classic first-flight mistakes
- One unit, judged as a channel: a single board cannot prove or disprove DOOH; structure a judgeable test (how).
- No measurement plan attached before launch; retrofitted attribution convinces nobody (what exists).
- Paying the rate card because it looked official (floors, levers).
- Comparing DOOH CPMs raw against digital channels; the units differ, and your CAC model should carry the comparison instead (benchmarks at averagecac.com, framing in DOOH vs paid social).