Product News | October 11, 2021

Attribution in DOOH advertising: Your questions answered

Attribution is a powerful tool for marketers, but when it comes to digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising, it’s often misunderstood and underestimated. While some advertisers believe DOOH is difficult to measure, advancements in attribution have made it easier than ever to track campaign impact.

To demystify the process and offer practical insights, we sat down with Ryan Pogy, Director of Data Partnerships at Broadsign, to answer some of the most common questions about measuring DOOH effectiveness.

What are the main challenges in DOOH attribution, and how can advertisers overcome them?

One of the unique strengths of DOOH is the variety of ways in which a message can reach an audience, which calls for a more nuanced approach to measurement.

One of the main challenges we face is the fragmentation of DOOH media owners. Each network has its own standards and measurement methods, which makes it difficult to have a unified view of campaign performance across different environments. Another challenge is privacy compliance, particularly in regions governed by laws like GDPR. Advertisers need to ensure they’re using data responsibly and adhering to regulations.

To overcome these challenges, leveraging unified global measurement platforms is key. This is where working with the right data partners becomes crucial—partners who specialize in pulling data together from disparate sources, all while ensuring compliance with privacy laws.

What strategies are most effective for measuring DOOH performance?

There are several strategies that advertisers can employ to measure the effectiveness of their DOOH campaigns, depending on their goals. But I’ll touch on the three most popular:

Brand Lift Studies: This study measures the impact of your campaign on brand metrics like brand image, preference and consideration.
Foot Traffic Analysis: Mobile location data can be used to track the number of people who visit a store after seeing a DOOH ad. These studies are particularly useful for retail campaigns aiming to drive in-store customers.
Web & App Lift Studies: These studies track online actions like website visits, sign-ups, or app downloads that happen after someone is exposed to a DOOH ad.

Some advertisers prefer to combine these methods to get a more comprehensive view of their campaign performance and better optimize their strategies for future campaigns. For example, we ran a campaign with Holt Renfrew, which combined a brand lift study and a foot traffic study. The results covered everything from top-funnel metrics like a 600% uplift in brand preference to successfully driving 400k store visits.

How can insights from Brand Lift Studies be used to optimize future campaigns?

Brand Lift Studies provide invaluable insights into how your campaign impacts brand metrics like awareness, consideration, and preference. They allow advertisers to quantify the impact of their campaigns and understand what messaging resonates with their target audience.

One of the main benefits is the ability to benchmark your performance. You can compare your results against averages in your industry and use that data to adjust your strategy for future campaigns. For example, if a particular message drove higher brand consideration, you might want to double down on that type of creative for the next campaign. Advertisers with global campaigns may also run a brand lift study in each of the markets where the campaign ran to glean market-specific insights and build their own internal benchmarks.

“Attribution is an evolving field, and staying informed about new tools and methodologies is crucial for staying competitive in today’s market. The more we innovate in DOOH measurement, the better we can justify media spend and optimize campaign performance.”
Ryan Pogy, Director of Data Partnerships at Broadsign

When measuring DOOH as part of an omnichannel campaign, how can advertisers bridge the gap between offline and online media?

Even though out-of-home (OOH) advertising takes place in the physical world, the gap between offline and online channels can be bridged by leveraging location-based play log data, which tracks when and where ads are displayed to create a detailed log of ad exposure. This data can be further enriched by integrating mobile exposure data, allowing for tracking of mobile devices that come into contact with DOOH ads. Such integration links an ad’s offline display with the digital behaviors of consumers, providing insights into how DOOH influences actions like website visits, app downloads, and even in-store visits.

By combining these offline and online data sources, advertisers can achieve a level of measurement granularity comparable to digital media, allowing them to measure and validate the impact of DOOH with the same confidence they expect from channels like social media or display ads. This approach makes DOOH attribution and optimization more actionable and data-driven.

How can device ID passbacks enhance attribution for DOOH campaigns?

Device ID passback is a powerful tool for enhancing attribution in DOOH. It allows advertisers to link ad exposure to specific customer actions, providing deeper insights into how audiences interact with ads.

Here’s how it works: device IDs are captured when mobile devices come within a specific range of DOOH ads. These IDs are then passed back to your other digital platforms, allowing for retargeting across online channels like social media or apps.

This method offers several benefits. It provides deeper insights into audience behaviour, enabling more precise retargeting and improving overall campaign performance. Passbacks also allow for more accurate cross-channel attribution, helping advertisers understand how DOOH exposure drives online and offline conversions.

What are common pitfalls to avoid when implementing DOOH attribution strategies?

A common pitfall in DOOH attribution is relying on poor-quality data. Not all data sources are created equal, so it’s essential to work with trusted partners who can deliver accurate, reliable data. While data capabilities in DOOH have come a long way, the effectiveness of attribution depends on the quality of the data used.

Another key factor is achieving a consistent, comprehensive view of campaign timing and venue logistics. Effective DOOH attribution requires tools that can adapt to the unique characteristics of different venue types, from large-format displays like billboards to smaller screens in office buildings or residential spaces. The volume and density of signals vary across locations, so it’s important to select tools that can adjust for these variations to ensure accurate, actionable insights.

Finally, many advertisers make the mistake of not acting on the insights gained from attribution studies. Data is only useful if it leads to action. I’ve seen campaigns that initially struggled because the advertiser didn’t adjust based on early attribution data. Once they adapted their strategy, their results improved significantly.

DOOH attribution has advanced significantly, offering advertisers the tools to confidently track and optimize campaign performance across the customer journey. Whether you’re building brand awareness with brand lift studies, driving foot traffic, or boosting conversions with device ID passbacks, aligning your attribution methods with your specific goals is key. As Ryan emphasized, understanding the impact of your DOOH efforts is crucial for making data-driven decisions and refining your strategy in real-time. With the right measurement solutions, advertisers can unlock deeper insights and achieve better results with their DOOH campaigns.

For a deeper dive into DOOH attribution, check out our guide here!

Product News | October 11, 2021

What’s new in the Broadsign Platform: Sophisticated targeting, creative management and UI improvements

Spring has finally sprung, which means fresh air, greenery, and, most importantly, fresh updates to the Broadsign Platform. This season, we are bringing you sophisticated targeting tools, streamlined creative management, and major UI improvements to make the campaign planning and management process for directly-sold campaigns as seamless as possible for campaign planners.

Why does this matter? While the activation process for digital out-of-home (DOOH) may only require a couple of minutes, the campaign planning and management process often requires much more time. Discovering available and relevant inventory, collecting data to prove the medium’s effectiveness in meeting campaign goals, and managing campaign creatives are all time-consuming tasks.

The new spring updates introduce a new level of automation that not only reduces the time and complexities of getting DOOH campaigns out the door but also helps make out-of-home (OOH) a competitive and attractive medium for buyers. Let’s dive in!

Sophisticated targeting tools that find the best inventory

Granular targeting shouldn’t be exclusive to programmatic. That’s why last year, we introduced targeting tools for directly sold campaigns executed through the Broadsign Platform, giving campaign planners the same flexibility and comprehensive targeting capabilities as online and programmatic media buyers.

The targeting tools included the ability to filter your inventory by location and key points of interest (POIs), enabling campaign planners to find the most relevant inventory for each campaign at the click of a button. An intuitive map view was also introduced, allowing you to better visualize your inventory with quick filtering options by area, support for bulk location uploads, and setting radius parameters.

This year, we’re introducing two powerful targeting upgrades for directly sold campaigns: demographics and criteria targeting. With demographics targeting, you can filter inventory by attributes like age, gender, or occupation to find the screens that will maximize campaign impact. We’ve also enhanced criteria targeting, giving you more granular control over inclusion and exclusion rules. For example, when building a proposal for an alcohol brand, you can now quickly exclude screens that don’t allow alcohol ads from your inventory search in just a few clicks.

These new additions to the Broadsign Platform not only reduce the manual work required for inventory discovery but also give your team the opportunity to be a more strategic partner to buyers. We’re also excited to share that these enhanced targeting capabilities are now available to Broadsign customers worldwide!

Simplified creative management and centralized campaign planning

Media owners juggle multiple campaigns and creatives at the same time, and without the right tools, the creative management process can become complex and stressful for your teams. Last year, we released our in-platform creative management tools, which allowed you to create, edit, manage, and assign campaign creatives with ease. On top of that, we also made it possible for you to push your campaigns live through the Broadsign Platform, eliminating the need to go through Broadsign’s desktop tools.

In this latest update to the Broadsign Platform, we’re introducing creative scheduling. You’ll now be able to apply multiple scheduling options to your creatives, making it easier than ever to deliver the right message at the right time. You can also target your content by time of day or event, making it easier than ever to adapt your messaging to dayparts or changing campaign goals. Finally, you can update your creatives in real-time, allowing you to plan and deliver up to 55% of your campaigns in one unified workflow directly in-platform.

Additional management tools for an improved user experience

Along with comprehensive creative management and targeting tools for directly-sold campaigns, additional tools and UI enhancements have been added to improve the usability and user experience of the Broadsign Platform:

Inventory package accessibility

Access inventory packages effortlessly through the platform’s updated navigation bar, enhancing efficiency and ease of use.

Centralized settings management

Administrators can now adjust and manage all necessary settings for digital and static inventory, user management, and more directly within the platform’s web-based UI through a centralized hub for control and configuration.

Campaign monitoring enhancements

With the newly implemented progress indicator, real-time monitoring of campaign pacing is now possible, giving immediate insight into campaign performance. This allows for quick adjustments to be made, as needed, to meet campaign goals effectively.

Search functionality and filters

An improved search mechanism, complemented by additional filters like campaign, client or contract names, enables quicker and more accurate campaign retrieval, saving time and improving workflow.

Line item list

You can now access a list of all line items directly through the navigation bar. Operations teams now have a more precise and comprehensive view of all bookings made on your network.

Dashboard customization

Tailor the platform’s dashboard to meet individual needs, ensuring that the most relevant and important information is always front and center.

Interested in testing out these new features? Book a demo today

Product News | October 11, 2021

How to integrate in-store digital signage into your retail media network

If your retail media network (RMN) is thriving online but underutilized in-store, you’re not alone, and there’s untapped value waiting on the sales floor. While many retailers have monetized their websites and apps, in-store signage often remains overlooked and disconnected from broader retail media efforts.

Forward-thinking retailers are closing the gap by deploying in-store screens or connecting existing ones to their broader retail media ecosystem using specialized digital signage software. From investing in new displays to syncing with data systems, workflows, and programmatic platforms, they’re transforming stores into dynamic, measurable environments that complete the omnichannel shopper journey.

The benefits go far beyond operational efficiency. As of 2025, more than 200 RMNs operate globally, each with its own formats, technologies, and measurement frameworks. This fragmentation has become a major challenge, with marketers calling for more standardization to unlock the next wave of retail media investment. Integrating in-store signage into a cohesive strategy helps retailers close the loop—connecting the full shopper journey, enabling comprehensive measurement, and driving long-term growth for both themselves and their brand partners.

Whether your goal is to enhance in-store advertising, maximize ROI on existing hardware, or deliver smarter, data-driven shopper experiences, this roadmap will help you turn screens into a strategic cornerstone of your retail media network.

Why digital signage is critical to your retail media strategy

Despite the rise of e-commerce, 80% of purchases still happen in-store, making the physical store a high-impact, yet often underutilized, media environment. Still, many RMNs prioritize digital channels like websites, apps, and email, overlooking the opportunity to bring that same power to the sales floor.

Digital signage bridges the gap between digital media and in-person purchase moments. It turns your store into a full-funnel, monetizable channel that enhances, not competes with, your broader retail media strategy. Here’s how:

Connects online precision to in-store decisions: Bring the targeting and flexibility of digital media into the physical store, where buying decisions are made, with dynamic, contextually relevant content—brand campaigns, personalized promos, seasonal messaging—delivered right where buying decisions happen.
Monetizes real-world traffic: Turn foot traffic into a scalable revenue stream by offering brand partners premium placements on high-visibility screens, targeted by location, time, or context—especially impactful during add-to-cart moments.
Delivers measurable, flexible performance: Modern digital signage platforms integrate with your data and ad tech stack, enabling real-time scheduling, updates, and reporting. Track key metrics—product engagement, sales lift, dwell time—and connect in-store exposure to online behaviour.
Enhances the shopper experience: Effective signage supports the customer journey, not disrupts it. From back-in-stock alerts to curated promotions, digital displays make in-person shopping more engaging, relevant, and responsive.
Powers your omnichannel strategy: Signage closes the loop between discovery and conversion, syncing messaging across email, mobile, online ads, and in-store screens so shoppers experience a consistent, connected journey.

Integrating digital signage into a unified retail media strategy

Whether you’re building from scratch or integrating existing screens into your retail media stack, you need to lay the right foundation. That means designing a signage strategy built for scale, content relevance, and future monetization — and then connecting it to the data, workflows, and systems that power your RMN.

As Jonathan Franco, Broadsign’s Global Head of Retail Media, notes in a recent piece on bridging lessons from digital out-of-home (DOOH) to in-store media: “The OOH market has taught us that success isn’t just about having screens in impactful locations; it’s about playing the right content in the right place at the right time.”

In other words, a successful signage strategy goes beyond high-traffic ad placements or hardware specs. It’s about creating strategic touchpoints that support the full shopper journey and integrate seamlessly with your broader digital media operations.

Here’s how to bring it all together:

1. Plan your screen zones with both placement and content in mind

Think like a media planner, not just a merchandiser. Whether you’re starting from scratch or expanding an existing setup, begin by aligning screen placement with key shopper moments:

Entrances: High-impact campaigns and branded takeovers
Main aisles: Seasonal themes or product spotlights
Promo zones & end caps: Shoppable content, limited-time offers
Checkout areas: Loyalty messaging, app signups, basket-building prompts
Specialty departments (e.g., pharmacy, bakery, butcher): Context-specific content like curated product picks, pairing suggestions, or department-specific promos

Once placement is mapped, define content zones and use cases that bring structure and scalability to your network:

Utility-first content like wayfinding, back-in-stock updates, and localized promos
Retailer-owned storytelling through seasonal campaigns or private label features
Brand-sponsored media with paid placements, co-branded messages, and monetizable ad space

Pro tip: Map screen zones based on foot traffic, dwell time, and product affinity to guide content planning and ad pricing. This helps ensure a coherent in-store experience while maximizing the media value of each screen.

2. Keep it flexible and connected

Retail moves fast — and so should your signage. Choose a retail digital signage platform that’s not just flexible but also built to integrate with your broader retail media stack. In particular, look for solutions that support:

Triggered content and dynamic scheduling based on store data or external signals
Programmatic ad delivery and audience targeting (via DSP/SSP integrations)
Creative versioning and campaign automation for faster go-to-market execution
Workflow integration across your retail media stack to ensure everything runs smoothly, from planning to reporting

The more your signage tools sync with your RMN systems, the easier it is to deliver value to brand partners and internal stakeholders alike.

3. Align signage with your cross-channel media strategy

The same shopper might see your ad on social media, browse your website, and visit your store—all in a single day. To keep pace, your content and media offerings should reflect a cohesive journey. When deployed strategically, in-store screens become physical extensions of your digital media plan — not standalone inventory.

For marketers, that means:

Repurposing assets from other RMN channels (e.g. email banners, social creative, seasonal campaigns)
Reinforcing digital campaigns or driving app engagement via in-store screens
Ensuring messaging is consistent across in-store and online touchpoints
Bundling signage with other digital placements in your media kits
Offering tiered packages with omnichannel reach or localized activations
Providing turnkey creative support to streamline advertiser onboarding

When thoughtfully integrated, digital signage becomes a powerful part of your go-to-market strategy, helping brands reach shoppers with the right message at the right time, both online and offline. Integration isn’t just about technology; it’s about alignment across content, channels, and teams.

4. Centralize measurement and reporting

One of the biggest hurdles in building or scaling digital signage within your retail media strategy is measurement. Without a clear plan, in-store signage can quickly become disconnected from your broader performance story—making it harder to justify spend or demonstrate value to advertisers.

To avoid that, build signage into your reporting framework from day one. Start by tracking foundational metrics:

Screen-level impressions and play counts to understand exposure volume
Dwell time to assess attention and engagement
Content playback logs to validate ad delivery and campaign pacing

Then, go deeper by connecting signage exposure to in-store outcomes, like product interaction, add-to-cart moments, or sales lift. These insights help prove that your in-store media is driving real business results, not just awareness.

By applying consistent measurement frameworks across both online and offline channels, you can tell a unified, full-funnel story. Mirroring key OOH and digital metrics—like reach, frequency, and lift—helps demonstrate how in-store signage works in tandem with campaigns on email, mobile, and paid social.

Modern digital signage platforms provide unified in-store reporting, making it easier to analyze performance, share results with brand partners, and refine campaigns in real time—turning in-store media into a measurable, scalable revenue channel within your retail media network.

READ ALSO: Discover how the OOH industry is leveraging technology to achieve more measurable campaign outcomes in our guide to out-of-home measurement, attribution and audience extension.

Ready to make your in-store signage a seamless part of your RMN?

Whether you’re planning your first deployment or optimizing existing screens, Broadsign’s industry-leading platform makes it easy to connect your in-store signage with the rest of your retail media ecosystem. With over two decades of experience in digital out-of-home, we help retailers build, manage, and monetize scalable signage networks that align with your broader media strategy.

Get in touch to see how we can help you unlock the full value of your in-store presence.

Product News | October 11, 2021

Broadsign Unveils Automated In-Advance DOOH Transactions

New platform capability to extend and simplify traditional DOOH and OOH buys through automated trading platforms; early adopter WPP Media Netherlands, formerly GroupM Netherlands, one of the first to deliver DOOH campaign with the technology

MONTREAL, June 3, 2025 – Broadsign today announced Broadsign In-Advance. Breaking down longstanding accessibility barriers to out-of-home (OOH) advertising, the new Broadsign Platform capability unlocks automated in-advance Digital OOH (DOOH) transactions, with support for static OOH transactions anticipated via a future update. Programmatic media buyers can now leverage Broadsign In-Advance to secure guaranteed DOOH campaigns months ahead of delivery using technology built on top of familiar automated trading tools. It also allows direct DOOH buyers to streamline historically lengthy buying cycles, saving hours spent manually discovering, curating, and reserving inventory.

With most OOH and DOOH media purchases still taking place manually, Broadsign In-Advance is designed to enable programmatic and traditional buyers to use automated, dynamic processes for guaranteed in-advance buys. It improves planning flexibility, significantly reduces back-and-forth communications between media buyers and owners to confirm the availability of and secure inventory, and simplifies campaign adjustments. The advancement further unlocks the data-driven targeting available via programmatic buying platforms for more traditional DOOH buys, so media buying teams can make more informed decisions to maximize the performance of their reserved campaigns.

DOOH media owners who make their inventory available for in-advance buys via the new capability similarly benefit from more efficient transactional processes and enhanced revenue potential through access to new buyers. They can choose the inventory they want to make available, and Broadsign In-Advance will automate bookings based on their defined business rules. Demand partners who activate the new capability via their Broadsign Supply-Side Platform (SSP) integration will be able to unlock previously unavailable inventory to support new campaign types and maximize profitability.

WPP Media Netherlands (formerly known as GroupM Netherlands) has already tested the new capability to secure DOOH ads across the Netherlands via OutMoove, the inaugural DSP to integrate with Broadsign In-Advance. As Broadsign evolves the technology, it will continue to enlist new demand and both digital and static OOH media owner partners worldwide. Representing one of the first agencies to execute a transaction supported by Broadsign In-Advance, WPP Media Netherlands Practice Lead OOH Noella Klein Ikkink said, “We see the potential of Broadsign In-Advance to increase efficiency for media buyers for standalone direct buys or in the mix with programmatic activation. It could also facilitate more streamlined, packaged buys alongside current buying methods and open up more opportunities to determine the best path forward, depending upon our planning strategy and budget.”

“OOH is one of the most enduring ad mediums today, yet it’s one of the most complex to transact outside of programmatic, which only accounts for less than ten percent of global digital buys, a figure that excludes static buys. Booking OOH and DOOH ads today should be as easy as securing a hotel or flight, and automation is the key to making this possible,” explained John Dolan, Vice President, Global Head of Media Sales, Broadsign. “Broadsign In-Advance is the next step in facilitating an industry-wide transition to more automated transactions. It introduces tech-driven advancements that will make the channel more accessible and elevate the quality of campaigns, helping to usher in a new era of growth for OOH.”

Broadsign’s new in-advance DOOH transaction capabilities are accessible to Broadsign SSP customers and demand partners for early adoption today via the latest platform update. Get in touch with a Broadsign representative to learn more or check out this blog post to better understand how automation can transform both OOH and DOOH. Broadsign encourages media buyers to consult with their preferred demand partner to confirm present or future plans to support Broadsign In-Advance.

About Broadsign

Broadsign empowers media owners, agencies, and brands to harness the power and reach of out-of-home to connect with audiences in ways unlike any other advertising channel. More than 1.5 million static and digital signs along roadways and in airports, shopping malls, retailers, health clinics, transit systems, electric vehicle charging stations, and more run on Broadsign, reaching audiences at multiple touchpoints throughout the consumer journey. The Broadsign Platform helps media owners such as Outfront, Pattison Outdoor, Global, and Intersection streamline business operations and maximize revenue opportunities while enabling marketers and agencies to more easily plan and execute dynamic OOH campaigns that resonate with audiences. Brands spanning AB InBev, Disney, FanDuel, H&M, Honda, HP, Johnson & Johnson, KLM, Uber Eats, Sea-Doo, Samsonite, and many more have run successful programmatic DOOH campaigns enabled by Broadsign technology. https://broadsign.com