Creative Specs Matter in Programmatic DOOH
Installment #3 in a series about what matters in programmatic DOOH
Many Publishers are still under the impression that if you connect to programmatic, the revenue will come, but that is increasingly less true as programmatic DOOH continues to evolve. To get real revenue from programmatic for digital out-of-home publishers, you need to pay close attention to the operational aspects of your network.
As I work with more independent and place-based media operators, it is clear that both sales and operations need to be tightened up if the publisher wants to make real money in programmatic. In this article, we will focus on the operational side, specific to the creative format of your screens.
Place-Based media, including venue-based media as well as Transit and Street Furniture, tends to be mostly TV screen size, with a standard wide-screen 16:9 landscape or 9:16 Portrait format. These screens, for the most part, range from 32” to 80” or larger diagonally, requiring a simple standard 1920×1080 or 1080×1920 creative. Those networks are plug-and-play for creative sizing, as the two formats are the highest-demand creative formats in programmatic today. Advertisers are already creating the 1920×1080 format for TV screens, computer screens, and mobile devices. And the 1080×1920 for social media posts. Those two have become a unified standard across most digital media and DOOH networks, and those that fall into these sizes will benefit because they cause no additional friction for advertisers who want to extend onto their networks.
Then there is the billboard operator. According to a study released by the OAAA this past year, billboards account for 69% of the out of home ad revenue in the United States. In a roughly $9.4B market, billboards would account for around $6.5B in the U.S., and if 35% is digital, we are looking at around $2.3B going to digital billboards. Let’s stick with the math for a moment: around 23% of the market is transacted programmatically, which means digital billboards would enjoy over $500MM in programmatic ad spend, and this number is growing each year. Place-based networks are more natively aligned with programmatic creative specs, so a higher proportion of spend may go to those screens. Even if my numbers are high for digital billboards, creative format still matters if you want to capture your fair share of that spend.
The large billboard operators have, for the most part, figured this out and standardized their creative formats as much as possible, but independent operators have lagged behind. The issue began with the billboard manufacturers initially not focusing on matching the height-to-width ratio to more standard creative sizes. The issue was exacerbated by billboard operators’ desire to install custom sizes and by the space constraints at the location. This has been further complicated by the creative teams at these billboard companies, who have focused on creative sizes that may even have the same width-to-height ratio as a “standard,” but whose published specs are not the pixel dimensions of the most common creative sizes used by agencies and clients. All of this causes friction that does not need to exist.
Creative sizing has been an issue in out-of-home media well before programmatic and, in fact, well before digital screens. Several years ago, the OAAA launched a fantastic initiative called “Art Everywhere,” partnering with 5 of the top art museums in the United States and turning outdoor media across the country into an open-air art gallery that made some of the greatest art accessible to the masses. To pull this initiative off, the OAAA had to produce 100’s of creative versions to accommodate the combination of different creative and all the OOH creative specs required.
While there is nothing we can do about odd-sized screens and unique displays, those make up only a small portion of the inventory. Many billboards can accommodate standard creative sizes, making them more compatible with programmatic demand. Programmatic is especially sensitive to non-standard sizes because it is so easy to select only screens that can accommodate the available creative. With over 1.2MM digital screens across the United States and similarly high numbers in markets worldwide, there are plenty of options, so to rise above, you must make your media easy to buy.
To fully understand this, it is important to understand the programmatic buying process. A media planner logs in to a DSP (Demand Side Platform) and enters the campaign specs. These may include Media budget, DMAs, ZIP codes, proximity to points of interest, media types (billboards vs. transit vs. place-based, etc.), specific publishers, and several other criteria, including creative sizes. With 1000s of screens to choose from in any given market, it is unlikely that an advertiser needs to create special creative sizes unless they absolutely want or need a specific ad unit. And there are so many screens available that even if they think they need an ad unit, if it is not easy to buy, they have many options that are. So, let’s make it as easy as possible for advertisers and agencies to buy our media.
As we look at standard sizes, I turned to Place Exchange for some data. Place Exchange by Broadsign has been publishing a Programmatic OOH Trends Report every 6 months or so. The last one I have access to was published in July 2025 for H1 2025 and has results very similar to those published before that date for H2 2024. Upon checking with other sources, these numbers appear to be consistent with overall industry trends and remain accurate as we head into the second quarter of 2026. Here are some of the numbers from that H1 2025 report:
- 83% of video spend was attributed to the top 2 video ad sizes, 1920×1080 and 1080×1920. Not a surprise since most video networks are in that wide-screen format.
- 62% of the spend for video is on a 15-second creative. This was slightly surprising, as I expected it to be a bit higher. Still, it was likely reduced by a combination of short-form creative (6-10-second creative) driven by social media and networks accepting 30- and 60-second video creative originally created for TV.
- 85% of programmatic OOH display spend on static creatives was 1400×400 (Billboards), 1920×1080, and 1080×1920. For billboards, 1400×400 is by far the most popular size, and most campaigns that include billboards create this size creative.
As outlined, most place-based, street furniture, transit, and airport media conform to the most popular 1920×1080 horizontal or 1080×1920 vertical creative standards. According to Place Exchange, H1 2025 accounts for 52% of all programmatic demand.
Billboard operators are another story, and this is where there is room for standardization. If we focus only on billboards and only on more traditional creative specs (eliminating any billboards that might be able to accept that 1920×1080 or 1080×1920 creative), there is one clear winning spec: 1400×400. Here is how it breaks out according to Place Exchange by Broadsign.
- 1400×400 creative spec is approximately 68% of the programmatic spend on billboards
- 840×400 is the second most popular at 8%
- 1200×400 is 4%
- 720×208 is 2.5%
- 1920×896 is 2.5%
- And all other sizes account for the remaining 14% in spend.
I would make any new digital billboard deployments of a size that accepts the 1400×400 creative. If that is impossible, my second option would be 840×400. With hundreds of billboards already in place, we can’t change the boards, so we’ll align them with standard creative sizes where possible.
Most systems can automatically fit the creative to the size of the screen if it needs a small stretch in one direction to avoid letterboxing. Programmatic systems allow some stretch, with the most stringent being 5% and others allowing up to 10% or more. The key here is to both meet the guidelines on what is allowed and keep the creative integrity. If you can move from a non-standard to a “fit to screen” that falls within the programmatic platform’s limitations and maintains creative integrity, this will help you qualify for more programmatic buys.
Based on both online research and discussions with several of the largest billboard operators, all have aligned their creative specs for over 90% of their inventory to meet creative standards. And in most cases, your boards will accept one of these standard sizes even if you have been requiring non-standard sizes to date. Fixing this will help you in both programmatic and your national and regional agency sales efforts.
Don’t be left out of the buy if you can easily align your creative sizes to match demand! It’s something simple you can do to both make more money from programmatic and make your digital boards easier for agencies and direct buyers to buy.
If you want to go through this exercise, the best place to start is to download your creative specs, separate them into boards with the same width-to-height ratio, and then align those with the standard creative sizes outlined above. If your boards have a W x H aspect ratio that is within 5% (or even 10%) of the above, test those screens with a standard-size creative, and as long as it maintains creative integrity (looks good), you should be able to move to that new standard spec. And in most cases, it does not require a complete change. In programmatic, you can “Add” that standard size to boards that accept it, allowing you to support multiple specs for your screens. I recommend consulting with your board manufacturer and conducting your own testing.
Jeff Gunderman, owned and operated out of home media businesses, and is the founder of the DOOH Academy, an Education and Advisory initiative focused on out of home and retail media. The DOOH Academy works with experts in OOH and Retail Media to produce certification courses, thought leadership content, and webinars on a range of topics, including programmatic DOOH and sales. Jeff also works with OOH publishers, agencies, ad-tech firms, and retail media operators, helping them connect and monetize their programmatic and sales operations. Courses and thought leadership are available at www.doohacademy.com. Jeff is also the host of the new podcast series ScreenSider by AiOO, available at https://blog.aioo.tech/tag/screensider/, which focuses on the evolution of OOH and retail media and the impact ad-tech is having on the industry.