Billboards have been declared dead approximately as many times as email, radio, television, print, and whatever other advertising channel marketers have decided to bury this week.
And yet, there they are.
On highways, at airports, inside train stations, on buses, in gyms, at gas pumps, in elevators, across massive digital screens downtown. It seems as though nobody remembered to tell out-of-home advertising that it was supposed to disappear.
In fact, the numbers tell the opposite story.
U.S. out-of-home advertising revenue hit another record in 2025, and the momentum has carried into 2026. Digital out-of-home is taking a bigger share of the market, transit advertising is growing quickly, and major brands are continuing to invest in reaching consumers in the physical world.
So, if you’re evaluating where OOH belongs in your media strategy, here are some of the out-of-home advertising statistics worth paying attention to in 2026.
1. U.S. OOH Advertising Reached a Record $9.46 Billion in 2025
Let’s start with the big number: U.S. out-of-home advertising revenue reached $9.46 billion in 2025, up 3.6% year over year, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). That marked the industry’s 19th consecutive quarter of growth and set another annual revenue record.
That streak is especially notable considering how crowded the advertising landscape has become. OOH is competing for budgets alongside connected TV, paid social, search, retail media, streaming audio, influencers, programmatic display, and approximately seventeen new ad formats invented before lunch. Yet advertisers have continued putting more money into reaching people in the physical world.
And they didn’t ease off in 2026. U.S. OOH revenue climbed to $2.12 billion in Q1, setting a first-quarter record with 7.1% year-over-year growth. The pace picked up again in Q2, when revenue jumped 10.7% to $3.16 billion, pushing quarterly U.S. OOH revenue above $3 billion for the first time.
By the halfway point of 2026, OOH revenue was running 9.2% ahead of the previous year. Not bad for a medium that still occasionally gets dismissed as old-school.
2. Digital Out-of-Home Is Growing Much Faster Than OOH Overall
Traditional billboards are still very much part of the OOH landscape, but digital out-of-home is increasingly driving the industry’s growth. In 2025, DOOH accounted for 36.3% of total U.S. OOH revenue while growing 10.5% year over year, significantly faster than the industry overall.
That momentum has only accelerated in 2026. Digital OOH revenue grew 12.9% in the first quarter, then jumped another 18.5% year over year in Q2. By the second quarter, digital formats represented 38.4% of total U.S. OOH revenue.
It’s easy to see why advertisers are interested. DOOH keeps the physical presence and visibility of outdoor advertising while adding much of the flexibility marketers have come to expect from digital media.
Creative can be changed quickly rather than physically replaced, campaigns can adapt messaging based on factors such as time and location, and a growing share of DOOH inventory can be bought through programmatic systems. OAAA has specifically pointed to the continued growth of data-driven and programmatic capabilities as part of DOOH’s expansion.
Essentially, the billboard learned software. And that combination has made OOH much easier to incorporate into broader digital and omnichannel media plans.
3. Nearly Half of Global OOH Spending Is Now Digital
The digital shift isn’t limited to the United States. Global OOH expenditure reached approximately $54.2 billion in 2025, up 15% from 2024, according to the World Out of Home Organization. Digital out-of-home accounted for 47.1% of that spending, or roughly $25.5 billion.
That puts the industry remarkably close to a milestone: nearly half of global OOH spending now goes to digital formats. For a medium many people still mentally file under “static roadside billboard,” that’s a pretty significant change. WOO forecasts that DOOH will reach 49% of global OOH spending in 2026, putting digital on the verge of overtaking static formats for the first time.
Advertisers have considerably more ways to build an OOH campaign. A media plan can still include a spectacular billboard in a major market, but it can also extend across digital screens in airports, transit systems, retail environments, office buildings, entertainment venues, gyms, and other places where audiences spend time.
4. Programmatic DOOH Is Still Relatively Small, Which Is Exactly Why It’s Interesting
Programmatic buying has become routine across much of digital media, but OOH is still earlier in that transition. A 2026 World Out of Home Organization study conducted with 11 participating supply-side platforms found approximately $1.4 billion in global programmatic DOOH spending in 2025, equivalent to about 7% of total DOOH expenditure captured by the study. The participating SSPs submitted their data confidentially to PwC, which independently aggregated the results.
That 7% share shows both how far programmatic OOH has come and how much room remains for growth. Programmatic buying is already moving a meaningful amount of OOH spending, but the majority of digital out-of-home inventory is still purchased through other channels.
As more inventory becomes available programmatically, OOH can fit more naturally into the audience-driven planning advertisers already use across digital media. Buyers can coordinate campaigns across channels, adjust purchasing strategies, use audience and location signals, and evaluate OOH alongside the rest of the media mix instead of treating it as the giant rectangular thing somebody buys separately at the end.
5. Transit Advertising Grew 18% in Q1 2026
Billboards tend to get all the attention. They are, admittedly, difficult to miss. But OOH is much bigger than billboards.
Transit was the fastest-growing major U.S. OOH format in 2025, with annual revenue increasing 9.2%. Then transit advertising surged another 18% year over year in Q1 2026.
Street furniture also grew 11.5% during Q1, while billboards increased 4.8% and place-based media grew 3.3%.
Why does that matter? Because your audience does not spend its entire day driving past interstate billboards.
People commute. They walk through airports. They wait for trains. They shop. They go to work, concerts, restaurants, gyms, universities, stadiums, hotels, and hundreds of other physical environments.
Good OOH planning isn't simply a matter of finding the biggest sign, but about understanding where your audience actually goes and deciding which of those moments are valuable enough for your brand to show up.
6. 73% of the Top 100 OOH Advertisers Increased Spending in Q2 2026
One of the more revealing OOH advertising statistics isn’t about how large the medium has become, but instead, exactly who keeps spending money on it.
In Q2 2026, 73% of the top 100 U.S. OOH advertisers increased their spending compared with the same quarter a year earlier, according to OAAA. Technology and direct-to-consumer brands accounted for 30% of those top 100 advertisers, giving OOH a particularly strong showing among companies that already have plenty of digital channels available to them.
Technology spending was especially striking. OAAA reported that spending in the Computers, Software & Internet category jumped 149.8% year over year in Q2 2026. Apple, T-Mobile, Verizon, Uber, OpenAI, Amazon, DoorDash, and HBO were among the technology and DTC brands appearing near the top of the OOH spending rankings.
These are companies that can buy search ads, social ads, connected TV, streaming audio, display, retail media, and just about every other digital format on the menu. They’re still choosing to put serious money into advertising people encounter in the physical world.
There’s a good reason for that. When consumers spend all day bouncing between feeds, tabs, apps, and streaming platforms, physical presence can become unusually memorable.
A digital brand stretched across a building, wrapped around a transit station, or dominating a city block doesn’t feel like one more impression buried in a feed. It feels established. There’s a difference between seeing a company in your scroll and seeing it occupy forty feet of Manhattan.
7. The Real OOH Trend Is Integration
The most useful way to read all of these numbers isn't, “Everyone should buy more billboards.”
Sorry, billboard salespeople.
The bigger story is that the line separating “traditional” OOH from digital media keeps getting blurrier. OOH can build broad awareness, but modern campaigns can also incorporate audience data, digital screens, programmatic buying, mobile behavior, QR codes, location intelligence, dynamic creative, and measurement strategies designed to connect exposure with real business outcomes.
Used strategically, OOH can play a very specific role in the customer journey. A billboard might introduce the brand, paid search can capture the curiosity it creates, social can reinforce the message, and connected TV can extend the story. Audience and location data can help determine where the placement belongs in the first place, while measurement tools can help connect exposure to broader campaign performance.
That’s why OOH is worth considering in 2026. The industry is posting record U.S. revenue, digital formats are growing quickly, transit is gaining ground, and programmatic buying continues to expand. But those numbers don’t mean every brand needs a billboard. The channel still has to fit the audience, market, objective, and larger media strategy.
At Kinetic319, we approach OOH and DOOH with that broader picture in mind, combining audience insights, creative, targeting, media planning, and measurement to determine where an ad should go, who should see it, and what role it should play in the campaign.
Because buying media is easy. Buying the right media takes strategy.
Kinetic319 has planned and managed more than $1 billion in media and worked with 500+ brands.
Ready to get moving? Start a conversation with Kinetic319 about your next campaign.
FAQ
What is out-of-home advertising?
Out-of-home advertising, usually shortened to OOH, is advertising designed to reach consumers while they are away from home. Formats include traditional and digital billboards, transit advertising, street furniture, posters, airport media, and place-based advertising in locations such as gyms, office buildings, shopping centers, entertainment venues, and other public spaces.
How big is the OOH advertising market?
U.S. OOH advertising revenue reached a record $9.46 billion in 2025. Globally, OOH expenditure reached approximately $54.2 billion in 2025.
Is out-of-home advertising growing?
Yes. U.S. OOH revenue grew 3.6% in 2025 and then accelerated in 2026, increasing 7.1% year over year in Q1 and 10.7% in Q2.
What percentage of OOH advertising is digital?
Digital out-of-home accounted for 36.3% of U.S. OOH revenue in 2025 and increased to 38.4% in Q2 2026. Globally, DOOH represented approximately 47.1% of OOH spending in 2025.
What is the difference between OOH and DOOH?
OOH is the broader category of advertising people encounter outside their homes. DOOH, or digital out-of-home advertising, refers specifically to OOH delivered through digital screens. Because the creative is digital, campaigns can often change messaging more quickly and use scheduling, contextual data, audience targeting, or programmatic technology.
Can out-of-home advertising be bought programmatically?
Yes. Programmatic digital out-of-home, or pDOOH, allows certain digital OOH inventory to be bought using automated platforms and audience or campaign parameters. A 2026 WOO/PwC study identified approximately $1.4 billion in global programmatic DOOH spend during 2025, indicating both meaningful adoption and significant room for further growth.
Does OOH work with digital advertising?
Yes, and that’s one of its strengths. OOH can introduce or reinforce a message in the physical world while search, social, connected TV, display, mobile, and other channels continue the customer journey. Modern campaign measurement can also help advertisers understand how OOH exposure relates to actions such as web activity, foot traffic, and conversions.
How do I know whether OOH advertising is right for my business?
Start with the audience and objective rather than the format. Consider where your customers spend time, which markets matter, what action you want people to take, and how OOH would work alongside the rest of your media strategy. Kinetic319 can help evaluate available OOH and DOOH opportunities and build them into a broader, measurable media plan.