These wishes are reinforced by the fact that the out-of-home advertising market (DOOH – Digital Out-of-Home) is rapidly recovering thanks to big cities returning to their usual rhythm of life, with traffic levels almost reaching pre-war growth and consumers becoming more active. Also, more and more advertisers are choosing one of the most modern and profitable formats — digital out-of-home advertising. Modern DOOH advertising has already gone far beyond just being an “electronic billboard” or simple ad placements. Today, it adapts to the audience, time of day, weather conditions, offers its own metrics, automation, and many other features.

One feature — adapting content display to real conditions (geo, budget, audience) — became possible thanks to the introduction of programmatic advertising technologies (Programmatic DOOH) and precise targeting. These smart technologies have made digital street advertising effective, dynamic, and highly relevant for passersby. DOOH screen operators implement specialized software for video walls and high-quality media players for digital signage, which provide reliable playback and campaign flexibility.

Programmatic DOOH: how does it work?

Programmatic advertising originated online. Every day, Internet users see hundreds of ads selected with programmatic technologies. While a web page is loading, the advertiser and the publishing platform conduct an instant auction to determine the best price for a specific ad impression. Now, similar mechanisms operate for pDOOH (programmatic Digital Out-of-Home), automating outdoor advertising placements on digital screens.

Typically, such an auction involves two key platforms: the SSP (Supply-Side Platform) represents the interests of the owners of advertising spaces, and the DSP (Demand-Side Platform) represents the interests of advertisers. The SSP collects information about the audience, its characteristics, location, and transmits this data to the advertiser’s platform. If the audience and conditions are of interest to the advertiser, its DSP instantly places a bid. Thanks to video wall software and modern digital signage players, the system can display the required content exactly when it’s most effective.

All this automated system makes decisions in less than 100 milliseconds, so human involvement is almost completely eliminated — everything is done by a smart program. Whoever places the highest bid “wins” the display, and their ad appears on the digital screen.

DOOH and pDOOH: the new standard of efficiency

DOOH and pDOOH have long become an integral part of the urban environment. The use of software for managing video walls, as well as intelligent players for digital signage, allows for maximum flexibility in displaying content: creatives can be changed depending on the weather, time of day, or location. It is precisely the implementation of programmatic DOOH that has brought out-of-home advertising to an entirely new level — now the advertiser easily selects their target audience and pays only for truly relevant impressions.

As technology develops and cities become more digitalized, pDOOH is becoming the most effective channel for communicating with the modern consumer — fast, controlled, highly targeted, with creative possibilities that are constantly expanding.

Digital signage — the infrastructure of a new era of advertising

To place video ads using Programmatic technologies in the field of Digital Out Of Home (DOOH), a modern infrastructure for data collection and processing is needed. For this, DOOH advertising operators equip LED billboards and other digital displays with special devices for collecting audience information. Such devices are often Wi-Fi sniffers — specially configured Wi-Fi routers that do not provide Internet access, but work only for the passive collection of MAC addresses of nearby devices. In this way, digital signage automatically detects smartphones and other gadgets of passersby in the coverage area.

The collected MAC addresses gain informational value if they are supplemented with data from additional sources — for example, from brand CRM systems or mobile applications. Thanks to software for DOOH, such analytics can quickly be combined into a unified audience profile, and video ad displays can be planned and optimized in more detail.

Targeting and features of Digital Out Of Home

It is important to understand that targeting mechanisms in out-of-home advertising and in digital signage differ from online solutions. DOOH, and especially LED billboards, remain a reach medium: video ads on a digital screen are shown to everyone who is in the visibility zone at the same time. That is, here it is not possible to address only an individual user, as it is implemented online via cookies or other individual identifiers.

If the advertiser targets a narrow consumer category (for example, only people aged 30–35), to launch such a campaign, at least 10–20% of this group must be near the digital signage or LED billboard during the display. If the target group is significantly broader, then the prime audience in the coverage zone should be no less than 50–60%. These nuances are taken into account when setting up DOOH software, which manages the ad display schedule.

Tracking effectiveness and the future of digital billboards

After a video ad has finished and the viewer has left the digital signage zone, the work of the digital signage player and DOOH software doesn’t end. Thanks to programmatic analytics, it’s possible to track the consumer’s subsequent interaction with the brand—for example, to determine whether the customer visited a physical store or perhaps went to the advertiser’s website via a mobile device.

This level of transparency allows advertisers to accurately assess the effectiveness of video ads, determine the true value of each impression on LED billboards or digital signage, and optimize strategy in real time. The digital signage player and DOOH software can automatically change content depending on the time of day, weather conditions, or even the current flow of people, demonstrating the incredible adaptability of digital video advertising.

What’s next for LED billboards

In the future, Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) will continue to develop on principles of dynamic adaptation and integration with other marketing channels. Digital signage will become even smarter: DOOH software will be able to promptly change video ads depending on external conditions or the advertiser’s current request. LED billboards will steadily expand their role in urban spaces, becoming not only a reach tool but also a source of relevant data about audience behavior, enabling marketers to develop even more precise communication strategies.

Market perspectives on programmatic solutions in DOOH advertising

The field of out-of-home digital advertising is rapidly transforming thanks to the spread of programmatic solutions and innovative software for LED screens. More and more market players—both advertisers and owners of ad screens—acknowledge significant advantages of centralized video management systems and modern DOOH networks. According to analytical companies, in 2025 almost 47% of the total volume of DOOH advertising in developed countries is placed via automated platforms like Programmatic. This confirms that the industry is quickly moving toward digital transformation.

Feedback from DOOH Display Solutions operators is quite unanimous: centralized video content management reduces the human factor, increases impression effectiveness, and allows for running complex campaigns with dynamic creatives on various advertising screens simultaneously. The software for LED screens automates the placement process and helps adapt video content in real time based on the audience, weather conditions, or time of day, which significantly increases the relevance of DOOH advertising.

Advertisers, according to recent surveys, are also showing growing trust in programmatic advertising in the Digital Out-of-Home format. Statista data indicates that around 60% of brand managers report that centralized DOOH network management software enables better control over ad frequency, prevents duplication, and optimizes the budget. This is especially noticeable in cities with large networks of ad screens that require a unified approach to content management and analytics.

Among the key ideas in the market, there is also the opinion that DOOH Display Solutions and modern programs for managing video on LED screens greatly increase the flexibility of advertising campaigns. In a centralized system, every advertising player in the DOOH network instantly responds to changes in data (for example, weather or traffic), allowing the advertiser to deliver messages to the target audience with maximum precision.

Additionally, it should be noted that even classic out-of-home advertising operators, who were previously skeptical toward automation, are now actively implementing centralized video management systems and software for LED screens. They acknowledge that without such technologies, DOOH advertising can no longer compete in speed, analytics, and personalization with digital channels.

Analytics and prospects

Research results show that the DOOH network market in Europe grows by at least 11–13% annually. About 75% of experts believe that the most promising segment is the combination of ad screens, software for LED displays, and integrated DOOH Display Solutions with the ability to centrally manage large video networks. This not only reduces operator costs but also opens up new, more targeted formats for interacting with the audience.

Given the dynamics of software solution adoption and the development of centralized video management systems, it can be forecast that in the coming years, more than 70% of DOOH advertising will be launched via automated platforms, and advertising message personalization will reach an even higher level.

This approach allows all market segments—from advertisers to DOOH network operators and software developers for LED screens—to gain the maximum benefits from the digital out-of-home advertising industry.

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