Outdoor Billboard Investment Articles

When it comes to beauty, some look to luxury cars, but there’s a distinct appeal in assets that generate steady income. For me, one standout example is the classic wooden billboard sign. It might lack the sleek lines of a Ferrari, yet its straightforward design and reliable returns make it a truly valuable investment. 

When you manage billboards, your territory is often quite expansive—sometimes stretching up to 4 or 5 hours in every direction from your home base. This wide footprint means that, in many cases, you'll be working across multiple states. In regions like Missouri, for example, your operational area could cover six different states. But how complex is it to handle business in more than one state?

When discussing billboard advertising, many salespeople misunderstand their role. They often treat billboard space as just another operational expense for businesses, like paying for utilities. However, the correct perspective is to see a billboard as an investment. When a business rents a billboard, they are investing in the potential for higher returns through increased sales and profits. Communicating this concept to advertisers forms the backbone of successful billboard sales, leading to higher client retention and renewals.

Many years ago, I wrote an article outlining what I called the "S-S-S" method—Spacing, Setbacks, and Survival—a simple yet effective approach to choosing the ideal spot for placing a billboard. While this method has been valuable to many in the billboard industry, the landscape has changed, and it's worth revisiting this approach to ensure its relevance in 2024.

One of the most frequent questions I get is, “What would you do if you had to start over?” The answer is simple: I’d focus on wooden billboards. Despite being overlooked in the current market, they still deliver the highest return on investment in the industry, offering an unbeatable combination of affordability, practicality, and financial sense for advertisers, landowners, and billboard owners alike.

When you're on the verge of renting out a billboard, it's tempting to jump straight into the paperwork. After all, you've found a potential advertiser, and now it's time to seal the deal, right? Not so fast. Leading with the contract might actually push the sale further away. Instead, a more effective strategy is to focus on the creative aspects first—let's call it closing through engagement. Here’s how it works.

The traditional idea that saving enough for retirement is feasible for the average American is largely a myth. The reality is stark: most Americans have less than $25,000 saved, and many are underwater with their mortgages. With rising costs of living, including healthcare expenses that can spike household budgets, the notion of comfortably saving for retirement seems unrealistic for many.

Billboard advertising relies heavily on visibility. When a billboard’s message isn’t readable for long enough, its effectiveness plummets. Here’s how to determine if a read is too short and what steps you can take to manage this issue.

The landscape of billboard advertising varies greatly between rural and urban areas. This difference is often attributed to the type of advertisers – local versus national. Here are some insights into why local advertisers are generally more advantageous for billboard owners.

If you find yourself with a vacant billboard or an expiring advertiser lease, look no further than the advertisers on neighboring billboards. These potential clients are often overlooked, yet they are right in front of you and can be prime prospects.

You've found the perfect spot for your billboard, secured a ground lease, and are ready to start building. But where do you find the money for this venture? This question has crossed the minds of everyone in the billboard business, from industry giants like Clear Channel to first-time sign owners. Here are some financing options to consider.

Driving along highways, it’s common to spot billboards that have seen better days: weathered, graffiti-tagged, or simply falling apart. These structures, often in prime locations but in poor condition, represent unique investment opportunities. Here’s a practical guide on how to turn an abandoned billboard into a profitable venture.

Successfully managing advertising revenue is critical for any media business, from billboards to digital platforms. Yet, one of the most challenging aspects can be ensuring timely payments from advertisers. Here’s a refreshed guide on managing this delicate process effectively, ensuring you maintain good relationships while securing your revenue.

As businesses navigate the economic downturn, savvy advertising strategies are more crucial than ever. One timeless method stands out for its effectiveness and cost-efficiency: the "combo" billboard advertisement. This century-old tactic is witnessing a resurgence, proving its worth by providing exceptional visibility without compromising profitability. 

In the world of billboard advertising, a sign can speak a thousand words — but none as crucial as the name of the company that puts it there. The act of naming your billboard company isn't just a formality; it's an essential key to your branding strategy and overall success. Let's take a high-level journey through the process of naming your billboard business, ensuring it stands out in the vast skyline of competitors.

It's surprising to encounter poorly designed billboards even today, given the wealth of design knowledge and technology at our fingertips. To address this, I've compiled a set of fundamental design principles that should underpin every effective billboard in 2024 and beyond.

In the evolving landscape of outdoor advertising, securing long-term ground leases for billboards remains a pivotal factor in ensuring the sustained profitability and value of billboard investments. Reflecting on successful strategies from the past, this article delves into contemporary methods to persuade landowners to commit to extended billboard ground leases, emphasizing mutual benefits and forward-thinking approaches.

In today's competitive advertising landscape, understanding and aligning with your advertisers' goals is more crucial than ever. The key to successfully leasing billboard space is not just in presenting your offering but in speaking the language of profitability and value from the perspective of your clients. This mindset shift can significantly enhance your sales effectiveness and foster long-term client relationships.

Securing a legal spot for a billboard is just the first step in a nuanced process of deciding on the best size and type for your investment. The landscape of outdoor advertising has evolved, offering a diverse array of options to match every possible scenario. Here's how to navigate these choices effectively today.

We all know that a recession is looming for the U.S. economy – but what will the impact be on the billboard industry? American billboards have been around for over 100 years and have weathered every major recession in U.S. history, all the way back to the Great Depression. And the results are pretty remarkable. Billboards have proven to be highly successful during times of economic strain. Here’s a description of how billboards react to economic downturns, as found in a textbook for mobile home park valuations that is sold to appraisers:

When you encounter a billboard structure that deviates from the standard – such as the one featured in the accompanying photo – it's likely that you're observing a one-of-a-kind, custom creation. Standard monopole signs rely on a single pole for support, while wooden and I-beam signs distribute their weight across multiple poles for stability and balance. A structure that diverges from these conventional patterns indicates something unusual, like a construction from salvaged parts. For instance, it's possible to cobble together an I-beam structure using scraps from a steel yard.

When it comes to advertising mediums, mobile billboards often make bold claims about their visibility and effectiveness. However, it's essential to understand their limitations, particularly if you find yourself competing for ad dollars against them. Here's a rundown of why mobile billboards often don't provide as much bang for your buck as traditional billboards.

As you embark on your journey to rent a billboard, you've found a potential advertiser and you're about to meet with them. Should you present the contract right at the outset, aiming for a quick closure? Unless you want to risk losing the sale, it's recommended not to. In the realm of billboard rentals, the most effective strategy often involves closing the deal through a technique called "creative engagement". Let's delve into how this strategy unfolds.

As someone who has been in the billboard business for decades, I am often asked how I would approach entering the industry today, considering the rapid changes and developments. Here are some of the key focus areas and cautionary points for those looking to venture into the billboard advertising business in the present landscape

When planning to build a billboard, you might wonder whether to construct a "stack" unit, which offers both advantages and disadvantages. Before making a decision, it's crucial to weigh the various factors that could impact your potential revenue and future opportunities.

Finding the funding to construct a billboard can be a challenge, but there are several options available. Here's an overview of some of the common options for billboard financing:

Signs along roads started during the time of the Egyptians, who would carve advertising messages on rocks. But the term “billboard” didn’t come into effect until the 19th century. So why are signs called “billboards” today?

There are many problems with America but one of the worst is the current environment concerning having an employee. At the same time the U.S. work ethic has evaporated, lawsuits regarding employees have increased by a thousand percent, and the drag on your net income from having employees around is hard to swallow when they are nothing but a source of trouble. One of the great attributes of the billboard industry is that it’s not really people reliant. So how can you own billboards and have no employees?

Part of owning a billboard is renting the advertising space. Even thought you only typically do it once per year, there’s no question that ad revenue is the life’s blood of making money with your billboard. And one of the most important goals of any billboard owner is to find the right advertiser and keep them on the sign year after year. So how does that work?

One of the key attributes to any billboard is how high it is up in the air. Next to size, that’s one of the biggest decision that a billboard owner must make. So how do you decide how tall to build a sign? Here are the items to consider.

Back in the 1920’s two bicycle repairmen named Foster and Kleiser created and tested the standard billboard sizes that we all use today. But even 100 years later, occasionally some individual tries to reinvent the wheel and brings out their own line of “custom” sign sizes, which typically proves to be disappointing. So why not be a billboard “pioneer”?

One of my favorite billboard case studies was the sign I purchased and brought back to life on Highway 75 near Plano, Texas. It’s a perfect example of what smart billboard deals look like and there are similar opportunities like this still available across America if you seek them out.

The U.S. economy is well known for its cycles, from boom to bust and back again. Two quarters of negative GDP growth is the definition of a recession, and America officially entered that zone just a few days ago. Having successfully guided 300 billboards through the horrific Texas depression of 1987 to 1991, I am pretty well qualified to talk about how to successfully rent billboards during recessions.

There are a lot of billboard options in America, ranging from giant steel monopoles to smaller 8-sheets mounted to walls, but there are a range of choices that cost $5,000 or less. These options include 1) wooden telephone pole units 2) vinyl wallscapes 3) 8-sheets on metal poles and 4) 8-sheets mounted to walls. There is no greater investment option based on rate of return than these billboards and, if not, I challenge you to let me know what that option is. So what type of rates of return should one expect?

Those who seek to build new billboards in the U.S. quickly learn the necessity of getting permits. Billboards are one of the final regulated industries in America, governed by the Highway Beautification Act from a half-century ago. As a result, selecting a fertile market often comes down to understanding the key components of a city ordinance and what the implications are, as well as to quickly cut loose those that have little promise. So how can you quickly size a market up?

The New Year is beginning. As the ball goes down on Times Square, you should be considering what you’re going to do differently in 2022. And if financial independence is important to you, then maybe this is the year you actually start considering building a billboard portfolio of assets.

Billboards are a unique part of American culture. And one of the reason for this are the timeless quality of an advertising form that is centuries old, dating back to the Egyptians.

You can’t watch television without being concerned about the future of America and, even more particularly, your finances. Relying on others is no longer a good plan. Living paycheck to paycheck – even if that check is a big one – is filled with stress. So how can you get ahead and derive financial security in today’s screwed up world? The answer for many is owning billboards.

When I first got into the billboard business I was always searching for areas that had plentiful billboard locations to examine. And then I found a small town in a very desirable area that only had one legal billboard location and I realized that having a complete monopoly was not a bad idea, either. I have learned that the tougher the billboard laws, the better for sign owners. Why is that?

When Lyndon Johnson enacted the Highway Beautification Act in 1965, he had to choose the limits of the area covered under the law. Since he assumed that billboards would need to be near the road, he selected all the land within roughly 660’ of the highway right-of-way as the “controlled area”. However, this was based on the typical sign sizes of that era. He underestimated the creativity of the billboard industry, and the U.S. has regretted it ever since.

Electricity was first made commercially available in 1879. Billboards – as we know them today – began in the 1920s, to there was never a moment when you could not illuminate a sign. However, the initial problem was how to do so effectively, as the early lights were not very good. Here’s a run down on the history of lighting billboard signs:

Not all billboards are created equal and some have some really big hurdles to get over in order to find a suitable advertiser. These hurdles can include poor visibility, low traffic count, bad demographics and other features that make them less than appealing to most advertisers. However, every sign has a logical user if you think hard enough. So how do you rent the “impossible” billboard?

One thing I learned from past recessions is that billboard revenues are extremely “elastic”. They can go up or down significantly based on how the economy is doing. Although there is typically a renter for every sign, what they will pay is all over the map and is derived from a number of factors. So what do you need to know about billboard elasticity and how to plan around it?

People have been making big money with billboard signs for over half-a-century. Owning a billboard – in many cities and towns – is like a license to make money. This significant stream of income has been used to build empires as well as college funds and cash for luxuries. So why do billboards so regularly make money?

We’ve all heard the old adage that once you learn to ride a bicycle you never forget it. Well, the this is also true with the entire “out-of-home” advertising industry. The skills from one segment of the industry are the same in the other sectors – it’s very efficient in that regard. So what are the skills that you need to know in order to start a billboard business?

Making money is the goal of building or buying a billboard sign. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing you can actually lose money instead of making it. So what are the top six ways to screw up your billboard investment and make it go from cash producing to cash losing?

Billboards have always been based on extremely long ground lease lengths – as long as 30 years or more. While that’s great for the billboard owner, it can sometimes be a challenge to explain to the property owner why they are so lengthy. So what are the explanations?

Industry veteran Mark Boidman recently stated that “the billboard audience is clearly back” and a “9% to 16% billboard income growth projection” should hold true for 2021. That’s a pretty bold outlook given the Covid-19 pandemic. So why is he so optimistic?

Billboard leases, while long-term, typically have an end date. This necessitates the billboard owner obtaining a renewal of the existence lease or forging a new lease altogether. So what are some solid tips to renewing your billboard and continuing your structure of paying ground rent to the land owner?

Billboards have very few management responsibilities. You build the sign once every 30 years or more, and you rent the ad space typically only once per year. So after that, you simply need to casually watch over the sign to make sure that 1) it has no storm damage and 2) the lights are working (if there are any). So how can you minimize that time obligation?

Most people start small and then think bigger over time. I’ve always found it better to think big and then work backwards to ascertain what you have to accomplish to get there. So here’s how that would work as far as building up a billboard portfolio to create a new income street.

Billboards can do many great things for your finances, but there’s one thing they can’t do: screw up your day job. There’s probably no easier solution to mixing a day job and a side hustle, for many reasons. So why are billboards not a threat to your day job?

As we approach election season, it’s important that billboard owners remember the old adage “never discuss sex, religion or politics” because it can be bad for your sign business. Political billboards can often lead to complications you had not anticipated, such as happened to this sign owner. So what are the rules on political advertisements?

Here’s a note we received recently, from someone who had taken our outdoor billboard course: “I would never be where I am today without your mentorship. Building the billboard business has given me the flexibility to have a better life. Thank you again for everything!” -Steve B. So how can an investing course on outdoor billboards actually change your life?

So you have a billboard with one side facing traffic going into town. There’s a ton of potential advertisers, and it never seems to go empty. However, the other side is heading out of town and there are no immediate advertisers for miles and miles. How do you rent that type of sign?

Many businesses use tactics to make the cost seem like less than it is. For example, flying in a private jet from Los Angeles to Las Vegas only costs $10 per minute (instead of $1,800). And your cell phone only costs $3 per day (instead of $1,000 per year). But in the billboard business, sometimes it’s all about making things sound bigger than they actually are – and sometimes not. Here’s a list of times in which you want to make things sound big and others when you shoot for small.

The whole point of renting a billboard is to have a successful ad message. Yet many advertisers fail in this mission. When an ad is not good, it sells nothing, and the advertiser doesn’t renew. It’s basically a wasted opportunity on the part of everyone involved. So what do advertisers do that is wrong and how can you improve on that?

There I was, minding my own business trying to keep a bunch of billboards rented when Texas was hit by the 1988 Savings and Loan Crisis and the resulting depression. Billboard rents fell 50% in just one year, while the Texas economy was wiped out with a collapse of oil and real estate values. But I had to keep the signs occupied to pay my bank loans, and failure was not an option. In desperation I configured some new ways to make my billboards affordable for advertisers. In many ways, it’s similar to the Covid-19 crisis, only there were no programs to ease the burden like the Cares Act back then.

I have long been a believer in this quote by Andrew Carnegie, the founder of U.S. Steel “problems are only opportunities in work clothes”. What that means is that you can look at U.S. recessions as either something to cry about or something to celebrate. I choose not to cry. Indeed, recessions such as the Covid-19 pandemic are great buying opportunities for billboard signs. You just have to know what you’re doing.

What’s the value of $3,000 of lumber? Around $3,000. But not if it’s assembled into a billboard sign. Then it becomes an income property that can pay out dividends forever. So how is all that possible? What’s the story of wooden billboards?

There’s no purpose in proposing to rent some land to build a billboard, or put together that great artwork for that potential advertiser, unless you actually close the deal and get a signed contract. But closing deals is not a class in high school or college and most people don’t know how to get the job done. So here are some helpful hints to help you be a successful deal closer.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made many unusual niches of the American economy more in-demand (such as toilet paper) and others completely undesirable (airline revenues are down 90%). One lucky recipient of positive momentum from the nation’s quarantine has been the rural billboard. Why is that?

One of the most common questions I get from investors is “should I buy or build this or that LED billboard?” They are often shocked when I say “not if you’re trying to make money”. Isn’t LED the future of the billboard industry? Although many would like you to think that, it’s far from the truth in terms of creating wealth with billboard investing.

For decades McDonald’s has ranked at the top of billboard users in the U.S. Day in and day out, they are the benchmark of a strong user of the outdoor advertising medium. But why are they so aggressive with this form of advertising? And what lessons can be learned from this?

What’s better than one billboard? Sometimes the answer is two. “Stacked” billboards – like the one shown above – are a common sight on some sections of highway in the U.S. But why aren’t all signs “stacked”? And what are the things to watch out for with these unusual units?

Monopoly has been a popular board game since 1935. Most every American knows how to play it, as well as the steps you need to take to win at the game (buy land pieces, build houses and hotels, collect rent, etc.). Really, most every endeavor in life is kind of like a board game: there are rules and you have to know how to play and what the ways to win are. And billboards are no different. Here are the basic steps to win at the billboard business.

Digital may be the future for media products – but is it a good idea for billboard signs? That’s a question that every billboard owner and builder wonders from time to time. Here are our thoughts on digital billboards at the moment.

American highways have attracted new business ideas since the 1920s. Many of these roadside attractions built billboards to let the motoring public know that they were there. And, over the years, many of these have failed and left behind some important assets that they don’t even know about.

When you drive down the highway, you see all kinds of billboard structures. You see a whole bunch of steel monopoles, and quite a few wooden telephone pole units. But you also see these steel I-beam structures – but not so many of them. Why does anyone even build these old-fashioned looking steel units?

So you’ve obtained the ground lease and permit to build a billboard, and you’ve decided to sell it to another billboard company rather than to go forward and build it yourself. It’s not an uncommon concept and one that I’ve done many times. But how do you come up with the price you’re asking?

This is a photo of the very first billboard I ever owned. On Interstate 30 E in Garland, Texas it’s a giant 120’ tall with two 20’ x 60’ advertising faces. How did I get this deal? Through bonding. And it’s a powerful force that you can’t buy.

In the mid-1990s, Lamar Outdoor started a program that has grown nationwide. Its name: “logo signs”. These little blue signs, positioned at most highway exits, allow businesses to direct traffic to their exit. And they allow for typically around six different advertisers to hold this coveted spot. So how can a billboard owner work around this competitor and actually harness this tool for even more successful advertiser satisfaction and retention?

There are so many colors in the spectrum, and only a few that never work on a billboard sign. Yet some advertisers still have not figured this out (as shown in the photo above). So what are the forbidden colors for a billboard and why?

Driving down the highway, you would think that the standard way to rent a vacant billboard is by putting your phone number on it, just like the sign shown above. The problem is that this is perhaps the worst way to rent the advertisement space. So what are better ways to rent a billboard?

Billboards have been around for over 100 years in their modern format. We all know that the industry standards are wooden telephone pole, I-beam or steel monopole structures in sizes of 12’ x 24’, 10’6” x 36’ and 14’ x 48’. But yet there are new ideas that come up periodically as billboard owners attempt to find even less expensive methods to deliver billboard messages, many of which are in ad sizes all their own. So what are these experimental billboard concepts?

When you think of a billboard, what do you think of? Most people think of an iconic sign in Times Square, while others think about the clever ad they saw on the freeway. But what most people don’t know is that a billboard is a financial work of art: a high-octane performance machine when it comes to making money. In short, billboards have the highest rates of return of any real estate sector.

The only thing better than building a billboard from scratch is buying a billboard that is already built and operating at a great price. When you buy a pre-existing billboard, you don’t have the stress of having to build it, or the risk of something going wrong. In addition, you can see exactly what you’re buying and, in some cases, actually buy the sign for less than it cost. So how do you properly buy a billboard?

A frequent question we get at OBUniversity.com is what billboard signs cost to build. That question is a little like asking “how many shingles does it take to cover a roof?” – it completely depends on the type of billboard that you are constructing. And, as in most things in life, you get what you pay for.

What is bigger than a bread box, made out of wood, and creates cash flow? The answer is a wooden outdoor billboard sign. No other pile of wood can create up to a 100% return on investment annually. So how does it work? Here’s the basic steps to building a wooden billboard.

he average billboard ground lease is 20 years. Since you only have one shot every 20 years to negotiate your ground lease, it is imperative that you do a good job at it. And it’s not something you are going to learn from experience – you will only do it about three times in your lifetime!

I started building billboards straight out of college, with no knowledge of what I was doing and not much capital to work with. All I had was the desire to make money and an almost equally powerful fear of failure. Starting from scratch, it took me almost a year to find my first location. And even then, nothing came easy since I had absolutely no idea how to rent the ad space or build the thing. But I “endeavored to persevere”, as Teddy Roosevelt would say, and I was able to stick with a pace of building two billboard faces per month for about 15 straight years. At that point, I had 300 billboard faces, which made me the largest privately owned billboard company in Dallas/Ft. Worth. And I did that despite the fierce competition – there were no less than 60 billboard companies operating in Dallas at that time. Every ground lease and every advertising lease was virtually hand-to-hand combat to obtain.

For most billboard owners, your big boss is city hall. Without their permit and approval, you cannot build, or rent, or maintain your billboard. And because of their enormous power, it is essential that you have a good strategy for dealing with them in a manner that can get you what you want.

We won’t even worry about trashing the stock market – it’s already trashed itself. If you are happy losing 40% of your investment as the end result of chasing after 8%, then stick with stocks. If you have higher goals, however, then a small investment in the outdoor advertising “billboard” business may be right for you. The upside is huge, and the downside is negligible. And the opportunities are all around you.

You can’t be in the billboard business and not have a storm-related accident at some point, unless you live in an area where the wind never exceeds about 30 mph. Many a time, in the middle of the night, I have headed out to look at my billboards after a really bad storm has blown through. I’ve done this because I know how important it is to get to the sign quickly after there’s damage to mitigate the situation. Here’s what to do if this should ever happen to you;

You would be amazed at how many billboards you see advertised for sale that are illegal. Unless you know how the permitting process works, it is easy to get caught in this scam. Often it is not even a scam – the owner himself does not know that the sign is not legal. Often, illegal signs change hands several times until they are finally found out. By then, there is no chance for the unlucky owner to get any kind of return of their investment.

It is very intimidating to look for your first billboard location. You feel like you don’t know what you are doing, and that you can’t possibly compete with the big companies. There is a simple exercise to cure you of these feelings, and start you on the road to building your own billboard company.

We've all had biology in high school, and can probably name some of the parts of a frog. But can you name the parts of a billboard, and what they do? Let's take a quiz and see.

When I first got in the billboard business, I assumed that the taller the sign, the better the sign. When I was driving down the interstate and I saw a really tall billboard, I would think to myself “now there’s a valuable sign”.

There is nothing scarier than digging your first monopole foundation. An augur pulls up and starts drilling a hole in the earth about five feet in diameter, and you have no idea what’s down there. Here are some ideas on what you’ll hit, and what it may mean.

Great billboard artwork is a combination of simple concepts steeped in decades of research. As long as you follow these basic, time-proven steps, you will always deliver your client a billboard that is attractive and effective. And if you fail to utilize this information, brought to you by billboard company research beginning in the 1920s, your client’s billboard may be illegible and ineffective.

So you're building a billboard but you're a little worried about some potential tree obstructions. The time to confront this problem is now, before you begin construction.

So you have a billboard that won’t rent. Maybe you need to change you attitude to get it sold. Here’s the deal: everyone would take it for free, right? Sure they would. Thank God you have a commodity that everyone wants.

There is a right way and a wrong way to build a billboard. Unfortunately, the punishment for not building the right way can be crushing – from $10,000 to move the sign to total loss of your investment if property damage leads to expensive litigation. Building a billboard the correct way is essential to prospering in the outdoor billboard business.

Every two-sided billboard has two distinctly different ad faces to rent -- the right-hand read and the left-hand read. The right-hand read is the side of the sign that is seen on the right-hand side of the street, while the left-hand read is the side that is always seen on the other side of the road, beyond the lane carrying traffic the other direction.