Ad Format Guide · Updated 2026

DOOH & Out-of-Home Advertising: Every Ad Format Explained (2026)

Physical-world ad formats are increasingly bought, targeted and measured the same way digital ones are — the line between "digital" and "out-of-home" advertising has genuinely blurred, with programmatic auctions now running billboards the same way they run web banners.

Programmatic DOOH

Digital billboards and screens bought through real-time auctions, often triggered dynamically by weather, time of day, or live events — a genuinely modern twist on one of advertising's oldest formats.Dynamic triggers

Transit Ads

Digital or static ads placed on buses, trains, subway platforms and stations — reaches commuters in a captive, repeated-exposure context few other formats can replicate.Commuter reach

Place-Based Ads

Screens installed in specific venues — shopping malls, gyms, elevators, waiting rooms — targeting a genuinely captive audience in a specific real-world context.Captive venue

Cinema Ads

Video ads played before a film in movie theaters, sold on either a fixed-slot or increasingly programmatic basis — one of the few formats guaranteed full, undivided visual attention.Full attention

Static Billboards

Traditional, non-digital outdoor advertising — still sold, planned and measured today, simply without the real-time flexibility of its digital counterpart.Traditional

Other ad formats

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