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How to tell if a billboard is worth the price

Updated November 14, 2026

A billboard salesperson will tell you how many cars pass the board. That number is real, but it is only the start. Most of those people never look up. Here is a way to check the price yourself in about five minutes.

Step 1: Get the traffic number in writing

Ask the owner for the number of vehicles that pass each day, which direction the board faces, where the count comes from and what year it is from. Public road counts are often a year or two old. A number you cannot trace is a number to ask more about.

Step 2: Work out how many people that is

Multiply the daily count by 30 for a month, and by the average number of people in a vehicle. We use about 1.5. Now you have a month of people passing the board.

Step 3: Take away the people who never notice it

Most people passing a board never take it in. Nobody knows the exact share, so we start at 25 in 100 and let you change it. This is the most uncertain number in the whole check, so try it at 10 and at 40 too and see if the answer changes.

Step 4: Work out what one customer is worth

Take the average sale and the share of it that is profit. A $45 sale at 50% profit is $22.50. Divide everything the board costs, including printing and setup, by that number. This is how many customers the board has to bring in just to pay for itself.

Step 5: Compare the two

Divide the people who notice the board by the customers it needs. If it needs one customer for every five thousand people who notice it, that is a small ask. If it needs one for every few hundred, the board has to work very hard. Our free calculator does all of this and gives a plain rating. The rating is our own rule of thumb, so use it to compare boards and to negotiate, not as a promise.

What this check leaves out

Some boards build a name over months, and that value does not show up as customers you can count. If you are building a new name in a town, a board may be worth more to you than this check says. If you need sales this month, it is worth exactly what the check says.

OutdoorROI is not an advertising agency and does not sell billboards, so we gain nothing from a board being rented. We give you a way to check a price and track a result. We cannot promise sales. The traffic number comes from the board owner or your own count, and we have not checked it.