Out of Home Advertising in Melbourne
Billboards, digital screens, transit and street furniture, planned by location and audience, with the creative designed in-house and the impact measured in search and enquiries, not just eyeballs.
Who uses out of home advertising in Melbourne
Out of home is the channel businesses ask about when they want to be known in a place. Usually one of three things is true:
You’re a builder, trade or service business that wants to own a suburb or a corridor.
You’re opening a new site, launching a brand in Melbourne or selling a development off the plan.
You’re already running Google and Meta and want something that makes the digital work harder.
Out of home (OOH) is advertising people see outside their home: billboards on freeways and arterials, digital screens in shopping centres and office lobbies, tram and bus wraps, bus shelters, train station panels and airport placements. Digital out of home (DOOH) is the screen-based version, bought by time of day, by audience and increasingly programmatically.
Melbourne has one of the densest OOH markets in Australia: the freeways and arterials into the CBD, the tram network, Southern Cross and Flinders Street, Chadstone and the major centres, and thousands of digital screens in retail, petrol stations and offices. We plan and buy anywhere in Australia; Melbourne is where we know every site by name.
OOH is reach and repetition in a place, and nothing digital does that as well. Where it fails is on its own. A billboard nobody searches for afterwards did nothing. The businesses getting results from OOH are the ones with Google and Meta set up to catch the people it sends.
How we run out of home
We add OOH to digital campaigns when there’s a location to own, and we design the creative in-house so it matches what people see online.
Planned by location, not by package
Sites chosen for your catchment and your customer’s commute, not whatever the media owner has unsold. We map where your buyers live, work and drive before we book anything.
Creative built for the medium
Seven words or fewer, one image, readable at 80 km/h. Designed by the team that makes your digital creative, so the message matches.
Digital screens bought smart
DOOH bought by daypart, weather, audience and programmatically where it fits, so you pay for the moments that matter, not 24 hours of screen time.
Measured properly
Two numbers, not one. MOVE, the industry’s audience measurement, tells you the reach and frequency the campaign delivered. The baseline we set before launch on branded search, direct traffic and enquiries tells you whether it worked. Unique URLs and offers on the creative where they help.
Digital set to catch it
Google and Meta campaigns geo-targeted to the OOH footprint, with retargeting for people who search after seeing the board.
What’s included
Fit check: whether OOH will do anything for you before you spend on it
Catchment and audience mapping
Site selection and media planning
Media negotiation and booking with every major Australian OOH owner, including oOh!media, JCDecaux, QMS and Cartology, plus the regional and independent networks
Creative design for every format and size
Production and installation management
Measurement setup: search, traffic and enquiry baselines
Digital campaign integration to catch the lift
Post-campaign report with proof-of-posting photos, MOVE reach and frequency, and the lift against baseline
What out of home advertising costs in Melbourne
OOH pricing varies more than any other channel. A suburban bus shelter can be under $1,000 for a fortnight. A digital billboard on the Monash or the Tullamarine can be $15,000 or more for the same period. Here’s how it works with us.
Media. Paid to the media owner at their rate. We recommend a minimum of $10,000 for a footprint that gets noticed, usually over two to four weeks. Melbourne campaigns run from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on area and format.
Planning and buying. Media owners pay us a standard 10 percent commission on what we book, so on campaigns of $25,000 or more you pay the media rate and nothing on top. Below $25,000 we charge a planning fee of $1,500, because the commission on a small campaign doesn’t cover the mapping and negotiation.
Creative. Designed in-house from $1,500 per campaign, covering every format and size booked. Print production and installation at cost from the media owner.
Transparent buying. Media cost, commission, our fee and creative are all shown separately on the plan. No hidden margin.
Example. A suburb-ownership campaign for a trade business: four bus shelters and two roadside digital panels for four weeks. Around $18,000 in media, $1,500 planning, $1,500 creative. About $21,000 all in.
What to expect back. MOVE reach and frequency for the campaign, plus the baseline we set on branded search, direct traffic and enquiries, so you can see what moved. We’ll give you a realistic picture before you commit.
How it starts
1. Fit check
We assess whether OOH will do anything for you. If your catchment is all of Melbourne and your budget is $10,000, it won’t, and we’ll say so.
2. Catchment mapping
Where your buyers live, work and travel, and what they need to hear. Sites shortlisted and ranked.
3. Plan and book
Formats, sites, dates and budget. Media negotiated and booked, with every cost shown separately.
4. Creative and production
Designed for each format, approved by you, produced and installed.
5. Launch
Baseline tracked, digital campaigns set to the OOH footprint, campaign live.
6. Measure and report
MOVE reach and frequency, the lift against baseline, and what we’d do differently next time.
OOH and digital, one campaign
A billboard makes people look you up. Google catches the search. Meta reminds the ones who didn’t. When one team plans all three, the creative matches, the geography matches, and you can see in the numbers what the board actually did. Most agencies that sell OOH don’t run the digital, and most that run digital won’t touch a billboard.
See how we run Google Ads and Meta ads, and the results behind them.
Who you’ll work with
Two senior people and nobody in between. William runs creative. Brittany runs media. You’ll deal with both.
William
Creative. Designs the creative for every format and size, from a bus shelter to a freeway board.
Brittany
Media. Maps the catchment, negotiates the sites and buys the space. Has bought OOH both off plan and programmatically, static and digital.
What we plan and buy
Large format billboards
Static and digital, on the freeways and arterials coming into the city.
Roadside digital
Screen panels on main roads, bought by daypart and by suburb.
Bus shelters and street furniture
Shelter panels and free-standing street units along a corridor.
Tram and bus wraps
Full wraps, super sides and interior panels across the Melbourne network.
Train station and platform panels
City Loop, Southern Cross and suburban station placements.
Shopping centre and retail screens
Chadstone, the major centres and centre directories.
Office and lobby screens
Building lobbies and lifts for CBD and business park audiences.
Petrol station screens
Forecourt and pump-top screens, bought by suburb and by time of day.
Airport placements
Tullamarine arrivals, departures and baggage hall.
Digital screens bought by audience, daypart and conditions.
Who we work with
Builders, trades and home services
Owning a suburb or corridor with roadside and street furniture, backed by local Google and Meta.
Property development
Site hoardings, roadside near the project and digital screens in buyer suburbs for off-the-plan launches.
Gyms and fitness studios
New site launches with billboards and shelters in a 5 km radius, timed with trial offers.
Retail and hospitality
Shopping centre screens, transit near the venue, launches and seasonal campaigns.
Professional services
Office lobby screens and CBD transit for firms targeting business decision-makers.
What we don’t do
Book OOH for businesses without digital set up to catch it. The board sends people to search; something has to be there when they do.
Take whatever sites the media owner has left. Unsold inventory is unsold for a reason.
Design a billboard with a paragraph on it. Seven words, one image, readable at 80 km/h.
Call reach the result. MOVE tells you who was likely to see it. Branded search and enquiries tell you whether it worked. You get both.
Questions we get asked
How much does a billboard cost in Melbourne?
How do you charge?
Can you measure out of home advertising?
Is digital out of home better than static?
How long should an OOH campaign run?
Do you design the creative?
What's the minimum budget?
Can out of home be bought programmatically?
Does OOH work for small businesses?
How far ahead do I need to book?
Do you only work in Melbourne?
Related services
Book a planning call
Tell us the area you want to own and we’ll come back with sites, costs and what to expect. If OOH won’t do anything for you, we’ll say so on the call.