- Benefits ●
- Best Practices ●
- Use Cases ●
- FAQ ●
Are billboards truly outdated? Think again! Billboard advertising is now optimizable and calculable with QR Codes. Use QR Codes on billboards and experience the benefits of custom designs, trackable campaigns and a unique point that sets you apart from your competition.
The Benefits of Using QR Codes on Billboards
Billboard advertising is a tried and true method that brands across the globe have used. But many marketing experts nowadays consider them to be old school marketing because they generate low returns and you can’t calculate their effect on brand awareness. Passersby may notice the billboard and tell their friend to make a purchase. They may make a purchase only six months later. Or they may write about the brand on social media, but never make a purchase themselves. The list goes on and on.
So why use billboards at all then??
There is actually a way to track billboard advertising success rates: QR Codes. This innovative and unique technology lets you track QR Codes scans as well as display, market and sell your products and services in a more dynamic way than ever before.
1. Track ROI (return on investment)
One of the toughest parts of traditional print marketing methods is that they are very difficult to track their actual ROI because there was no way to monitor which actions customers made as a result of seeing them. QR Codes now make it possible to discover exactly how much income a specific billboard generates. All Dynamic QR Codes made with QR Code Generator PRO come with a tracking overview that includes metrics like location by city and country, time scanned, operating device used, and total vs. unique scans. As a result, you have all of the scan metrics to calculate billboard advertising ROI.
Furthermore, you can track the entire digital path that a customer takes after the QR Code is scanned when used in combination with Google Analytics, including what they do on a website. Take a look here for how to set this up.
2. Compare locations
The success of billboard advertising is often connected to whether it’s in the right location. With QR Code tracking metrics, you can place billboards in different cities or countries and do a comparison for which ones are the most successful. Now even billboard marketing campaigns can be optimized in the same manner as digital marketing methods.
3. Integrate marketing channels
The major obstacle for billboard advertising in the past was to make a connection between the message conveyed on the billboard and the actual resulting action taken by a customer. Not only do QR Codes solve this issue entirely, but they also give a wide variety of options for doing so. Whether you’d like to increase social media followers, send users to a landing page, or share videos, QR Code Generator has a solution for every situation with the clear ability to track results.
4. Custom designs
Having the appropriate design for your billboard is an essential element for it to reach the appropriate target market successfully. QR Codes made with QR Code Generator PRO have advanced far beyond their simple black and white ancestors. Now you can customize QR Codes with different frames, a logo, brand colors and a unique CTA (Call to Action). For more inspiration on custom QR Code designs, take a look here.
5. Editability avoids costly print mistakes
Remove any worry about the dreaded reprint for print materials with QR Codes. All Dynamic QR Codes made with QR Code Generator can be edited at any time. Made a mistake in your URL? It takes seconds to update. Decided that social media engagement is better than showing a video? Swap out the type of QR Code with just a few clicks. The original appearance of your QR Code will remain the same.
How to create a QR Code on a Billboard?
- Go to QR Code Generator and select the type of QR Code you’d like on your billboard. We recommend using the URL QR Code to start with.*
- Enter your website address.
- Your QR Code will be generated automatically.
- Now, customize the design of your QR Code by adding a frame and a “Scan Me” logo.*
- Select colors to match your style or company identity.
- Select ‘Download’ to receive your QR Code file in .jpg format.
- Integrate your newly-created QR Code to billboard design.
*Sign up to choose more QR Codes such as Event, Video, and Coupon, where you have the option of adding more information, more visuals, and edit or replace all the information without reprinting a new QR Code. You can also choose from a variety of frames and upload your own logo.
QR Codes on Billboards Best Practices
Professional graphic design is of the utmost importance for billboard advertising. But there are a couple of other important aspects to keep in mind as well: your message, what tone you will use, how the message is conveyed, which company information to include and more. Read on for some tips for how to design billboard advertisements with QR Codes.
1. Keep your message short and to the point
A billboard is absolutely not the place to write a book. Billboards are read from afar and quickly so it doesn’t make sense to have any more than 7 words in your message on the entire billboard. Any more than this and it likely won’t be read. If you can’t convey your product or service with this amount, then it’s probably not suitable for billboard advertising.
2. Be unique and use contrasting colors
Keep your text clean and your colors bright. A boring billboard won’t be noticed anymore. But if there’s too much going on or the colors don’t match, people will be overwhelmed and it won’t have any effect either. Make sure that your colors match with the surrounding area and also make sense across the billboard from up close and afar.
3. Show don’t tell
Consider how you can convey your message with images instead of text. The text should be limited to an absolute minimum. In this case, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Choose images that resonate with your target audience, convey your brand values appropriately - and most importantly are high-quality.
See QR Codes on Billboards in Action
How would QR Codes on billboards look like in real life? We’ve got a few examples of fictional narratives below to get you started.
Gyms and Wellness Studios
Gyms and wellness studios are one of the heaviest users of billboard advertising. Studio Gym decided to step up the promotion of seasonal fitness courses through video by adding a Video QR Code to their billboard advertisement. They tested the billboard across a few different cities to see which types of locations brought in the most customers.
Fashion Retailers
Elle Boutique recently launched a mobile app and wanted to promote it with billboard advertisements. They added an App Store QR Code to their billboard to streamline the process for users to download the app immediately after their scan. Now Elle Boutique can also track which users made purchases after the app download.
Concerts
Billboards are ideal for advertising concerts. So, The Three Sparrows decided to step up promotion for their holiday concert with an Event QR Code on a billboard. Now their fans can scan the QR Code, buy their tickets with a simple click, and automatically add the event to the calendars.
Publishers
One of Lionspring Publishing House’s top-selling authors just released a new book. Customers who act quickly can access live readings and a chance to get their book signed in select cities across the country by scanning an Event QR Code.
Real Estate Agencies
The Home Finders is a real estate agency that has a unique new home for sale in the area. Customers can learn more about the property by scanning an Image Gallery QR Code. While a billboard’s size may limit your content, your QR Code can provide comprehensive information for all potential buyers.
Finance
Global Worth Trust is a popular financial advisor that wants to expand their brand awareness to new countries. They’ve added Social Media QR Codes to billboards in different countries to see which users may be interested in their services. They can also engage with these followers directly and get to know what types of questions they have around the topic of finance.
FAQ
The short answer is definitely. Here are a few stats that encourage billboard advertising: Billboard advertising costs 80% less than television. 71% of consumers often look at the messages on roadside billboards. 32% visited the retailer they saw on a billboard later that week. So overall, if you’ve got a product or service that can be conveyed through imagery and a short message, billboards could be an interesting route to try out.
The type of QR Code that is most suitable for your billboard depends entirely on your goals and your product or service you want to promote. For instance, maybe you would like to direct traffic to a new product or you’d like to promote a specific event. The full list of our QR Code types can be found here.
The biggest advantage of having QR Codes on billboards is that you can track and optimize their success rates, whereas in the past this would’ve been based on guesses. You can attribute exact actions taken generated from QR Code scans and adjust campaigns for maximum efficiency. What’s more, QR Codes can use completely customized designs that fit perfectly with your billboard ad.
There is an art to getting the correct size of QR Codes. You don’t want it to be so big that it detracts from your message, but also not so small that people can’t find it. QR Codes on billboards can generally be sized with this scan distance formula on our blog.
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