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Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Campaigns in Ads Manager

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Marc Fevrier
Campaign Setup Essentials Venue Search Budget, Schedule, and Ad Group Review Ad Group Management and Creative Best Practices Rate Card Frequently Asked Questions

Creating a Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) campaign in Ads Manager is a streamlined process that allows you to structure, target, and optimize your ad groups for the best performance.

Campaign Setup Essentials

When you begin creating a DOOH campaign, follow these steps:

  1. Select Setup: You must use the Manual Setup option (the Guided Setup does not allow for DOOH campaigns).
  2. Name and Category: Give your campaign a name and select the appropriate IAB Category for your ad content.
  3. Budget Setting: Select Ad group budgets. Note that campaign-level budgets and daily budget options are not available for DOOH.
  4. Political Inventory: If your campaign is political, check the Political Inventory box.
  5. Targeting: Choose Geotargets as your targeting method and select DOOH as the media type.

Building Your Media Plan: Venue Search

To find the screens where your ads will run, search for venues using the following criteria:

  • Geo: Search by city, state, county, DMA (Designated Market Area), or zip code.
  • Location Group: Define a minimum 10ft radius around specific points of interest (POIs).
  • Venue Type: Select from various environments like billboards, transit screens, entertainment venues, or salons.
  • Creative Format: Filter by the type of creative you want to display (Image, Video, or Audio) or filter by specific Ad Size to ensure compatibility with your existing assets.
  • (Optional) Publisher: You can select individual publishers, but it is not recommended by default. Pro Tip: Focus on geo and venue type before considering the publisher setting. Publishers with a green checkmark next to their name are Verified Partners with whom there are preferred rates.
    • Once you click "Search," a map will show the location and number of available screens.

Budget, Schedule, and Ad Group Review

  1. Budget & Schedule: Below the map, enter your campaign start and end dates and the total campaign budget. The system will display:
    • The number of available screens
    • Daily available impressions (Important Note: DOOH is a programmatic buy, meaning delivery across all creative sizes and screens is not guaranteed. Impression delivery is subject to available inventory and screen formats at the time of serving and numbers seen during planning page are estimates.)
    • Calculated daily budgeted impressions
  2. Ad Group Review: Each ad group combines a publisher with a venue type.
    • Adjusting Budgets: You can adjust the budget for each ad group, but the budget must be equal to or greater than its CPM bid rate. If you don't want to use an ad group, set its budget to $0.
    • CPM (Cost Per Mille/Thousand Impressions): CPMs for each ad group are set at a minimum and cannot be lowered. You can increase individual CPMs or reallocate your budget to adjust the overall CPM.
    • Additional Details: During the review stage, you can find Ad Specs (size, duration, extension, image/video/audio compatibility) and view Selected Venues.

Ad Group Setup Pro Tips

  • Pacing: Prioritize ad groups with 10 or more screens for better pacing and delivery.
  • Impression Delivery: A campaign will pace well and deliver its full impressions if the daily budgeted impressions are no more than 30% of the available daily impressions.
  • Creative Management: Keep the total number of ad groups under 10 for easier creative management. You will need to upload creatives for each ad group.
  • Optimization During Campaign: You can reallocate budget to well-performing ad groups and increase the CPM to win more bids if necessary.

Ad Group Management and Creative Best Practices

For each ad group, you must add creatives and configure additional settings:

  1. Visit Tracking: Select the Drive-To option and enter your location group to measure foot traffic to physical locations.
  2. Audience Retargeting: Check the Build Audience box and name your retargeting segment to create a segment of users exposed to your DOOH ads. This audience can be used for future Mobile, Desktop, or CTV campaigns.
  3. Add Creatives: Click New Creative to add the required sizes.
  4. Creative Approval: After adding the creative, check the approval status.

Creative and Launch Pro Tips 

  • Creative Sizes for Inventory: Always include all four big sizes for your creatives. This allows you to reach 85% of DOOH inventory in the US and provides better campaign performance.
    • Video Sizes: 1920x1080, 1080x1920, 1400x400, 1280x960.
    • Image Sizes: 1920x1080, 1080x1920, 1400x400, 840x400.
  • Submission Timing: Aim to submit creatives 3 days before the launch date. Typical approval from the publisher takes up to 72 working hours.
  • Approval Speed: Ensure that the advertiser account domain in your account settings matches the content of the ad for smooth creative approval.

After finalizing your plan and creative, you can modify the bid price, budget, or timeframe, and add dayparting to your schedule. Click Save and Launch to start the campaign.

Rate Card

The rate card lists weighted average CPMs across all our different publishers for a specific venue type.
For instance, the rate card shows a CPM of $15 for bus shelters. However, this is an average, as each publisher sets its own rate. For example, Outfront is $10 CPM, Clear Channel Outdoor is $17 CPM and Intersection is $18 CPM. Therefore, the rate card CPM is meant to be directional, indicating what you can generally expect.

When setting your media plan, please use the suggested CPM that automatically populates in the platform.
You should only consider raising the CPM if the ad group is not pacing as expected.

Venue Type &  CPM 

  • Transit $7 - $22 

    • Transit | Airport $22 

    • Transit | Taxi Rideshare TV $16 

    • Transit | Subway $10 

    • Transit | Other $7

  • Outdoor $9 - $15 

    • Outdoor | Bus Shelters $15 

    • Outdoor | Urban Panels $12 

    • Outdoor | Billboards $9 

  • Retail $7.5 - $9 

    • Retail | Malls $9 

    • Other Retail $7.5 

  • Entertainment $8 - $10 

    • Entertainment | Movie Theaters $10 

    • Entertainment | Sports $9 

    • Other Entertainment $8 

  • Point Care $8 - $9 

    • Point Care | Doctor Offices $9 

    • Point Care | Veterinary Offices $8 

  • Other $8 - $11 

    • Education $8 

    • Financial $8 

    • Health & Beauty $8 

    • Office Buildings $11 

    • Residential $8 

    • Government $8

 

Limited Time Offer: DOOH+ 

Invest a minimum of $2,500 in Q1 2026 (between January 1, 2026 - March 31, 2026) and receive an added value of 15% of your campaign's total impressions delivered on Mobile screens. The DOOH campaign and added value impressions must run by 3/31/2026.

Added value impressions are valid on Mobile Display only, not Mobile Video. 

Reach out to your GroundTruth representative or selfservehelp@groundtruth.com to get started. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How long does it take to get creative approval? Creative approval can take up to 72 working hours.

  2. What are the core creatives for DOOH? 1920x1080, 1080x1920, 1400x400.

  3. Are creatives with audio supported? Support for audio is highly limited. Since most DOOH placements do not feature audio capabilities, we strongly recommend creating an additional, silent version of any video that requires sound to ensure maximum delivery.

  4. Does DOOH support political campaigns? No, but it's on the roadmap for 2026.

  5. Does DOOH support audience targeting? No, but it's on the roadmap for 2026.

  6. Does DOOH support CBD campaigns? No.

  7. How is an impression defined? A DOOH impression is an estimate of how many people saw your ad. It's calculated by taking the number of times your ad actually ran and multiplying it by a special number called an Impression Multiplier, which is provided by a third-party partner. This multiplier changes based on where the screen is, and the day and time your ad is showing.

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