Types of billboards: every format, its size, and where it goes

What are the main types of billboards?

A billboard is a large outdoor sign made to be read from a distance. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) defines billboards as displays meant for viewing from more than 50 feet away, and names four standard kinds: bulletins, posters, junior posters and spectaculars.

Most of the confusion around billboard types comes from people sorting them three different ways at once. It helps to keep them apart:

• By size. Bulletin, poster, junior poster. These are standard formats with sizes the industry defines.
• By technology. Static (a printed vinyl message that stays up for your whole run) or digital (a screen that rotates several advertisers).
• By where it sits. Beside a road, on the side of a building, or on a truck. Highway, street, roadside and interstate billboards are all placement words, not separate formats.

So a "digital highway bulletin" is one board described all three ways. Once you know which question a term answers, a seller's rate card gets much easier to read.

This guide covers billboards only. For buses, shelters, taxis and every other outdoor format, see types of outdoor advertising.

Standard billboard sizes

Here are the standard US formats, with the size each industry source gives and where you usually find them. Sizes are height by width.

Why two numbers for some formats? A structure has an overall size, and the area your design has to fit inside can be smaller. Lamar's print specs, for example, tell designers to hold a poster design to 10 ft 5 in x 22 ft 8 in, and to add 6 inches of bleed on every side of a bulletin, which makes the vinyl 1 foot bigger than the image area each way. Printers work from those specs, so get them from the seller before anyone starts on the art.

Bulletins: the big highway billboard

When most people picture a billboard, they picture a bulletin. OAAA calls it the largest standardized format, typically 14 x 48 feet overall. Lamar, an outdoor advertising company, describes its bulletins as aimed at traffic on expressways, highways and primary arteries, with 672 square feet of space for the ad. A board that size is built for drivers reading at speed and from far away.

Permanent and rotary bulletins

Bulletins are sold either as permanent displays or in rotary packages. A permanent bulletin keeps your ad on one face. Clear Channel Outdoor says these "perms" are typically bought for a year or more. A rotary package moves your ad from one bulletin location to another on a schedule. Lamar's rotary package moves it usually every 60 to 90 days, so one design is seen in several parts of a market over the contract.

Painted bulletins, extensions and embellishments

You'll still hear the term "painted bulletin". OAAA's glossary notes that vinyl is commonly used as the printed surface for bulletins. Bulletins can also break the rectangle. An extension is copy cut out so it falls outside the basic shape of the board, and an embellishment is lettering, figures, mechanical parts or lighting attached to the face for a special effect.

The OAAA's standard formats chart also lists a large bulletin at 20 x 60 feet and a junior bulletin at 10 ft 6 in x 36 feet. You'll see both on rate cards, so check which one a quote is for. For what bulletins cost, see billboard advertising.

Poster billboards (30-sheet)

The poster is the mid-size board you see on city streets and secondary roads. OAAA lists it at 12 ft 3 in x 24 ft 6 in, formally known as a 30-sheet poster.

You'll also see a smaller number for the same board. OAAA's standard formats chart lists the poster at 10 ft 5 in x 22 ft 8 in, and Lamar's print specs tell designers to hold the design to that size. Think of the larger figure as the board and the smaller one as the space your design has to fit. If a seller quotes "12 x 24", that's the same format.

Where they go: Lamar describes its posters as smaller structures on primary and secondary traffic arteries, seen by drivers and people on foot in commercial and industrial areas, and designed to be posted in several locations at once. That last point is the poster's strength. A business can cover a part of town with a handful of the same poster, rather than one bulletin on a freeway.

That makes posters a natural fit for a local business with a set service area. For the budget side, read cheap billboard advertising.

Junior posters (8-sheet)

The junior poster is the smallest standard billboard. OAAA lists it at 6 x 12 feet, formally an 8-sheet, and its printed-formats chart lists it at 5 x 11 feet. Clear Channel Outdoor uses the same 6 x 12 size and says junior posters are typically placed on heavily traveled streets in commercial and urban areas, close to the viewer's line of sight.

Lamar says its junior posters are mounted on the sides of buildings or free standing, close to retail businesses, and used where larger posters or bulletins aren't available. In practice, this is the board a neighborhood shop, restaurant or clinic sees on the walk or drive past. Because people are closer and often slower, a junior poster can carry a little more than a highway board, though one clear message still works best.

Wallscapes and spectaculars

A wallscape is an ad painted on or attached directly to the outside of a building. Geopath, the industry's audience-measurement body, defines wallscapes as murals painted or attached directly onto the exterior surface of a building. The size is whatever the wall allows, which is why OAAA's formats chart lists wall murals as variable sized.

A spectacular is the top tier of the bulletin family. OAAA defines it as a bulletin usually larger than 14 x 48 feet, at a prime location in a market, that often uses special embellishments. Think of the big custom boards in a city's busiest district.

Neither format has a standard size, so each one is quoted on its own. If you're considering one, ask for the exact dimensions, the print or paint spec, how long the site is available, and who handles installation. For most small businesses, a poster or junior poster is the simpler first buy.

Digital billboards

A digital billboard is an LED screen in a standard billboard shape. OAAA defines it as a billboard that can change its content using digital technology, with several advertisers' messages shown in rotation every few seconds. Each ad is a still image, so on a digital board you share the face with other businesses instead of owning it full time.

Digital boards follow the same physical formats, and the art is built in pixels. OAAA's standard formats chart lists these common sizes:

• Digital bulletin and digital junior bulletin: 1400 x 400 pixels, a 7:2 shape.
• Large digital bulletin: 1800 x 600 pixels, a 3:1 shape.
• Digital square bulletin: 840 x 840 pixels.
• Digital poster and digital junior poster: 840 x 400 pixels.

Static or digital? A static board shows your ad every second of the run, but every new message means a new print and a new posting. A digital board lets you change the message without a crew, but you're one of several ads in the loop. If you want one steady message, static is simpler. If your offer changes often, digital is easier to keep current.

For slot prices and loop lengths, see digital billboard advertising. Whether either kind pays off is a separate question, covered in are billboards worth it.

Mobile billboards

A mobile billboard puts the board on a truck. OAAA's glossary describes it as a truck equipped with one or more poster panel units that can be parked at chosen venues or driven around set areas. OAAA's formats chart groups the mobile billboard poster with the standard poster, at 10 ft 5 in x 22 ft 8 in.

A truck can be booked for a short window, which suits events, launches and short pushes. See mobile billboard advertising for rates, LED screen trucks and rental terms, and billboard truck rental for how booking a truck works.

Highway, interstate, street and roadside billboards

These are some of the most searched billboard terms, and they describe where a board stands, not what kind it is:

• Highway and interstate billboards are usually bulletins, because the board has to be read at speed. Lamar points its bulletins at expressways, highways and primary arteries.
• Street billboards are usually posters and junior posters on city arteries and in commercial areas, where people pass closer and slower.
• Roadside billboard and outdoor billboard are general terms for any of the above. OOH billboard just means a billboard counted as out-of-home advertising.

Highway boards come with the most rules. The federal Highway Beautification Act, signed in 1965, says outdoor advertising adjacent to the Interstate System and the primary system should be controlled, and it requires states to comply and develop standards for certain signs. In California, anyone in the outdoor advertising business needs a Caltrans license, and a display next to an interstate or primary highway needs its own permit. Cities add their own sign rules, and some places don't allow new billboards at all: see states that banned billboards.

As an advertiser renting a face, you usually don't deal with those permits. The sign company does. This is a summary of public sources, not legal advice. For how renting works, read billboard rental.

Which type of billboard fits your business?

Start with where your customers are and how often your message changes. Then match the format:

• You sell across a region and want to be seen at scale. A bulletin on a highway, or a rotary package that moves your ad around the market.
• You serve one part of town. Posters or junior posters on the streets your customers use. Several smaller boards often fit a local business better than one big one.
• Your offer changes month to month. A digital board, so you can swap the ad without reprinting.
• You have an event or a short launch. A mobile billboard for the days that matter.
• You want a landmark statement. A wallscape or spectacular, if the budget and the site are there.

Whatever you pick, plan how you'll measure it before it goes up. Put a phone number or web address on the board that appears nowhere else, ask every new customer how they heard about you, and compare the numbers with the weeks before the board went up.

For prices by format, see the outdoor advertising cost guide and the billboard advertising page.

Billboard-like formats at street level

Some formats work like a small billboard but sit closer to the street. Bus benches and bus shelters are the familiar ones.

Garbage truck panels are a newer one: a framed printed sign on the side of a city refuse truck, not a wrap. The standard panel is 93.25 x 29.25 inches outside, with a 91 x 27 inch live area (see the specs), and it swaps in under 30 seconds. Trucks rotate through the city's collection routes, with no route guarantee. Talk to us for pricing. No city is open yet. Learn how garbage truck advertising works or see your ad on a garbage truck.