OOH Advertising: What Gets Missed When Talking ROI

Higher ed marketers often overlook the true value of OOH advertising. Learn why awareness-driven OOH campaigns strengthen the full funnel and drive long-term ROI.

Out-of-home advertising is something we interact with daily but oftentimes, it’s being misused. 

As consumers of any product or service, you’ve seen content-heavy and distracting billboards. Ones with QR codes, long URLs, hashtags, multiple calls-to-action, all packed onto a single graphic. It’s cluttered. It’s confusing.

 And it misses the point of what OOH is built to do.

OOH, whether it’s a highway billboard, a vinyl poster in a school hallway, or a digital screen in a cafeteria, is an awareness tool.

Trying to drive immediate conversions from a medium built for recognition is like fishing in a pond with the wrong bait. You might get lucky, but you’re ignoring the strategy that fills the whole funnel.

The Funnel Starts with Awareness

In higher education, brand awareness isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. With thousands of institutions competing for the attention of the same students, standing out early and often makes a measurable difference. Awareness is the foundation that makes every performance channel more effective.

At NextGrad, we specialize in OOH placements inside high schools across North America. These placements offer unmatched relevance and proximity to the student audience, and they work.

In fact:

• 92% of students report seeing a school advertised on one of our screens, according to our MyMajors partnership survey
  
• Over 90% of our client partners increase their spend year-over-year, because they see real results downstream
  

These stats tell a clear story: OOH works when it plays its role.

A Strategic Funnel Looks Like This:

• OOH (screens + posters): Builds recognition and top-of-mind awareness.
• Paid Advertising (Digital): Retargets and reinforces messaging across platforms
• Social & video: Engages and deepens storytelling
• SEO & content: Captures interest and provides answers when students start researching
• Email & SMS: Nurtures relationships with relevant, personalized touchpoints
• Landing pages & forms: Convert warm, curious students into inquiries and applications

When used correctly, OOH isn’t just effective, it amplifies every other part of your marketing strategy.

OOH Delivers ROI by Strengthening the Funnel

A common misconception is that ROI is only tied to direct conversions. But with OOH, the return comes through:

• Increased brand recall
• Higher engagement with follow-up digital ads
• Better email open rates and landing page performance
• Stronger pipeline growth over time
  

When students have already seen your brand in their environment, and the brand promise is consistent and clear, they’re more likely to recognize and trust it when they encounter it again online or in their inbox.

Don’t let short-term thinking limit long-term growth—start planning OOH as a core part of your full-funnel strategy today. Want to see how NextGrad can amplify your reach? Let’s connect.