How to set clear goals for a DOOH campaign

You have decided to try in-venue video. The next question is the one most plans skip: what, specifically, should this campaign do? "More people should know us" is a reasonable wish, but it is not something you can check in a month. This guide walks through how to set goals for a digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaign, meaning video or static ads shown on screens in public and commercial places, so that the rest of your plan follows from them.

Why a goal comes before a plan

Every planning decision depends on the goal. A campaign meant to fill a new location's first weekend needs different venues, a different message and different dates than one meant to keep a brand familiar over a season.

Without a goal, you end up choosing on instinct: whichever venue sounds good, whatever creative is already finished, whatever start date is convenient. Afterward there is nothing to compare the results against, so every outcome can be explained as a success or a failure.

CETV Now's campaign start process asks you to share your markets, venue categories, creative and budget. Those four inputs are far easier to choose once the goal is written down. If you want a broader list of pre-purchase questions, the DOOH campaign planning checklist covers them; this guide focuses on the first one.

Turn a vague aim into a checkable goal

A checkable goal has four parts: the action you want, who should take it, a time window, and the place you will look for evidence. Start from the vague aim and keep asking "what would I see if that happened?"

1. 01

   Write the vague aim as you would say it

   Example: "More people in our part of town should know we exist."

2. 02

   Ask what a person would do if they knew

   They might walk in, ask for the offer, search for your name, or show up on opening day. Pick the action that matters most to the business.

3. 03

   Name the audience and the area

   "New customers within a short drive of our second location" is checkable. "Everyone" is not.

4. 04

   Set a window

   Decide when you will look. A launch has a natural end date; an always-on awareness effort needs a review date you choose in advance.

5. 05

   Decide where the evidence lives

   Point-of-sale records, a redemption code, a new-customer question at the front desk, or search data you already have. If you cannot name the source, the goal is still too vague.

Here is the same aim after that treatment: "Between now and the end of next month, get more first-time customers from our nearby zip codes to visit the new location, measured by the number who say they saw us on a screen or use the screen offer." It is not a forecast. It states what you are trying to move and how you will look.

Awareness vs response goals

Most out-of-home campaign goals fall on a line between awareness and response. Awareness goals aim to make people familiar with a name or product so it is easier to choose later. Response goals ask for a specific action soon after viewing, such as redeeming an offer or visiting.

You can pursue both, but pick a primary one. A single 30-second video can introduce your brand, but it rarely does that and also drives a precise action unless it is built carefully. When a campaign tries to do everything, it is hard to tell what worked.

Match the goal to message and venue

Once the goal is clear, three choices follow from it: the venue category, the message and the timing.

Venue category

CETV Now runs in commercial venue categories where people spend time: auto dealerships, restaurants and bars, medical and dental offices, fitness and wellness facilities, retail, and professional services such as offices and salons. Network dwell time is a reported average of 15+ minutes (CETV Now network data, not third-party audited). Dwell time describes how long people are in a venue, not how closely they watch, so treat it as time available for a message, not proof of attention.

Choose the category by asking who is in the room when your goal could be met. A restaurant offer fits restaurant and bar venues where people are deciding what to order or where to go next. A new gym location might look at fitness venues in the surrounding neighborhood. Targeting can be set by neighborhood, city, metro, zip code, sector or individual venue, and layered with audience type and time of day.

Message and format

Awareness goals usually suit full-screen video or a branded campaign that repeats a clear identity. Response goals usually suit a local offer with one action, one place and one way to claim it. The ad formats overview covers what is available, including static designs and animated motion graphics shown as overlays on live TV.

Timing

Ad insertion has no minimums and no long-term commitment, so you set your spend and schedule yourself. That makes it practical to tie dates to the goal: a launch moment runs around the launch, a weekday-lunch offer runs at lunch, and an always-on awareness effort gets a review date. CETV Now has not published how long creative review and launch take, so confirm timing with the team before you fix a launch date. Creative is reviewed before it runs.

How you will check it

The table below pairs common goals with what to put on the screen and how you would look for evidence. The checks are examples, not fixed measurement methods; use whichever evidence you already collect.

For a more rigorous read, industry measurement guidance describes approaches such as synthetic control groups and matched-market testing to isolate a campaign's impact, as summarized in the IAB's DOOH measurement guide overview. Those methods suit larger budgets and teams. A small business can still get a useful read from a redemption code, a front-desk question and a before-and-after comparison, as long as you accept that other factors, like weather or a competing promotion, also move the numbers.

CETV Now reports a 4.2x average campaign ROI and 98% viewer recall across its network. These are CETV Now reported figures, not third-party audited, and individual results vary. No outcome is guaranteed, so write your goal around your own business, not around a network average.

Goals that out-of-home is poorly suited to

In-venue video works on people who are already in a place for another reason. That shapes what it can reasonably be asked to do.

• Instant online purchases. A person watching a screen in a waiting area cannot click. If your goal is immediate e-commerce checkout attributed to a single ad, another channel is a better fit.
• Detailed explanation. Complex products that need long reading, comparison or a spec sheet are hard to explain in a short spot. Use the screen to prompt a next step, not to carry the whole sale.
• Reaching one named person. Targeting works by place, time and audience type, not by identifying individuals.
• Precise last-click attribution. Since people usually act later and elsewhere, a clean click-style trail is unlikely. Plan for indirect evidence like redemptions and search interest.
• Fixing an unclear offer. A screen can make a good offer visible. It cannot make a confusing one convincing.
• Regulated claims without review. Healthcare, financial services, alcohol and legal advertisers should check their own compliance rules before writing a goal or a message.

For more on how the medium compares, see DOOH vs. traditional outdoor advertising and the plain-English overview of how DOOH works.

Writing the goal into your quote request

Pricing at CETV Now is quote-based and depends on market, venue category and schedule. There is no published rate card, so the more precisely you describe the goal, the more useful the quote conversation is.

Before you reach out, write down:

1. 1The one primary goal, in a sentence that names the action, the audience and the window.
2. 2Where it needs to happen: the live market or markets (Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville and Salt Lake City are live; Miami is coming soon), and the neighborhoods or zip codes that matter. For anywhere else, availability is unconfirmed, so ask.
3. 3The venue categories where your audience is likely to be.
4. 4Your dates, including any fixed moment such as an opening.
5. 5How you will check the goal, and what data you will have ready.
6. 6Your creative status and your budget.

Local businesses can start from DOOH for local businesses or see how local DOOH targeting by neighborhood and metro works. If you are in the Phoenix area, the Phoenix page has the local context. When your goal is written, contact CETV Now at (833) 807-1500 or info@cetvnow.com to map it to a plan and request a quote.