How to read a billboard listing like a planner
Dimensions are the least of it. The sight line, three numbers and a few warning words tell you whether a panel is worth its price.
Two panels, same size, same city, same price — one of them is a bargain and the other is wallpaper. Everything you need to tell them apart is on the listing, if you read it in the right order.
Start with the sight line, not the size
A 48-sheet is 12.2 by 3 metres wherever it hangs; the size tells you almost nothing. What matters is the approach: how far away the panel becomes readable, and for how many seconds it stays in view. A big board glimpsed side-on at a fast junction can be worth less than a modest one facing a queue of stationary traffic.
Check the photographs for what planners call clutter — trees in leaf, lamp posts, competing signage. A summer photo with bare branches drawn in is a panel that disappears in June.
The three numbers that matter
First, the audience figure: vehicles or pedestrians passing per day, and whether it is measured or estimated. Second, dwell time — a bus stop or a signalled junction can hold an audience for forty seconds; a clear dual carriageway gives you two. Third, illumination hours: a lit panel earns roughly a third of its impressions after dark in winter, and an unlit one earns none.
Words that should slow you down
No facing direction stated — morning commuters and evening commuters are different audiences, and the owner should know which one the panel works. Photographs that are renders rather than shots of the actual site. Audience figures with no source. None of these kills a booking, but each is a question to ask before money moves.
Ask before you book
On Admarket the owner is on the other end of the thread, so use it: ask for a photo taken this month, the exact posting date, and anything that restricts content on that site. A good owner answers in an afternoon — and the answers become part of the order record.