Billboards come in a range of shapes and sizes, from portrait style 6-sheets to landscape style 96-sheets and beyond.

As with all advertising, different ad formats and different billboard sizes serve different purposes. Cinema posters reach out to audiences in the mood for entertainment, post office ads reach out to people going about their daily lives. But what function does size serve when it comes to buying outdoor advertising?

Does size matter in outdoor advertising?

The question, does size matter in advertising, can only be answered with “it depends”.

It’s certainly not true that the bigger an ad the more effective it is. Small ads can have a big impact if used properly. With that said, it’s is true that large outdoor ads can achieve something that smaller ads can’t.

This is because large ads can influence people in very specific ways.

– They grab people’s attention due to their sheer scale, they stand out from the crowd.

– They send a message that your brand has authority. People associate big with expensive, and they associate expensiveness with high quality.

So, how big should you go?

When it comes down to , the question of how big you should go is about the goals you hope to achieve with your outdoor ads.

If you want to wow the crowd, make a huge impact and show people you mean business, you should think about running large scale ads to send out that message.

Let’s take a look at the billboard sizes commonly available.

6-sheets

6-sheets are pretty much the smallest form of billboard advertising (anything smaller isn’t really classed as a “billboard”). 6-sheet ads are 1.2m by 1.8m in size and typically found at bus stops and on street kiosks.

6-sheets are great for reaching out to pedestrians and people waiting at bus stops and travel terminals. If you want to run lots of ads in a campaign and are advertising on a tight budget, 6-sheets are a good balance between reigning in the purse strings and making an impact. They cost around £134 per week from Bubble Outdoor.

48-sheets

48-sheets are what most people think about when they hear the word “billboard”. They are 6m wide by 3m deep.

Choose this size of billboard if you want to reach out to road traffic and be seen from a distance.

48-sheets make a big impact and give you an opportunity to cut through the clutter of an often saturated advertising landscape. If your ad campaign runs across various different mediums you can use 48-sheets to bring extra impact, especially if you’re complementing an online campaign. You can buy a 48-sheet ad for around £542 per week.

96-sheets

If 48-sheets are ideal for making a big impact and getting the attention of audiences, why bother going for larger outdoor ads?

Well, think of 96-sheets as your “nuclear option”. They are 12m wide and 3m deep, the same size as two 48-sheets placed side by side. These can be used to really take your outdoor advertising campaign to another level and blow away the opposition.

A 96-sheet will cost you from around £1,147 per week. You’ll be paying for a major amount of exposure and you’ll be sending out the signal to your potential customers that you mean business and have a product that is worth investing in.

What is the biggest billboard in the UK?

Of course, you can still go bigger if you want to. The largest billboard in the UK is Piccadilly Lights. In fact, at 790 square metres, it’s the biggest ad display of its kind in Europe.

The screen used to be made up of six separate screens all joined together, but is now one giant display. The display can be digitally carved up into small ads, and if you’ve got the budget of the biggest brands you can display your ad across the whole screen for 30 seconds every ten minutes, taking advantage of over 11 million pixels in 4k+ resolution.

How to run large billboard ads on a budget

If you’re on a tight budget like most small and medium sized brands, large billboards are still within your reach.

Ads normally run in two week blocks. Perhaps you have a big event or new brand line you’re launching. You could run a large billboard in key areas in the run up to the launch date. This would be a great way of building up a buzz and putting your brand at the forefront of people’s minds.

Alternatively, you could run a longer campaign and take advantage of the reduced costs that buying ads in larger blocks bring. For example, running a 48-sheet billboard for 2 weeks costs around £268 per week. However, if you booked it for a 16-week block it would cost £212 per week, making for a saving of 20%.

Expand your horizons with billboard sizes

Now you know there is no upper limit to how big you can go in outdoor advertising, it’s time to expand your horizons and search for large billboard ads on the Bubble Outdoor panel map today. Have it large!