Creating Digital Out-of-Home Campaigns

To target digital out-of-home (DOOH) media, create a DSP line item that has DOOH formats. Then, create groups and tactics to target DOOH inventory.

After creating a DOOH campaign, review its performance in Analytics and reports. Most report types included data about screen IDs, and venues reports provide more insights into DOOH campaigns. See Digital Out-of-Home Venue Reports to learn more

Creating DOOH Line Items

To start building a DOOH campaign, add a DSP line item that has DOOH formats to the media plan .

  1. Go to Main Menu [] > Campaigns.

  2. Select the campaign and media plan.

  3. Select New line item above the DSP line items.

  4. Select one or more DOOH formats:

    • Display - Digital Out-of-Home: Includes image ads

    • Video - Digital Out-of-Home: Includes video and VAST ads

    A single line item can't have both DOOH and non-DOOH formats.

  5. Enter the remaining line item information:

    • Enter the name.

    • For display ads, select the ad sizes. Ad sizes are not available for video ads.

    • Select the KPI:

      • Cost per Thousand Imps. (CPM)

      • Delivery

      • Viewability Rate

    • Select the start and end dates.

    • Select the rate type:

      • CPM

      • CPC

      • Dynamic CPM

  6. Select Save, then select Exit when you're done editing the line item.

Adding Groups to DOOH Line Items

Groups for DOOH line items are the same as groups for any other DSP line item. See Creating Groups to learn how to add new groups to line items.

Adding DOOH Tactics

To create DOOH tactics, the line item needs to have a DOOH format and include at least one group.

  1. On the DOOH line item, select the group's Options [], then select Add tactic.

  2. Set up the tactic in the Tactic Editor. Review Setting Up DOOH Tactics on this page for more information about DOOH tactic settings.

    To save the tactic, it needs to have a name, bid, budget, flight dates, and at least one targeted location. In order for the tactic to go online and start bidding, it needs to target at least one exchange and be linked to at least one eligible ad, and the media plan needs to be approved. See Approving a Plan.

  3. Review the tactic's settings and save it.

    After adding a tactic to a DOOH line item, you cannot go back and change the line item's format to a non-DOOH format.

Setting Up DOOH Tactics

DOOH tactics target DOOH inventory and devices by default, so you don't need to manually configure inventory and device targeting. Due to the nature of DOOH media, tactics for DOOH line items have different targeting options than standard DSP tactics, such as venue, media owner, and screen ID targeting.

Review the following sections to find out more about DOOH tactic options.

As you set up DOOH tactics, review the projected spend, available impressions, and bid guidance. See Tactic Forecasting and Bid Guidance for more information.

On the General tab, provide basic information about the tactic such as its name, default bid, and budget. See General Properties (Tactic Editor) for more information about these options.

  • Tactic Name: Enter the name for the tactic (150 characters maximum).

  • Status: Select the tactic's status. This option is only available when the tactic has successfully saved.

  • Default Bid: Enter the default bid amount per 1000 impressions.

    • Select Use bid multiplier to manually adjust bids in different scenarios. See Bid Multipliers for more information.

  • Bid Shading: Use bid shading to lower the tactic's bid price when possible. See Bid Shading for more information.

    As of November 6, 2023, all new tactics use bid shading by default. To opt out of using bid shading, turn it off when creating a new tactic.

  • Budget: Enter the tactic's total budget ($5.00 - $1,000,000.00 USD) and select the budget type (Daily or All-time).

  • Pacing: Choose how quickly this tactic spends its budget. See Tactic and Group Pacing to learn more.

  • Start and End Dates: Select the tactic's flight dates.

  • Dayparting: Create a schedule that determines when this tactic can bid on impressions. See General Properties (Tactic Editor) for more information.

    For DOOH, dayparting times specify auction times. After winning an auction, there is a delay before the DOOH creative is displayed, so impression times will vary across media owners and may fall outside of the tactic's dayparting rules.

  • Frequency Cap: Limit the number of times a single device sees ads from this tactic. By default, ads are limited to being shown 3 times every 12 hours. Set up a manual cap or select No-cap to allow unlimited ad appearances.

On the Location tab, select the locations that you want the tactic to target or exclude. Every tactic must target at least one location.

Location types available for DOOH tactics include:

  • Geographic locations

  • Geopolitical targets

  • DMA codes

  • ZIP/Postal Codes

  • Hyperlocal coordinates and addresses

See Location Targeting (Tactic Editor) for more information about setting up location targeting rules.

Select the contextual segments and sets for the tactic.

Contextual segments for DOOH are currently only available through Foursquare and Peer39.

If you don't have any Foursquare Proximity segments, create one in Foursquare's Proximity Designer. See Foursquare Proximity for more information.

On the Venue Type tab, select where you want the campaign's ads to appear. Venues describe the places where DOOH screens are located, such as a gym, doctor's office, or bus stop. See Venues on the Digital Out-of-Home page to learn more.

To set up venue type targeting:

  1. On the Venue Type tab in the Tactic Editor, select the venue types that you want to target to exclude (250 maximum per DOOH tactic). You can select specific venue types, such as Gyms or Banks, or entire categories, such as Outdoor or Leisure. Selected venues appear on the panel to the right.

    After adding a venue type, you may see an alert that it's hidden or unavailable. See Hidden and Unavailable Segments to learn more.

  2. After adding venue types, define the venue targeting rules. See the Rule Logic section on the Audience article to learn about creating rules.

  3. If you want to use the selected venue types and targeting rules again in other tactics, create a venue type set:

    1. Select Save as set above the selected venue types.

    2. Enter the name for the set.

    3. Select Save. The set appears on the Venue Type Set tab, and you can add it to DOOH tactics. Sets replace any existing targeting rules, so if you need to select additional venues, first add the set, then add more venues and update the targeting rules.

  4. Finish setting up the tactic and save it.

DOOH inventory is available through open market bidding. On the Exchange tab, select the exchanges that the tactic targets. Currently, the integrated exchanges that provide DOOH inventory in the DSP are Vistar and Place Exchange. More exchanges are coming soon.

Open marking bidding on Vistar is available for all geographic regions.

If the tactic uses a private marketplace deal, make sure to target the exchanges for those deals. See Targeting Exchanges (Tactic Editor) for more information.

Tactics must target at least one exchange before they can go online.

On the Domain tab, select the domain lists or domain sets that you want this tactic to bid on. See Domain (Tactic Editor) to learn more.

In the context of DOOH, domain names represent different media owners, and domain lists can include both media owners and screen IDs. To download a list of media owners and domains, and to access other resources related to DOOH inventory available in Basis DSP, see Vistar.

Contact the publisher directly if you need screen IDs to target specific screens.

Select the deals that you want to use with this tactic. You must also target the exchange that the deal is for on the Exchange tab.

See Private Marketplace (Tactic Editor) for more information about adding deals to tactics.

Select the third-party add-ons for this tactic. See Applying Add-Ons to Tactics (Tactic Editor) for more information about the Add-ons tab.

It's important to note that impressions from ad servers count one impression per ad served and don't take into account the one-to-many nature of DOOH media. See DOOH Impressions on the Digital Out-of-Home page to learn more.

On the Creative tab, select the ads for this tactic.

The type of ads that you can add to DOOH tactics depends on the formats selected for the line item:

  • If the line item's format is Digital Out-of-Home - Display, only image ads are available.

  • If the line item's format is Digital Out-of-Home - Video, only video and VAST ads are available.

  • If the line item uses both formats, then image ads, video ads, and VAST are all available.

See Digital Out-of-Home Ad Specs to review our guidelines for DOOH creatives.

For DOOH, creatives are submitted for approval when the tactic starts to bid, because the media owners must review all creatives. As a result, there will be a delay between when the campaign flight starts and when it starts to win impressions. This delay ranges from a few hours to a day.

We don't recommend using third-party impression tracking because third-party servers are not able to account for the one-to-many nature of DOOH. The third-party ad server will count an impression each time the ad is displayed, but will not capture the fact that each display may count as more than one impression.