Developing
Vendor-reported: Keen sells marketing mix software and Accretive sells out-of-home data and measurement.
In 60 seconds
- 89% of brands investing in out-of-home saw profitable returns; OOH profit ROI was $1.48.
- Optimized marginal profit ROI on the next dollar was $7.97, up from $7.58 in the 2025 edition.
- Digital OOH median ROI was $1.76 and the 25th percentile fell below $1, so about a quarter of digital buyers lost money on a straight return basis.
- The release gives no number of brands, time window, or definition of "profitable".
Impact Layer
- What changed
- A new vendor-produced dataset claims out-of-home delivers profit for most buyers.
- Why it matters
- Budget owners compare channels on ROI claims, and a marginal figure measures the next dollar, not the average one.
- Who is affected
- Media planners, CMOs and finance teams comparing out-of-home with digital channels.
- Martech stack area
- Analytics, Advertising
- Stack impact
- Ask for the sample, time window and model details before using these figures, and note that marginal ROI may not hold at higher spend.
- Business impact
- Low PPC Land's report of a joint release. The article notes a marginal ROI reflects the steep part of a response curve and that both vendors have a commercial interest.
- Related technologies
- What to watch
- A methodology document and independent studies of out-of-home returns.
Keen Decision Systems, a marketing mix modeling company in Cary, North Carolina, and Accretive, a Los Angeles out-of-home data company, released joint findings on October 15, 2026, according to PPC Land.
Headline figures (vendor-reported)
- 89% of brands investing in out-of-home saw profitable returns.
- OOH profit ROI of $1.48, which the release says is higher than social, display and partnerships; figures for those channels are not given.
- Optimized marginal profit ROI on the next dollar of $7.97, up from $7.58 in 2025.
- Digital OOH median ROI of $1.76, with $3.37 at the 75th percentile and under $1 at the 25th.
- OOH adoption rose from 21.3% to 25.2% of advertisers; OOH share of media spend rose from 1.3% to 1.6%.
What is not stated
The number of brands, the measurement window, the definition of “profitable”, the geography, and spend for revenue bands between $50 million and $1 billion.
Caveats from the report
A marginal ROI reflects the steep part of a response curve, so it may not hold if budgets scale up. Accretive sells OOH data and measurement and Keen sells marketing mix software.
Our read
The result is plausible and unverified. Use it to prompt a test of out-of-home in your own mix, not as a benchmark.
Sources
- PPC Land: Out-of-home turns a profit for 89% of brands that buy it, Keen data shows (opens in a new tab)
Source for the figures, quotes, comparison with the 2025 edition and the caveats.