Successful digital signage networks thrive on finding the right balance between revenue-generating advertising and engaging local content. While ads drive monetization, an overload can lead to audience fatigue and disengagement.
The key is thoughtfully incorporating local information like weather updates, news headlines, and community events to keep viewers interested.
This strategic mix increases dwell time as audiences linger. It also boosts ad recall and effectiveness as viewers are likelier to notice promotions when they aren’t bombarded by back-to-back advertisements.
Ultimately, the most effective digital signage strikes the perfect balance: revenue-generating promotions + location-specific content that informs and delights.
Hitting this balance is the secret to:
- Maximize engagement.
- Increase dwell times.
- Ensure the success of your advertising content.
Tailoring Content to Your Audience
Truly effective digital signage goes beyond just displaying ads and local information—it’s about delivering the right message to the right audience at the optimal time. By understanding location traffic patterns and demographics, you can strategically program your content to resonate with your viewers.
One powerful technique is dayparting advertising content. This allows you to schedule different ads/promotions based on the typical audience for that time of day.
For example, an urban shopping center may want to promote sales on business attire during weekday mornings when commuters are passing through. Then they might switch to promoting restaurants and entertainment for the after-work crowd. On weekends, the focus could shift to promotional content geared towards families.
Case studies have shown the impact of audience-aligned content. A national retail chain found that dayparted promotional videos highlighting products relevant to each daypart increased sales conversions by 21%—compared to running the same evergreen content all day.
Meanwhile, a regional healthcare network boosted appointment bookings by 37% simply by promoting different services like pediatrics in the morning, and cardiac care later in the day, when their messaging matched the demographics most likely to be viewing.
The data you can leverage goes beyond just time of day. Digital signage software lets you parse content targeting by location, upcoming holidays, events, and more. Creatively segmenting audiences makes your content work smarter (and harder) for maximizing engagement and driving results.
Integrating Location-Specific Content
For geographically dispersed businesses, giving different locations the ability to directly update local content on their digital signage can be a huge advantage. Rather than sending files or making requests to a central team, on-location staff can seamlessly integrate calendars, announcements, and other location-specific details.
One common approach is integrating with existing systems that locations already use (like cloud-based calendars). This allows them to simply make updates within their existing workflows.
Those changes then sync to the designated digital sign playlist.
Another option is providing locations with a simple CMS to submit text updates, PDFs, images, or videos. This content is then automatically incorporated into the signage without requiring design skills or advanced training.
For retail centers, this could include promoting upcoming events, posting policy updates, or highlighting new store openings.
Overall, providing locations the ability to manage their own local messaging results in more relevant, and up-to-date digital signage content. It frees up resources from central marketing teams while empowering locations with their communications.
Empowering Local Administrators
Giving location-based teams the ability to update their localized content on digital signage displays can save significant time and effort. However, it’s important to have a plan for properly training staff and setting appropriate permissions.
Start by identifying the key staff members at each location responsible for content updates. Provide thorough training on how to use the content management system, including uploading new content, building playlists, scheduling content, and reviewing published content.
Ensure they understand content best practices like aspect ratios, file formats, and branding guidelines.
Next, set up user roles and permissions in the CMS that align with your governance policies.
You may want to have separate roles for basic content creators, content approvers, and location administrators, such as:
- Basic Users can create and submit new content for approval.
- Content Approvers can review and publish approved content to their location’s displays.
- Local Administrators have master permissions to manage all roles and content.
For an added layer of control, you can configure approval workflows that require corporate oversight before location-specific content goes live. This allows you to review content for quality, legal compliance, brand standards, and appropriate messaging before public display. Approval workflows can be as simple or complex as needed.
No matter your permissions structure, the ultimate goal is to empower locations with the flexibility to manage their own hyper-local content, while still maintaining centralized quality control and brand consistency.
Some companies utilizing digital signage prefer designated areas on their displays for different types of content. This often means one zone with advertising content and another for rotating local content. This capability is achieved through content zoning features inside the digital signage CMS.
Zoning allows you to divide screen layouts into multiple areas such as:
- Top zone: reserved for paid ad content that needs to be consistently displayed.
- Bottom zone: configured for rotating location-specific messaging like events, weather and news highlights.
When setting up zoning, it’s important to consider a few factors:
Sizing + Placement
- Ad zones should be prominently sized to ensure high visibility.
- Placing an ad zone on top = a natural eye-tracking position.
- Experiment with vertical side zones if screens have a wide aspect ratio.
Aspect Ratio
- Choose aspect ratios like 16:9 or 9:16 to match typical video ad formats.
- Be mindful of aspect ratios to prevent awkward cropping or distortion of paid ad content.
Safe Zones
- Set appropriate “safe zones” to avoid cutting content off with screen bezels.
- Ensure all ad messaging remains visible.
By utilizing zoning capabilities, you can meet the needs of paid advertisers who want persistent placement, while also allowing for dynamic localized content that engages your audience.
Generating Proof of Play Reports
Detailed proof of play reporting is crucial to keep advertisers satisfied and campaigns running smoothly. A robust digital signage solution should track all the key metrics that validate your ad deliverables:
- Play Counts
- Impression Estimates
- Locations
- Day-Parts
Proof of play reporting capabilities allows you to filter data by campaign, location, display, and time period. This ensures you can generate reports tailored to each advertiser’s needs to provide transparency. Plus, this valuable tool assures ad dollars were well spent paving the way for renewals.
Optimizing the Ad + Local Content Programming Mix
Striking the right balance between advertising content and useful local information is crucial for an engaging digital signage experience. While advertising generates revenue, overloading displays with too many ads can alienate viewers and undermine the network’s effectiveness.
As a general guideline, advertising should occupy no more than 20-30% of total screen time. The remaining 70-80% should be dedicated to informative and entertaining local content, tailored to your audience’s interests and needs. This ratio helps to maintain engagement while still providing ample inventory for advertisers.
Optimal ad loads can vary, however, based on factors like location type, audience demographics, and viewing duration.
Indoor venues with a captive audience (like airports) may support higher ad percentages, while outdoor screens in high-traffic areas (like entertainment venues) may need fewer ads to avoid overwhelming viewers.
Regularly audit and refine your content mix through A/B testing and viewer analytics. The key is continuously optimizing programming to deliver a fresh, relevant experience that captures attention AND drives results for advertisers. All without disrupting the viewer’s experience.
