Knowing the number of people passing the billboard with a certain viewing time is critical not only for picking the billboard site but also from the point of view of understanding fair pricing for the advertisement.
To have this parameter found correctly, first of all we need to know the real traffic volume. Unfortunately, many companies use mobile phone data to find the traffic volume. This information became available comparatively recently and it is easily accessible. It also contains many derivatives that are quite interesting, such as mobile trips originating from each Census block that are mapped to household demographic data such as "Married Couples with Kids" and Scarborough consumer data like "planning to purchase a luxury vehicle".
Unfortunately, the use of these methods causes substantial errors and does not assure the adequate comparison of various sites.
In fact, data from cell phones differ significantly from real traffic volumes. When you get mobile phone data, you should understand that it comes with a lot of noise. That noise we are referring to is constantly generated by hundreds of thousands of phones on the road. Considering the variety of transportation modes, it becomes challenging to distinguish whether people are traveling by bus, car, or even micro-mobility devices. In other words, a hundred people traveling in one bus will serve as a great example for understanding the problem with the use of partially relevant data.
Moreover, the real percentage of vehicles, registered by mobile phone data providers and supplied as “mobile trips” or “local business services” data does not exceed 30% at best, and for most of the roads varies from 5% to 15%. Further, these data are biased since they are obtained from specific fleets that don’t equally represent all kinds of road traffic. For example, currently, Mercedes cars are connected, i.e. are transmitting the data, but not too many Ford vehicles are similarly equipped.
In addition, the use of mobile phone data makes it more challenging to determine the real location of vehicles passing a particular road section. Uber app could serve as a great example. It usually asks you to confirm the location based on GPS data on your phone, and often it appears that your location is determined a few blocks away from your actual location. The same happens when you buy mobile phone data for measurement of billboard audience. Acquired data might be misleading and inaccurately combine traffic volumes of vehicles traveling in opposite directions.
Because of and that is why attempts to estimate real traffic volume for exact road section from them leads to error of 100% and up. We prepared a special case study where you can read more about errors in modern data use - not only cell phone data but also derivatives from demographic information.
So, why is vehicle data better when it comes to audience measurement and traffic patterns analysis in the billboard advertising industry?
First, it’s the accuracy of data. Leveraging car data insights in your analysis, you can be sure that data is collected from vehicles rather than from mobile phones of people traveling in one bus. With car data, you will be sure you get accurate insights about the volume of vehicles passing by a particular billboard.
Second, but equally important, car data is richer than mobile phone data when it comes to traffic pattern analysis. Vehicle data provide reliable information about drivers' speed, trip directions, yearly and monthly traffic volume averages, intra-day distributions of traffic flows, and more.
For example, by getting knowledge about seasonal fluctuations of traffic flow, you may adjust service prices for your clients based on the insights you get. If during summer months more drivers pass a particular road section where the billboard is located, it is reasonable to optimize rental rates in months of high demand.
With expert knowledge of comprehensive transportation engineering, system engineering, and Big Data analytics, we developed an innovative algorithm for the analysis of traffic flow data covering roads, large and small, all over the USA.
In Ticon, we assure the reliability of our information by:
- Cross-verification of multiple-sourced traffic data
- Using high-resolution data sources, directly relevant to traffic/vehicles
- Continuous year-round observation of the exact area of your interest
- Using only the data highly relevant to traffic flows
Ticon’s B-Site InsightTM intelligence report can help you get precise, verified, up-to-date information on any billboard location of your interest. We have a variety of data available upon your request, from traffic patterns to demographics, to points of interest (POI), and more. As our data-driven analytical reports are based on real traffic volumes and traffic flow speed distribution, your company can be sure it will get accurate data insights to compare various locations and facilitate the decision-making process.
Download a free sample report from our website and set up a video call and we’ll show you what “meaningful data” looks like.
