DOOH Marketing
DOOH Advertising in Houston, TX
Nielsen DMA #6 · 2,797,420 TV homes. A live 30-mile plan around downtown Houston reaches 15,771 active digital screens delivering 3.8B monthly impressions across the metro.
New to Out-of-Home?
DOOH Marketing Platform: Plan, Buy & Measure Digital Out-of-Home Campaigns
America's fourth-largest city runs on cars, and that's exactly what makes it one of the biggest out-of-home opportunities in the country. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) puts your ad on the screens Houstonians pass every day: highway bulletins on the Katy Freeway, gas-pump displays, gym TVs, grocery-aisle screens, bar and restaurant TVs, and terminal displays at two major airports. Nobody skips it, blocks it, or mutes it — it just shows up while people are out living their day.
Goldfish Ads turns that into a platform: plan, buy, and measure DOOH across 100+ US markets and 35+ venue types, live in under 24 hours instead of the weeks traditional out-of-home buying takes. Run campaigns yourself in the self-serve tool, or hand the whole thing to our team to plan and manage — either way you get precise activation across every market, publisher, and inventory source, with measurement built in so you can prove what the spend actually delivered.
Plan
Search real inventory by market, venue type, and audience, then build a media plan in seconds.
Buy
Activate programmatically across every screen — run it yourself or let our team manage it, with no insertion-order back-and-forth.
Measure
Foot-traffic attribution, website lift, and brand studies close the loop on every campaign.
Here's the platform zoomed into one market — everything below is what's actually bookable in Houston right now.
Why Houston Matters
Houston is the fifth-largest metro in the country, spread across 670 square miles with almost no natural chokepoints — which is exactly why the freeway network carries the advertising weight here. 67.7% of workers drive alone to work, with an average commute of 27.2 minutes[5], longer than the typical American worker's trip and long enough that the same drivers pass the same billboards, gas pumps, and convenience stores multiple times a week.
The employer base reads like an S&P 500 roll call: Phillips 66, Sysco, and Halliburton are all headquartered inside city limits[7][8][9], while the Texas Medical Center — the world's largest medical complex — employs more than 106,000 people just south of downtown[6]. Worth noting for anyone targeting the energy sector: ExxonMobil's headquarters campus sits in Spring, a Houston-area suburb, not the city proper[10].
Two events reshape reach on the calendar. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo pulled roughly 2.6 million people through NRG Park over three weeks in 2026[11], and the Houston Art Car Parade — a free, only-in-Houston spectacle through downtown and Midtown — now draws more than 315,000 spectators a year[12]. Both concentrate huge, predictable crowds along fixed routes for a few weeks a year.
Two landmarks pull crowds every week of the year, not just during festival season: Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center, draws more than 1 million visitors annually[16], and the Galleria is tied as the third-largest shopping mall in the United States, pulling roughly 35 million visits a year[17]. Both anchor a screen cluster in the mini-maps below.
Live Screen Map
Every dot is a bookable digital screen in the live 30-mile Houston plan[1]. Pan, zoom, and click any marker for venue type and impressions, or use the filter to isolate a single format. Pulled directly from the Goldfish API — no static screenshot.
See the Actual Boards
Real Google Street View of the roadside bulletins in the Houston plan[1] — the same corners you drive past on the Katy Freeway, I-45, and Westheimer. Drag inside any panel to look around the intersection. Imagery is Google Street View; screens are live and bookable.
Inventory by Venue Type
Pulled live from the saved 30-mile Houston plan on 2026-07-04[1], with every screen counted once. The plan carries 15,771 active digital screens delivering 3,832,431,220 monthly impressions across the metro.
| Venue Type | Screens | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| Casual Dining | 1,070 | 744,643,828 |
| Malls | 192 | 506,161,294 |
| Grocery | 1,347 | 405,042,609 |
| Bars | 1,132 | 384,298,907 |
| Urban Panels | 585 | 258,246,708 |
| Movie Theaters | 780 | 247,658,729 |
| Office Buildings | 673 | 204,163,368 |
| Apartment Buildings | 1,339 | 200,690,809 |
| Convenience Stores | 964 | 161,373,670 |
| Airports | 330 | 151,592,719 |
| Digital Billboards | 65 | 147,384,743 |
| Doctor Offices | 2,205 | 94,833,001 |
| Sports Venues | 376 | 64,730,504 |
| Gyms | 330 | 55,022,981 |
| Recreational | 74 | 49,466,235 |
| Rideshare / Taxi TV | 1,771 | 36,843,943 |
| Gas Stations | 1,885 | 35,854,409 |
| Banks | 60 | 23,625,865 |
| QSR | 140 | 23,269,035 |
| Pharmacies | 196 | 13,812,995 |
| Other venue types | 66 | 8,980,463 |
| Salons | 89 | 7,410,999 |
| Schools | 44 | 5,016,547 |
| Liquor Stores | 58 | 2,306,859 |
| Total | 15,771 | 3,832,431,220 |
Venue types are mutually exclusive and sum to the plan total. Figures reflect the 30-mile radius around downtown Houston within the 2,797,420-home DMA.
Houston Billboard Sizes & Creative Formats
These are the actual ad-format registrations running across the live Houston plan footprint[18]. Houston publishers commonly register more than one accepted resolution per physical screen, so the table below reads as a share of the 33,840 total format registrations, not a screen count. The market is dominated by 16:9 landscape, with a real 9:16 portrait share for gas-pump, elevator, and lobby screens.
| Resolution (px) | Aspect | Orientation | Share of Formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920×1080 | 16:9 | Landscape | 68% |
| 1080×1920 | 9:16 | Portrait | 15% |
| 1280×720 | 16:9 | Landscape | 2% |
| 1024×768 | 4:3 | Landscape | 2% |
| 1366×768 | 16:9 | Landscape (widescreen) | 1% |
| 720×1280 | 9:16 | Portrait | 1% |
93% of formats
Accept full-motion video (typically 10 or 15 seconds, silent).
87% of formats
Accept a static image — a single high-res JPG or PNG runs everywhere.
38% of formats
Support audio, concentrated in gas-station and point-of-care venues.
Ship a 16:9 master and a 9:16 master and you cover nearly the entire market. Video, static, and audio shares can overlap — many screens accept more than one format type.
How Much Does DOOH Cost in Houston?
You don't need a rate card or a six-figure budget to run out-of-home in Houston. Campaigns start for as little as $50 a day with no long-term commitment — launch, pause, and adjust whenever you want.
Every screen in the plan is sold at one flat, transparent CPM (cost per thousand impressions) — the same rate whether your message runs on a roadside bulletin, a gas-pump screen, a gym display, or a bar TV. You're never charged a premium for "better" inventory; a bigger budget simply earns more impressions across the metro. Scale up or down, market by market, anytime.
Start at $50/day
Enough to put a real message on Houston screens — test the market before you scale.
No commitment
No annual contract, no minimum term. Run a single week or run all year.
One flat CPM
Every venue type priced the same — your budget buys impressions, not access tiers.
Ready to put your brand on Houston screens?
Live on Houston screens in under 24 hours. Run it yourself or let our team handle it. No rate card, no long-term commitment.
Screens Near the Places You Know
The same 15,771 screens, zoomed in on the Houston landmarks you actually drive past. Each map shows the bookable digital screens within 1.5 miles of the spot[1] — around NRG Stadium, Daikin Park, Toyota Center, the Galleria, Space Center Houston, and out to IAH.
Couldn't load the per-store maps. Try refreshing.
Target Screens Along Any Route, Not Just a Radius
A radius is a rough guess. A route is where people actually are. Give us a corridor — a daily commute, a freeway, a delivery run between suburbs and downtown — and Goldfish traces it with the Mapbox routing engine[19], then geofences every bookable screen within reach: the billboards, gas-pump screens, convenience stores, bars, and casual-dining spots that line the path end to end.
Houston sprawls in every direction, so we picked three freeways that carry it: the Katy Freeway running west, the North Freeway running toward The Woodlands, and the Southwest Freeway coming in from Sugar Land — plus the beach-weekend run down I-45 to Galveston Island, every bookable screen along all 51 miles[20]. Pick one to see the screens hugging it and the venue mix along the whole corridor: the three metro freeways draw from the same 30-mile plan[1], while the Galveston getaway runs on its own dedicated corridor plan.
0 bookable screens sit within 0.75 miles of I-10 Katy Freeway (Katy, TX → Houston, TX, 28.8 route miles). The mix along this corridor:
Corridor screens are filtered live from the 30-mile Houston plan [1] against Mapbox driving geometry [19], counting each screen within the listed buffer of the route. The Galveston getaway corridor runs on its own dedicated plan [20].
Screen Formats Active in Houston
Real photos of the screen formats running in the Houston plan[1], ranked by how many screens of each are bookable here. Each format is matched to the venue types actually booking in the market — representative venue photography, not location-specific shots.
Neighborhoods & Trade Areas
Montrose[2]
Arts district just west of downtown — galleries, thrift shops, and a dense independent-dining and nightlife scene along Westheimer Road. Strong fit for bar and casual-dining screens.
The Heights[2]
Historic neighborhood dating to the late 1800s, northwest of downtown — walkable, family-oriented, and thick with grocery, gym, and neighborhood-retail screen inventory.
Midtown[2]
Sits between downtown and the Museum District — high-rise apartments, boutique retail, and a nightlife corridor that over-indexes on young-professional foot traffic.
Rice Village / West University[2]
Tree-lined district anchored by Rice University with upscale shopping and dining — a reliable trade area for retail and casual-dining geofencing.
Galleria / Uptown[2]
Houston's premier shopping district, home to more than 700 retailers — the highest-density mall and office-tower screen cluster in the market.
Suggested Campaigns for This Market
Energy & B2B office targeting
Office-building and business-district screens across the Energy Corridor, Westchase, and downtown towers, geofenced to reach the corporate workforce that anchors Houston's S&P 500 employer base.
Build this plan →
Retail & QSR drive-to-store
Grocery, convenience-store, and gas-station screens across the AM and PM commute, concentrated in Galleria/Uptown, The Heights, and Rice Village trade areas.
Build this plan →
Healthcare & point-of-care
Doctor-office and pharmacy screens layered around the Texas Medical Center campus to reach patients and staff where health decisions get made.
Build this plan →
Sports & Entertainment Footprints
NRG Stadium[13]
72,220-seat stadium — home of the Houston Texans (NFL) and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Daikin Park[14]
41,168-seat ballpark, formerly Minute Maid Park — home of the Houston Astros since 2000.
Toyota Center[15]
Downtown arena seating 18,104 for basketball — home of the Houston Rockets.
What DOOH Delivers
Results from real DOOH campaigns run on the same venue types and audience tactics you can book in Houston. Different brands and markets — same platform, same playbook.
9.9x
Foot Traffic Lift
Foot Traffic — Apparel Retailer
Read case study →
$36.83
Return on Ad Spend
Healthcare — OTC Medication
Read case study →
+64%
Familiarity Lift
B2B — HR Solutions
Read case study →
Frequently Asked Questions About Houston DOOH
What is DOOH advertising?
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising on the digital screens you pass in the real world — highway billboards, gas-pump screens, gyms, grocery aisles, bars, and airport terminals. It is a format viewers cannot skip, block, or mute, and it reaches people while they are out living their day.
How much does DOOH advertising cost in Houston?
Houston DOOH campaigns start for as little as $50 a day with no long-term commitment. Every screen is sold at one flat, transparent CPM (cost per thousand impressions) — the same rate across every venue type — so a larger budget simply earns more impressions across the metro rather than access to different inventory.
What types of screens can I book in Houston?
The live 30-mile Houston plan carries 15,771 active digital screens across venue types including casual dining, grocery, bars, malls, movie theaters, office buildings, apartment lobbies, convenience stores, airports, and roadside digital billboards.
How many people can a Houston DOOH campaign reach?
The current Houston plan delivers roughly 3.8 billion monthly impressions across the metro, which sits in Nielsen DMA #6 with 2,797,420 TV homes.
How fast can a Houston DOOH campaign launch?
Campaigns launch in under 24 hours — plan, buy, and go live the same day, instead of the weeks that traditional out-of-home buying takes. Run it yourself in the Goldfish Ads platform, or have our team plan and manage it for you.
Nearby Texas Markets
Plan a Houston Campaign
Sources
- [1] Goldfish DOOH Planning API — live saved plan (code 07q3MUQ2apk), 30-mile radius around downtown Houston, resold programmatic inventory excluded so each screen is counted once, pulled 2026-07-04
- [2] Visit Houston — Neighborhoods guide
- [4] ustvdb.com — 2024-25 Nielsen DMA rankings
- [5] Data USA — Houston, TX (U.S. Census ACS)
- [6] Wikipedia — Texas Medical Center
- [7] Wikipedia — Phillips 66
- [8] Wikipedia — Sysco
- [9] Wikipedia — Halliburton
- [10] Wikipedia — ExxonMobil
- [11] Houston Public Media — 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo attendance
- [12] The Houston Art Car Parade (official site) — history & attendance
- [13] Wikipedia — NRG Stadium
- [14] Wikipedia — Daikin Park (Houston Astros ballpark, formerly Minute Maid Park)
- [15] Wikipedia — Toyota Center
- [16] Wikipedia — Space Center Houston
- [17] Wikipedia — The Galleria (Houston)
- [18] Goldfish DOOH Planning API — ad-format specs pull for the same 30-mile Houston plan footprint, pulled 2026-07-04
- [19] Mapbox Directions API — driving route geometry for the I-10, I-45, and US-59/I-69 corridors, pulled 2026-07-04
- [20] Goldfish DOOH Planning API — dedicated Houston→Galveston I-45 Gulf Freeway route-corridor plan (code QbeTiBnE2_g), 51-mile drive traced with Mapbox routing, resold programmatic inventory excluded so each screen is counted once, pulled 2026-07-04
Get Your Ad on Houston Screens
Every screen in the Houston market, one place to launch it. Run it yourself or let our team handle it — live in under 24 hours.
Get Your Ad on Houston Screens