DOOH Marketing
DOOH Creative Specs Guide
The complete 2026 specification for digital out-of-home creative — every standard dimension, accepted file format, motion and audio rule, safe-area guideline, and a pre-flight checklist. Free PDF download included.
Digital out-of-home creative fails for boringly preventable reasons: the wrong codec, a 1-pixel resolution mismatch, text outside the safe area, or audio in a sound-off venue. This guide is the spec sheet we hand to every brand and agency before they upload a single asset to a DOOH campaign. It covers seven design principles we apply to DOOH creative, the slot dimensions most often seen in live programmatic inventory, commonly accepted file formats, motion and audio guidance, safe-area and typography recommendations, how creative reaches screens programmatically, and a pre-flight QA checklist. Treat everything here as planning guidance. Final creative requirements are set per publisher, per integration and per deal, so confirm the spec sheet for the placements you actually buy before final production.
Writing and designing the ad? See our DOOH creative best practices.
DOOH Creative Specifications Guide
A reference download. It was not revised in this update, so where it differs from this page, this page is the current version — and the publisher’s own spec sheet for your deal overrides both.
Seven design principles for DOOH creative
1. The 3-second rule. Highway billboards and urban panels deliver 3–7 seconds of viewing time. The core message — brand, value, call-to-action — must be absorbable in a single glance.
2. Contrast before color. Outdoor screens compete with direct sunlight. WCAG AAA contrast (7:1) is a safe floor for any text smaller than 60% of frame height.
3. Minimum text size. Use 1 inch of letter height per 10 feet of viewing distance as a baseline. For a 14×48 bulletin viewed at 500 ft, that is roughly 50-inch caps.
4. Motion with purpose. Animate to draw attention to the message, never as decoration.
5. Respect dwell time. Highway, taxi-top, and pump-top get one beat. Doctor's offices, EV chargers, and gym cardio screens allow longer narrative and direct-response prompts.
6. Brand-first composition. Logo, product, and brand color block should occupy the upper-left or center third — that is the area screens crop least across networks.
7. Test at real distance. Print a proof, tape it to a wall, view from 30 feet. If the message fails at 30 ft on paper it will fail at 300 ft on glass.
File formats, codecs & color
| Asset type | Accepted formats | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Static image | JPEG (baseline), PNG-24 | sRGB color space. Flatten layers. No alpha channel required. |
| Animated | MP4 (H.264, High Profile), MOV (H.264) | Constant frame rate 25 or 30 fps. No B-frames on some SSPs. |
| Audio (limited) | AAC-LC inside MP4 | Only on venues that allow sound (gyms, bars, some retail). Default to muted creative. |
| Avoid | GIF, WebP, HEIC, ProRes, AVI | Commonly unsupported. Accepted formats are set per integration and per deal — check your spec sheet. |
| Color profile | sRGB IEC61966-2.1 | Wide-gamut profiles get clipped. Strip embedded ICC if possible. |
| Max bitrate (video) | 8–12 Mbps | Higher bitrates are downsampled by the SSP and waste file budget. |
Standard slot dimensions
Planning examples: dimensions seen most often in the Goldfish Ads slot-dimension catalog. These are not final specifications for any particular screen — build to the resolution named on your deal’s spec sheet.
| Dimension (px) | Aspect | Typical venue / format |
|---|---|---|
| 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 landscape | Bulletins, posters, in-store retail, bar & restaurant TVs, office lobby, gym cardio |
| 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 portrait | Urban panels, bus shelters, gas pump tops, mall directories, salon/barber, elevator |
| 2160 × 1080 | 2:1 landscape | Mid-size digital posters, transit interiors |
| 1280 × 720 | 16:9 landscape | Legacy HD screens, in-office, doctor waiting rooms |
| 720 × 1280 | 9:16 portrait | Lower-res portrait panels in QSR & convenience |
| 1366 × 768 | ~16:9 | Office lobby and elevator screens |
| 1024 × 768 | 4:3 landscape | Legacy place-based and in-store |
| 768 × 1024 | 3:4 portrait | Salon and small retail portrait |
| 3840 × 2160 | 16:9 UHD | Premium spectaculars, large-format bulletins |
| 1920 × 540 | 32:9 ultrawide | Taxi tops, rideshare cartops, transit headers |
| 1400 × 400 | 3.5:1 ultrawide | Highway LED ribbons, stadium fascia |
| 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 square | Pump-top secondary, mall kiosk side panels |
| 1080 × 2400 | 9:20 tall portrait | Skinny urban panels & column wraps |
| 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 QHD | Newer office and gym installs |
If the publisher’s exact resolution differs by a few pixels (e.g. 1088×1920), ask whether they accept the nearest standard above. Some integrations rescale or letterbox for you; others expect the native resolution.
Specs by venue format
Planning examples by environment, not final specifications. File-size limits and maximum spot lengths vary by publisher and by deal, so they are shown as “Confirm with publisher” rather than stated as universal numbers.
Digital Billboard / Bulletin
Keep all text in the centre 80% of frame — edge areas may be cropped on some units.
Poster (Mid-Size Billboard)
Viewed at shorter distance than bulletins — slightly smaller text is acceptable.
Gas Station Pump Top
Large text required — viewed at arm's length in direct sunlight. High contrast is critical.
Gym / Cardio Screens
Bright ambient light in many facilities — use high contrast. Motion generally holds attention better than static in cardio environments.
Urban Panels / Bus Shelters
Viewed in direct sunlight from 5–15 feet. Maximum contrast. Minimum 60pt equivalent text.
Airport Terminal
Usually sound-off. All messaging should be readable from 20+ feet. Keep copy to 5 words or fewer.
Office Building Lobby / Elevator
Premium environment — brand-building creative usually reads better than promotional language.
Taxi / Rideshare Top
Extremely short dwell. Single visual, single message.
EV Charging Stations
Higher dwell time than most formats — longer loops are often acceptable. Audience is captive with minimal competing stimuli.
Subway / Transit Platform
High ambient noise — usually sound-off. Motion draws attention effectively on platform screens.
Animation, motion & loop rules
- Constant frame rate: 25 or 30 fps is the safe default. Mixed frame rates are a common rejection reason, but the rule is set per SSP and per deal.
- No flashing faster than 3 Hz — required by US DOT for roadside inventory and most municipal ordinances.
- First and last frames should be the brand lockup. Many networks freeze the final frame between loops.
- Loops must be seamless if the spot runs back-to-back (in-store, pump-top).
- Avoid full-screen white flashes — visually fatiguing in transit and place-based environments.
- Subtle motion (one animated element) outperforms full-motion video on attention metrics in glance-only environments (highway, urban panel, transit).
Audio policy
Treat DOOH as a sound-off medium by default. Every message must work muted. Audio is permitted on a minority of inventory — primarily gyms, some bars, select EV chargers, and a handful of mall installations. When delivering an audio version, supply a parallel muted master so the SSP can serve the right version per venue.
Safe area, typography & contrast
Safe area
Keep all critical text, logos and CTAs inside the inner 80% of the canvas. Networks crop differently — what looks centered on a 1920×1080 master may be cropped on a 1888×1062 panel. Bleed background art to the full frame.
Typography minimums
- Headline: ≥ 8% of frame height (≈ 86 px on 1080p)
- Body / legal: ≥ 3% of frame height (≈ 32 px on 1080p) — only in long-dwell venues
- Avoid serifs at small sizes — they smear in motion blur and on lower-pitch LED.
Contrast
- Foreground vs. background: contrast ratio ≥ 7:1 (WCAG AAA) for any text under 10% of frame height.
- Test in direct sunlight on a phone screen at max brightness — that is the closest free approximation of an outdoor LED in daylight.
Programmatic / DSP creative ingestion
Programmatic DOOH generally ingests creative through OpenRTB with the DOOH extension, but what the route accepts is integration-specific, so one master is rarely valid everywhere. For the platform-specific DV360 workflow — deal, line-item type, creative handling and reporting — see our DV360 guide. For other routes, work from the publisher or SSP spec sheet for the deal you bought (primary source links are listed at the end of this guide).
What the DSP needs from you
- Master file at the correct dimensions (see standard dimensions table above).
- Spot length in seconds (8, 10, 15, 30).
- Click-through URL — used for measurement attribution even though there is no click. Use a unique URL per creative variant for reporting.
- Third-party impression / measurement pixels (Nielsen DAR, Comscore, Adsquare, Geopath) if used.
- Industry / category code (IAB content taxonomy) for content-adjacency filtering.
Approval timing
Approval timing is set by the SSP and publisher on your deal — Vistar Media, for example, runs its own resizing and approval process. Build in extra time for premium spectaculars and airport inventory, and for cannabis, alcohol, pharma, gaming and political creative, which need category-specific and per-state policy review. Ask for the deadline in writing.
Pre-flight QA checklist
- All files named per the convention: Brand_Campaign_WxH_Length_Version_Date.ext
- sRGB color profile, no embedded ICC
- Constant frame rate, 25 or 30 fps
- Spot length matches the slot booked (most commonly 15 seconds)
- Static fallback supplied for every motion spot
- All text inside 80% safe area
- Brand visible in the first second and the last frame
- Tested at viewing distance on a real screen, not just monitor preview
- Audio muted by default (or audio + muted master pair supplied)
- No regulated-category claims that violate state law (alcohol, cannabis, gambling, pharma)
- Creative delivered by the publisher’s stated deadline for this deal
Frequently asked questions
The questions brands and agencies ask us most often before delivering DOOH creative.
What are the standard DOOH ad sizes in 2026?+
The most common resolutions transacted programmatically are 1920×1080 (16:9 landscape, used for bulletins, in-store, bar/restaurant TVs, gym, office lobby), 1080×1920 (9:16 portrait, used for urban panels, bus shelters, gas-pump tops, mall directories), 1920×540 (32:9 ultrawide, used for taxi tops and rideshare cartops), and 3840×2160 (UHD spectaculars). Always deliver at the panel's native resolution when possible; SSPs letterbox anything within a few pixels of the standard.
What file formats does DOOH accept?+
Static creative: JPEG (baseline) or PNG-24 in the sRGB color space. Animated creative: MP4 (H.264 High Profile) or MOV (H.264) at a constant 25 or 30 fps. GIF, WebP, HEIC, ProRes and AVI are not accepted by most DOOH SSPs, but accepted formats are set per integration and per deal. Always check the spec sheet for the placement you bought. For the DV360 workflow specifically, see our guide at /tips/dv360.
How long should a DOOH ad spot be?+
Programmatic DOOH transacts in 8, 10, 15, and 30-second spots. 15 seconds is the dominant length across roadside, urban panels, transit, and place-based inventory. Long-dwell environments — gyms, doctor's offices, EV chargers, salons — support 30 seconds. Highway and taxi-top inventory should treat the message as a glance: under 5 seconds of comprehension time.
Do DOOH ads need audio?+
No. DOOH is a sound-off medium by default. Every creative must work fully muted. Audio is supported on a minority of venues — primarily gyms, some bars, select EV chargers, and a handful of mall installations. When delivering an audio version, supply a parallel muted master so the SSP can serve the right version per venue.
What is the safe area for DOOH creative?+
Keep all critical text, logos, and CTAs inside the inner 80% of the canvas. Networks crop and rescale differently — what looks centered on a 1920×1080 master can be cropped on a 1888×1062 publisher panel. Background art should bleed to the full frame.
How small can text be on a DOOH ad?+
Use 1 inch of letter height per 10 feet of viewing distance as the baseline. For a 14×48 bulletin viewed at 500 ft, that is roughly 50-inch caps. Inside digital, headlines should be at least 8% of frame height (≈86 px on a 1080p canvas). Body copy and legal under 3% of frame height should only be used in long-dwell venues like waiting rooms or gym cardio screens.
How far in advance do DOOH creative assets need to be delivered?+
Review time is set by the SSP and the publisher, not by a single industry rule — Vistar Media, for example, runs its own resizing and approval process. As a planning recommendation, deliver creative several business days before flight start, and allow extra time for premium spectaculars, airport inventory and regulated categories (alcohol, cannabis, pharma, gaming, political), which need publisher-side and per-state policy review. Confirm the actual deadline with the publisher on your deal.
What is the recommended naming convention for DOOH creative files?+
Use Brand_Campaign_WxH_Length_Version_Date.ext — for example Acme_Spring_1920x1080_15s_v2_2026-04-01.mp4. A consistent naming convention dramatically reduces trafficking errors, makes per-version reporting possible, and prevents the wrong cut being served when SSP review batches multiple assets.
Can I use the same creative for OOH, DOOH, and CTV?+
No — and you shouldn't try. DOOH is sound-off, glance-only, served at variable resolutions, and viewed in public environments. CTV is sound-on, attentive, served at fixed 16:9, and viewed in private environments. Static OOH has unlimited dwell but no motion. Adapt the message, pacing, and end-frame for each channel. The shared brand system (color, logo, type) should stay constant; the execution should not.
How do programmatic DOOH platforms ingest creative?+
Programmatic DOOH generally uses OpenRTB with the DOOH extension: you upload a master to your DSP, and the DSP passes it to the SSPs it is integrated with. What happens next is integration-specific, and there is no single master that is automatically valid everywhere. For the DV360 workflow specifically, see our guide at /tips/dv360.
Take this guide with you
Download the full PDFRequirements differ by integration. Primary sources: Google DV360 DOOH inventory · DV360 creative specification (per ad unit) · Vistar Media creative best practices · Broadsign Reach creatives