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Chicago Billboard Cost & Locations

Chicago, like any big city, is not easy to maneuver—there are many different neighborhoods with different audiences, waiting to hear about your brand. Lucky for you, we are the neighborhood experts, with market competitive pricing. Read below for more information about billboard cost factors, billboard prices, strategies for targeting by location, and audience metrics.

How Much Does A Billboard Cost?

Billboard prices are not often understood by many business owners and even seasoned marketers. Since outdoor advertising is so flexible and personalized to your demands and goals, prices depend on the following factors:

The Location Of The Billboard

Billboard prices depend largely on location. You’ll never pay the same amount for a billboard in Cheyenne, Wyoming, because the population in Chicago is much larger. Even within Chicago, there are areas that are more densely populated than others, and those locations will also change the cost. In essence, keep in mind that the busier a location, the more expensive it will be, while less busy locations are often more affordable. 

The Format Of Billboard

At View Chicago, we have five different formats to fit your advertising needs. Each format has different strengths based on their size, shape, and their strategic approaches. Our neighborhood signs like our HotSpots and Wild Postings and our Street Furniture Panels are smaller than our other billboards, but they pack a hyperlocal punch and reach your audience where they live. Our larger formats, like our Wallscapes and Bus Wraps, make bigger and bolder impressions which is why they’re most costly. 

The Audiences You Are Trying To Reach 

Audiences are not all the same. Some audiences have higher buying power, which means they are more likely to make purchases and engage with your brand. With more disposable income, these audiences are more expensive because they are more likely to invest in your products. In Chicago, this can boil down to specific blocks or intersections where affluent audiences live. 

The Quantity Of Ad Spots

The larger the quantity of billboards you select, the more your value increases. This is where you get to make strategic choices, because for the price of one Wallscape you can select multiple Street Furniture panels instead. Depending on the results you seek, you can select different strategies and use your marketing budget wisely. 

The Length Of Time You Want The Billboard To Run

At View Chicago, we rent billboards for a period of 4 weeks at a time. If you’d like to limit your billboard by that time, you can save yourself some overall cost. Advertisers who are looking to promote an event or a seasonal product are often able to do this. The longer you keep your billboard up however, the more value you get from the marketing campaign based on pricing deals we can provide you. However, we are always flexible and can change ad copy halfway through your campaign to get you better results. 

How Soon You Were Looking To Start

When you start your campaign, there are several situations to consider. If you’re looking for a rush job, that might increase the price because it’s more expensive to print and set up a billboard campaign in a hurry. Another element to consider is the season during which you are starting your campaign. A summer campaign in Chicago is more likely to cost more than a campaign during January or February, colder months when people aren’t spending as much time outdoors. 

Pricing

Here’s a rough breakdown of billboards and other outdoor advertising signs in Chicago with an approximate cost range:

Let’s break these prices down for a minute. If you take a look at our Street Furniture (Bus Shelters), the price is similar to our neighborhood signs like HotSpots. This opens up strategic options. For instance, with a budget of $5000, you could invest completely in Street Furniture, a combination of Street Furniture and Hotspots, or you could make a big splash with a Wallscape in one location. Everything depends on the results you seek and the Chicago audience you want to reach.

The ranges are broad and the price within that range will largely depend on the particulars of your campaign. We are here to make the campaign fit your advertising goals and your budgetary needs. When you speak to one of our local experts, we can craft a custom quote for you and give you exact numbers depending on your campaign objectives.

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Is The Price of Billboards Worth It?

There are so many advertising options out there, including social media, TV, and radio. Why, then, invest in an OOH campaign? The truth is, OOH is cost-efficient, increases engagement on other media platforms, and increases your reach. 

Cost Efficiency

Cost-per-impression, or CPM, is the way advertisers compare the entry cost of each advertising medium. OOH has the lowest CPM of traditional formats, very similar to some forms of online advertising. For example, CPM for outdoor advertising is often between $3 and $8, while other forms of advertising can go up to $17 per thousand impressions. Furthermore, OOH brings you quality impressions—these are real people with measurable demographics, which you can then use to improve the quality of your marketing campaign. 

And it’s not just CPM. Outdoor advertising brings you a return on your investment. For every $1 spent, you’ll make $2.80 back in returns. An investment in OOH really makes financial sense. 

Engagement

The true marker of efficiency is whether or not your audience takes actions after seeing your advertisements. Outdoor advertising is incredibly effective here as well. After seeing an OOH ad, 35% of people looked up information on the advertiser via a search engine, 22% used an advertised coupon or discount code, and another 22% pulled up the advertiser’s website. OOH is also great at driving actions in the real world, causing people to visit stores, call phone numbers, or recommend products to others.

OOH isn’t just effective on its own, but it also increases the efficacy of other advertising media. Out-of-home ads have been found to increase the potency of online campaigns by 40% and TV ads by over 300%. An investment in OOH is worth it because it makes your marketing campaigns stronger as a whole. 

Reach

Other traditional media have trouble reaching their target audience. OOH doesn’t have that problem. 91% of US residents over the age of sixteen report noticing outdoor advertising. 79% of them report noticing an OHH in the past week. This is a powerful reach that is worth the cost. 

If They Do It…

If all of these factors don’t convince you, take a look at the top brands using OOH. If the biggest companies in the United States think OOH is necessary for their campaigns, you’ll know it’s a winning strategy. You don’t have to be a huge company to use outdoor advertising to grow your brand. 

How To Choose A Billboard Location In Chicago

Location is the name of the game. What good is it to spend money on advertising if you won’t reach your (future) customers? 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you target by location: 

What’s Around the Billboard?

If there are a lot of competing outdoor ads in this location, your price is likely to be lower than other locations. However, lively locations with a lot of action (near restaurants and other active businesses) can actually give your ad more bang for our buck because there are more eyes to catch. Furthermore, you might be interested in advertising where your competition advertises and fight their growth. 

How Fast is Traffic Going?

Generally speaking, ad locations where traffic is slower will have a higher cost because it means people are spending more time looking at your ad. This applies to vehicles but also to pedestrians. As mentioned above, ad spots near restaurants and other businesses that slow down pedestrian traffic can be more powerful because they make your audience spend more time engaging with your brand. 

How Visible Is It?

Visibility is key with outdoor ads. For some formats, street-level ads are more efficient because they catch your audience at eye-level, like our Wild Postings. On the other hand, a Wallscape in a higher location might be visible for much longer distances, and could get you more impressions than a smaller neighborhood sign. The more impressions your ad receives, the higher the price. 

What Are Your Strategic Options?

This is where you really get to make your campaign your own, and where the results you seek take a front seat. Are you looking to make a big impression to millions on the side of a highway? Or would you rather make a surgical approach and target a specific audience frequently? This will determine how much your investment will be. 

For instance, if you are looking to target trendy millennials in Chicago, there are several paths you could take. We could set you up with some Wild Postings close to where your audience lives, giving your campaign a hyperlocal approach. Or we could set you up with a Bus Wraps, making a big impression near your audience’s workplace. 

Depending on your target demographic, you might consider different creative. For instance, if you wanted to advertise in an area with a lot of Spanish speakers, we can help you create ad copy in Spanish to reach that audience more effectively. Location doesn’t have to be a burden—rather, it can be an opportunity.

The options are truly endless—it all depends on your needs and your goals.

Perks of Targeting By Location

Save Money

If you know where your audience is, you can focus your budget in those specific locations without overspending. We can help you target specific locations and keep you under budget. 

Location-Specific Ads

Customers respond to personalized ads based on location with messages like “Delicious sandwiches two blocks ahead” or “Find us in Pilsen”. These messages are especially effective because their purpose is clear and simple. No need to go online or make a purchase—all the audience has to do is find your location. 

Different Neighborhood, Different Campaign

You might want to change the ad based on the location. If you’re advertising in a Hispanic neighborhood, why not change your messaging to Spanish? There are many options if you are aware of your location’s strengths.

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Cost & Audiences

Here we’ll go a bit more in depth as to how we measure impressions. Because the value of outdoor advertisements goes up depending on impressions, it’s important to know the ins-and-outs of audience metrics.

Demographics

When looking at a possible ad location, the first audience consideration is demographics. Demographics are the categories of people who are likely to see the ad. This could be a group of people who lives or works around the ad location, or commutes through the spot. Demographics contains information about age, gender, income level, marital status, and much more. The goal is to help you see who your ad will be targeting. 

Circulation

Circulation is traffic. If an area is busy, that means more people are likely to see that ad. The information for circulation comes from audited sources like Geopath, so it’s trustworthy and reliable. Ads located in busy areas are worth more (and cost more) because they have more potential to make impactful impressions. 

Impressions

Impressions are the amount of people that see or engage with your ad. These metrics are collected through various means. (OOH is more tech-savvy than you might think!) Based on these numbers, we can determine how effective your campaign is. The more impressions an ad receives, the more it will cost because we can demonstrate it catches real eyes, not fake impressions as has happened with online advertising. 

Additional Costs

In some cases, there are additional costs to starting an OOH campaign, though these may be included in your quote. 

Design

Designing a creative takes time and effort, and you might have to pay extra for that. Some large companies have designers they already work with, and having them create the ad copy for a billboard campaign is no extra expense. However, for smaller businesses without design experience, we can help you design a creative that fits your branding and messaging.

Materials

As you know, billboards are physical sheets that are displayed in specific paneling. The vinyl itself and the printing costs vary from format to format, but they can range up to $800. As mentioned above, talk to one of our local experts to find out what your cost might be. 

Installation

Finally, the billboard needs to be installed in its proper location. This cost is often not very expensive but it’s something to keep in mind. As always, check with one of our billboard experts to learn more about any additional costs you may incur. 

Why Choose View Chicago

We Are the Chicago Experts

At View Chicago, we are the neighborhood experts. We are born and bred in Chicago, and we know this city. Based on the demographics you are looking to target, we can give you several options, both within the city and in the suburbs. 

We have worked with some of the biggest companies in the United States, including McDonald’s, PayPal, Adidas, OkCupid, Uber, AT&T, Spotify. The list is endless. They choose us because we have a deep knowledge of Chicago that other companies cannot provide. 

We’re Small, But We Do Big Business

Our team is small, but that just means you won’t get lost in a sea of interns. We do all of our business ourselves. For a small business, we manage 1,500 advertising displays in the Chicago DMA, and we have excellent customer service. 

We Work To Get Your Results

We are here to make your company successful, so we make custom-based packages for our clients in order to stay within budget. We get you the right locations for the right cost. Look no further if you want to start a successful OOH campaign in Chicago. 

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Industry Outlook for 2021

The behavioral health industry is growing thanks to an increased acceptance of mental health treatment. Digital solutions like EMRs are perfectly poised to improve the industry both for patients and clinicians. Alleva is ready to help behavioral health facilities in 2021.

Behavioral Health Market Growth

Behavioral health doesn’t always get the attention it deserves because it focuses on mental health and wellbeing rather than physical health conditions for which we have medicinal treatments. It’s not as simple to treat depression or substance abuse because it requires psychological intervention, whereas heart disease doesn’t. This distinction has made all the conditions surrounding behavioral health—funding, research, authorization—different. 

The problem with this distinction is that behavioral health conditions are often tied to physical health conditions. We are learning that physical health conditions affect a person’s mental health and well-being, and a person’s mental health can lead them to develop physical health conditions. This is why addressing behavioral health is incredibly important, and why providing quality support for treatment centers can improve our society’s well-being.


Public awareness and acceptance of mental health treatment make behavioral health more accessible, thus increasing the market size. Experts estimate the behavioral health market will be worth around $240 billion by 2026. Due to the amount of money being poured into the industry, many companies will come and go. Only the ones that provide quality care and support will stay relevant. 

Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes

But not everything is about money. Because we are talking about behavioral health, the most important aspect of this growth is: how will this affect patients and clinicians? 


There are specific goals for the behavioral health industry that are directly tied to improving the lives of their patients and making clinicians’ work easier. One of the ways in which the industry is working to make mental health more accessible is through the increased attention toward digital tools and solutions. During the pandemic, a lot of people experienced mental health symptoms that needed immediate attention, but social distancing guidelines prevented them from addressing those concerns by going to a treatment center. Telehealth and other digital tools were imperative during this time of need and will continue to grow as people realize the power these digital solutions have to help treat behavioral health concerns.


One of the best digital tools to help behavioral health management is electronic medical records (EMR). EMRs help improve communication between patients and healthcare providers, increasing the efficacy and productivity of treatment centers. Alleva’s EMR even includes telehealth options through video conferencing, making communication and scheduling even more effortless. At the end of the day, behavioral health management software like EMR helps treatment centers reduce costs related to substance abuse and other behavioral health concerns. 

Challenges for Clinicians

An important part of improving mental health outcomes and increasing the effectiveness of behavioral health is helping clinicians. The industry can help clinicians by educating them on ways to better measure behavioral health outcomes. Once clinicians understand what they are measuring and how they should define measurement-based care, they’ll be much more prepared to see what that would look like at the level of their treatment center but also at the individual level. 


We must also keep in mind that clinicians are also prone to suffer from distress, especially during a pandemic where many people are in a desperate search for care and treatment. Clinicians are facing more patients, more meetings, more forms. And they’ve seen the struggle first-hand, some of them working from home, dealing with family members who may have been infected with COVID-19, and other stressors that come from balancing work and home life. As the behavioral health market grows, we must do our best to help clinicians with their increased workload. 


One simple solution to help clinicians is to help establish digital tools like EMR in behavioral health facilities. EMRs help reduce paperwork and organize data. Clinicians can easily review information without having to go through mountains of paperwork. EMRs also make scheduling easier, and with virtual appointments, clinicians can see more patients, give them better quality care, and not feel the burnout that comes from juggling many patients in person. Clinicians can easily communicate with patients and share their insights to help keep their patients healthy while avoiding the distress of mental health work during the pandemic. 

Alleva is Ready for 2021

As the behavioral health industry grows during the next few years, digital solutions will be necessary to make the workload manageable. Our friendly EMR helps with scheduling, charts, medication management, and gives you data in easy-to-read formats. And if you ever need to contact a patient, our video conferencing feature lets you hold appointments virtually. 


2021 will be a busy year for behavioral health providers. Let us make it easier. 


If you’d like to learn more, schedule a demo for Alleva and see how we help the helpers. 

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NATSAP Requires Accreditation from Members

It all begins with an idea.

NATSAP, an organization of therapeutic centers and programs, has announced that it will be requiring all of its members to be accredited. 


So, what does this mean for you? What is accreditation, and how can you obtain it? We’ve prepared a short guide explaining the change and how you can stay one step ahead of the curve. 

NATSAP’s New Decision

The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, or NATSAP, was created in 1999 as a resource available throughout the United States for programs and centers helping young people with behavioral and emotional burdens. 


Currently, NATSAP serves only as a resource and not as an organization that checks for compliance. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of the programs that boast NATSAP membership, the board voted in October to make all members follow accreditation procedures.


Fortunately, your center has three years to obtain accreditation: the deadline is January 1st, 2023. Furthermore, NATSAP has committed to helping organizations gain the accreditation they need. They have samples of policies that satisfy accreditation criteria and mentoring programs to help newer organizations navigate accreditation. Of course, you have to be a member of NATSAP to obtain these resources. 


According to NATSAP, accreditation can be obtained by any of the following groups:


Here at Alleva, we have recommended CARF and the Joint Commission for accreditation purposes. Both are excellent choices for your accreditation needs, but their requirements are somewhat different. Our advice is to learn about both in order to pick the one that works best for you. 

Accreditation & Why It Matters

Why is NATSAP suddenly requiring accreditation? The truth is, this has been in the works for some time. As an organization devoted to therapeutic programs and centers, best practices often require rigorous enforcing of evidence-based procedures. If you’re accredited, it means that your program or center has been deemed satisfactory to provide the treatments you offer. 


For this reason, accreditation often cultivates safety and efficacy. By making all members accredited, NATSAP gains more credibility and authority when it comes to advocating for centers and programs like yours. 


However, you may find yourself wondering: is accreditation worth it?


Accreditation does take some work, but the end result is powerful. Not only does it force you to take a look at how your organization is running, but it puts you in the shoes of your patients. By doing so, you are taking a personal approach to your treatments, and you are getting first-hand experience of what your patients are going through so you can provide the best quality service you are able to offer. 


Promoting your accreditation status also has benefits outside of the treatment you offer. It immediately strengthens confidence in your center and your programs because they have been vetted by trusted organizations, and it also provides a boost in your marketing since you can boast accreditation that another facility may not have. 


Smaller benefits include improving risk management, a reduction in liability insurance, continued support from your accreditation organization, and improved recruitment efforts, since employees always want to work at more respected organizations and accreditation is one way of gaining respect in the industry. 


“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

  • William A. Foster

Before applying, our advice is to do as much research as you can on the process and which accreditation body you would prefer to work with. 


After reviewing the requirements for accreditation, analyze your center and programs yourself in order to discover the areas where you may need improvement. Go through the process internally and involve your staff, making sure everyone is aware of the caliber of service you need to offer to obtain accreditation. 


Once you have discovered some potential areas for improvement, make a plan or systematized effort to implement changes, and decide when these need to be completed by. The survey by the accreditation body can take up to one year to be scheduled, so you may have some extra time, but ideally, you would start diagnosing your program as soon as possible. 


One of the benefits of working with an accreditation body is that they provide feedback from a perspective of experience and guidance. They want to help, and you can collaborate with them to designate areas for improvement and implementation suggestions. 

How Alleva Helps With Accreditation

Alleva can help with accreditation in numerous ways. We can help you digitize forms, which leads to less lost paperwork and prepares you for compliance checks. 


By digitizing your practice, you gain our expertise and digital tools that will grow and change with your program in an industry that is constantly evolving. Not to mention—we have extensive experience helping clients through the accreditation process. Everything, including accreditation, is easier when it’s digitized and organized. 


If you want to learn more about Alleva, request a demo today and see what we can do to help.

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