How to Measure Digital Signage ROI

Investing in digital signage involves more than purchasing screens and installing software. Businesses also invest in content, infrastructure, installation, training, maintenance, and the time it takes to manage the system.

So how do you know whether that investment is working?

Measuring digital signage ROI isn’t always as simple as comparing the cost of a system with the revenue it generates. In some environments, increased sales may be the goal. In others, digital signage is designed to improve communication, increase participation, make information easier to find, or create a better experience for employees, customers, and visitors.

The key is deciding what success looks like before you try to measure it.

What Does Digital Signage ROI Really Mean?

Traditional return on investment is a financial calculation comparing the profit generated by an investment with its cost. That works well when an investment has a clear financial return.

Digital signage can be different.

A retail display promoting a specific product may have a measurable connection to sales. But what is the financial value of helping visitors find their destination faster? What is an employee announcement worth if it increases participation in a company program? How do you assign a dollar amount to a better customer experience?

Those outcomes still have value even when they don’t immediately appear as revenue.

For that reason, measuring digital signage ROI should include both financial results, when appropriate, and the communication or business outcomes the signage was designed to support.

Start With the Total Cost of Your Digital Signage

Before measuring the return, you need to understand the investment.

Depending on the system, digital signage costs may include:

• Displays, screens, and media players
• Content management software
• Network, power, cabling, and other infrastructure
• Installation and system setup
• Training
• Content creation and design
• Content subscriptions
• Support and maintenance
• Staff time required to create, schedule, and manage content

Looking at the complete investment gives you a much more useful baseline than considering hardware costs alone.

Define What You Want the Digital Signage to Accomplish

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is installing digital signage without first identifying what you want it to do.

“Give people information” is not a particularly useful goal because it’s difficult to measure.

A stronger objective might be to:

• Increase participation in events or programs
• Promote specific products or services
• Reduce repetitive questions from customers or visitors
• Improve wayfinding through a building or facility
• Increase employee awareness of company initiatives
• Drive visitors to a website, landing page, or online resource
• Improve the customer or guest experience
• Encourage a specific action

Once the objective is clear, it becomes much easier to determine what you should measure.

Choose KPIs That Match Your Goal

There isn’t one universal metric for digital signage success. The right key performance indicators depend on what the signage is supposed to accomplish.

For example, a digital display promoting an event could be measured by registrations or attendance. A screen encouraging customers to visit a landing page could be measured through website traffic. Retail signage may be connected to product sales, while workplace communications might be evaluated through employee participation or feedback.

Useful digital signage KPIs can include:

• Sales of promoted products or services
• Event registrations and attendance
• QR code scans
• Website or landing page visits
• Form submissions
• Coupon or promotional code redemptions
• Customer or employee feedback
• Participation in internal programs
• Changes in commonly asked questions or service requests

The goal isn’t to collect as much data as possible. It’s to collect information that tells you whether the signage is helping achieve the objective you established.

Use Clear Calls to Action to Make Results Easier to Measure

One of the simplest ways to make digital signage more measurable is to give viewers a clear next step.

A call to action can turn a passive message into something you can track. Depending on the campaign, that might mean scanning a QR code, visiting a specific web page, registering for an event, using a promotional code, completing a form, or visiting a particular location.

When possible, use a unique QR code, URL, promotional code, or other tracking method specifically for the digital signage campaign. This makes it easier to separate responses generated by the signage from other marketing channels.

Measure Engagement and Experience, Too

Not every valuable result can be measured through clicks or sales.

Digital signage is frequently used to communicate with employees, visitors, students, patients, tenants, and other audiences. In those situations, feedback can be just as important as analytics.

Surveys, interviews, employee feedback, customer comments, and observations can help answer questions such as:

• Are people noticing and using the displays?
• Is the information useful?
• Is it easier for people to find what they need?
• Do viewers understand the message?
• Is the signage improving their experience?

These qualitative measures can provide context that numbers alone may not capture.

Compare Results and Improve Over Time

Measuring digital signage ROI shouldn’t happen only once.

Establish a baseline whenever possible, then compare results after the signage or campaign is introduced. Continue reviewing performance to see which messages, placements, calls to action, and types of content produce the strongest response.

Digital signage has an advantage over many traditional signs because content can be changed without replacing the entire display. If something isn’t working, you can adjust the message, creative, timing, or call to action and measure what happens next.

The Best Measure of Digital Signage ROI Depends on Your Goal

There is no single percentage that can tell every organization whether its digital signage investment is successful.

For some businesses, the answer will be increased sales. For others, it may be stronger employee communication, increased participation, easier navigation, better customer engagement, or a more informed audience.

Start with a specific objective, understand the full investment, choose meaningful KPIs, and build measurement into the campaign from the beginning. That gives you useful information you can act on instead of statistics that simply look good in a report.

BLR Visual Communications helps businesses and organizations plan digital signage solutions around the way their spaces and audiences actually work. Contact BLR to discuss a digital signage project for your organization.

This article was originally published with content attributed to Debbie Wilson-DeWitt of Digital Signage Today and has been substantially updated and expanded by BLR Visual Communications.