Comparison
Counter advertising vs traditional out-of-home.
Traditional out-of-home puts your brand on a roadside billboard for a one-second glance. Counter advertising puts it full screen on the payment terminal, at the moment someone pays - 15 to 30 seconds of captive attention, and every view counted, not modelled.
Billboards buy you reach you hope was seen. The counter buys you attention you can count.
Side by side
The channels, compared.
| Tap (counter) | Traditional billboard | Roadside / transit DOOH | Social & display | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attention | Captive, at the counter | Passing | Passing | Scroll-past |
| Dwell | 15-30s¹ | ~1s | ~1-2s | Variable |
| Viewability | 100%, full screen | Weather / angle dependent | High | Often partial |
| Ad blockers | None | None | None | Up to ~35%² |
| Fake traffic | None - a real view | None | None | A known issue |
| Measurement | Verified, counted | Modelled | Modelled | Counted but gameable |
| Targeting | Geo + category + audience + site | Geo | Geo + daypart | Broad + behavioural |
| Purchase proximity | At point of sale | In transit | In transit | Anywhere |
| Exclusivity | Exclusive or shared | Shared | Shared rotation | Shared auction |
| Trackable response | QR scan, Tap-counted | None | Rare | Click |
1 · Dwell: Lumen Research / JCDecaux. 2 · Ad-blocking: eMarketer, 2025.
Where each channel wins.
No channel wins everything. Here is the honest split.
Billboards win
When you want city-scale fame and unmissable presence, and you don't need to prove who saw it.
Social and display win
For precise digital targeting and instant clicks - if you can accept that a real slice of the spend never reaches a person.
The counter wins
When you want captive, fraud-free attention at the one moment a customer is paying, plus a trackable scan - without the waste you model around online.
The basics
Out-of-home, explained.
What is out-of-home advertising?
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising reaches people in public, away from their own screens - billboards, transit, street furniture and in-store screens. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is the screen-based version, which can change creative by time, place and audience.
What is counter, or point-of-sale, advertising?
Counter advertising runs full-screen on the payment terminal and POS screen a customer faces while they pay. It is a form of digital out-of-home placed at the point of sale, where attention is captive and each view is counted, not modelled.
How is out-of-home advertising measured?
Traditional out-of-home is measured by modelled audience estimates - how many people probably passed. On Tap, an impression is a real view we count while your ad runs: counted, not modelled, with an optional QR scan as a tracked response.
See the counter for yourself.
Tell us who you want to reach and we'll build a plan. A real person replies, and there's no obligation.