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.
A billboard reaches people you can't confirm saw it. At the counter, every view is counted.
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.