Automotive Advertising: Why DOOH Matters More in the AI Era

By Scott Hansen - CRO Accretive Media

The car-buying journey is changing fast. Search still matters, but consumers are increasingly turning to AI tools for recommendations, comparisons and purchase guidance. That shift is making it harder for marketers to rely on traditional search metrics as the sole indicator of demand. 

A recent experience made this clear for me. My wife told me she needs a new car. The next day, she shared her “wishlist” and a few days later, I’m driving down I-75 and I get hit with a massive, tactfully placed billboard for one of the exact models she shared. In a matter of seconds,  the shopping process became real. Not because of another ad I ignored or a tiny SEM result, but because of a physical, unavoidable impression pushed us from awareness into active consideration. 

And importantly, the next stop was not Google search. It was conversational AI. I went straight to ChatGPT to start asking questions, comparing models, trims, and pressure-testing the decision. 

That AI-assisted behavior is no longer fringe. OpenAI says ChatGPT now serves more than 800 million weekly users, while Adobe research found AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites grew nearly 400% year over year in Q1 2026. That is not a side trend. That is a change in how discovery works. [1] [2] [3]

The impact on search behavior is already visible. Pew Research found that users clicked a traditional search result far less often when Google displayed AI summaries. That is a very real signal that classic search behavior is being reshaped before marketers have figured out how to measure it cleanly. [4]

Automotive is already moving this way. Cox Automotive found that 25% of new-vehicle buyers engaged AI tools during the shopping process, 59% reported high satisfaction with AI-powered assistance, and 83% of consumers say the rise of AI will impact car buying in the future. In other words, the funnel is still alive, but it is not as search-led, or as easily trackable, as many marketers want it to be. [5]

DOOH is the Unskippable Trigger in an AI-Shaped Funnel

That’s exactly why DOOH matters more now, not less.

In a fragmented media environment, DOOH has one major advantage: it is unskippable. And not just unskippable in theory. According to OAAA and  Harris Poll,  73% of consumers view DOOH favorably, 76% took action after recent DOOH exposure, and 74% of mobile users took action on their phones after seeing a DOOH ad. Those actions included 44% who searched for the advertiser and 38% who visited the advertiser’s website. That is not awareness for awareness’s sake. That is attention that moves people. [6] [7]

The market is voting the same way. OOH hit a record $9.46 billion in U.S. revenue in 2025, marking 19 consecutive quarters of growth, and DOOH accounted for 36.3% of total OOH revenue while growing 10.5% year over year. That is not legacy media hanging on. That is a modern channel proving it still has pricing power, relevance, and measurable impact. [8]

The Real-World nth Impression is What Moves the Buyer.

That brings me back to the board on I-75. That was the real-world nth impression. The one that moved me from casual awareness to active consideration. The board did not close the sale, and it did not need to. It created urgency. It made the vehicle feel immediate, real, worth investigating and it drove me to AI to continue researching.

That’s where marketers still misattribute value. Digital touchpoints often receive the credit because they are “easier” to measure, but the real-world impression is frequently what drives the consumer to take action in the first place. 

Automotive brands are still underinvested in the medium. OAAA and Benchmarketing modeling showed that increasing OOH from 1% to 5% of the media mix delivered nearly all of the modeled purchase-intent optimization and significantly improved total media ROAS. In other words, even modest increases in OOH investment can materially improve overall campaign performance. [9] [10]

Modern DOOH is Smarter Than Marketers Think

And contrary to outdated perceptions, OOH is highly measurable. Brands can evaluate web lift, dealership foot traffic, regional incrementality, branded search, VDP engagement, awareness, and downstream sales in near real time through modern attribution and measurement solutions. For automotive marketers, that means less guessing and a much clearer read on how OOH is helping drive shoppers onto your site and onto the lot. Measurement is not the barrier anymore. Habit is.

Venue mix also matters. Roadside billboards deliver scale and impact, while gas stations, malls, supermarkets, gyms, office corridors, and urban panels build frequency throughout everyday routines. The strength of modern OOH is not a single placement, it is sustained real-world visibility across environments where consumers actually spend time. 

What  Automotive Marketers Should do Next

The takeaway is clear: 

• Start measuring OOH and DOOH if you are not already. Not with vanity reporting. With real business outcomes.

• Stop evaluating OOH in isolation. The right question is not what the board did by itself. It is what it did to the rest of the mix.

• Accept that DOOH is not just a branding tool. It is often the real-world impression that makes search, site visits, AI-assisted research, and dealer engagement more likely.

• Increase OOH and DOOH budgets while the channel is still underweighted in many plans and undervalued relative to its influence.

  
  

The automotive funnel has not disappeared. It has simply become more fragmented, less linear, and increasingly influenced by AI-assisted discovery. In that environment, OOH and DOOH are becoming more valuable, not less. 

Sometimes the impression that truly moves a shopper is not a pre-roll, an IG post or SEM click. Sometimes it is a spectacular board on I-75.