DOOH, billboards or Google Maps: best ROI in 2026

In 2026, a local business in Kyiv has three main channels that promise "nearby" customers: digital screens inside venues (DOOH), classic billboards and Google Maps / Google Business Profile. All three work with geolocation and context, but they deliver fundamentally different economics. We broke each one down using the same metrics to figure out which gives the best ROI for a typical small business with a budget of 10,000–20,000 UAH per month.

Comparison conditions

To keep the comparison fair, let's lock in the same inputs:

• Business: a local service or venue in Kyiv (coffee shop, salon, dental clinic, barbershop).
• Goal: a new, first-time customer.
• Budget: 15,000 UAH per month.
• Radius: 1–2 km from the location.
• Audience: solvent, aged 20–50.

For the calculations we use real Ukrainian numbers, not forecasts.

Channel 1: DOOH (digital screens inside venues)

What it is: screens in coffee shops, coworking spaces, salons, fitness clubs and car services, on which ad clips run in rotation with other advertisers.

For 15,000 UAH/month you get:

• 8–12 screens in venues in your district
• Rotation 3–4 times per hour
• A 15-second video clip
• Full statistics: impressions, QR scans, conversions

Average figures:

• Contacts: 25,000–40,000/month
• CPM: 0.4–0.6 UAH
• QR scans: 300–600
• CPA: 200–400 UAH

Pros: precise targeting by venue and district, long contact time (5–30 min), measurable results via QR, budget flexibility from 3,000 UAH.

Cons: limited reach — only people who walk into the venues in the partner network.

Channel 2: Classic billboards (OOH)

What it is: static or dynamic surfaces along roads — 3×6, 6×3, prism boards, citylights.

For 15,000 UAH/month you get:

• 1 billboard in the 3×6 format in a mid-tier district (not the center)
• Printing of the artwork
• No analytics whatsoever

Average figures:

• Contacts: 100,000–300,000/month (but this is "drove past at speed")
• CPM: 0.05–0.15 UAH
• Genuinely interested people: unknown
• CPA: impossible to measure

Pros: mass reach, the "everyone sees it" effect, good for brand campaigns and awareness.

Cons: no analytics, no targeting (seen by everyone in a row, including people who will never become customers), short contact (2–3 seconds), hard to change the creative. And the key point — it is not suited to a small business on a limited budget.

Channel 3: Google Maps / Google Business Profile + Local Ads

What it is: paid promotion of a business profile in Google Maps and local search results.

For 15,000 UAH/month you get:

• Placement in the top-3 local results for geo queries
• Roughly 800–1,500 clicks to the profile
• Roughly 80–200 calls / route requests

Average figures:

• Clicks: 800–1,500
• CPC: 10–20 UAH
• Click → customer conversion: 5–10%
• CPA: 150–400 UAH

Pros: the person is already searching for the service right now (high intent), the ad fires at the moment of the decision, full analytics.

Cons: it only works once a person has already formed a need and is actively searching. It does not generate demand — it only captures existing demand.

Comparison table: 15,000 UAH/month

Metric	DOOH	Billboards	Google Maps
Reach (real contacts)	25–40K	100–300K*	800–1,500 (clicks)
CPM	0.4–0.6 UAH	0.05–0.15 UAH	—
Targeting	High precision	None	High precision
Analytics	Full (QR + statistics)	None	Full
Contact duration	5–30 min	2–3 sec	1–2 min
Average CPA	200–400 UAH	Impossible to measure	150–400 UAH
Generates demand	Yes	Yes	No (captures existing)

*The "contacts" figure for billboards is conditional — it's the number of drive-bys, not of attention.

Which channel to choose: the decisive question

The question: is your service already being searched for on Google?

If you run a dental clinic, car service, legal service, tow truck — i.e. a service a person searches for at the moment of need — Google Maps will deliver better ROI, because you capture sharp intent.

If you run a coffee shop, barbershop, beauty salon, fitness club, clothing store, food delivery — i.e. a service people don't Google but choose from their surroundings — DOOH will deliver better ROI, because you build top-of-mind in the district.

Billboards are a separate category that only makes sense if your budget is ≥50,000 UAH/month and the goal is not "customers" but "brand awareness." For a budget of 15,000 UAH, this is the worst of the three choices.

What practice shows: the hybrid model wins

Most successful local businesses in Kyiv don't choose "either-or" — they combine 2 channels. The most common combinations:

• DOOH + Google Maps — DOOH creates demand among the people who live/work nearby, and Google Maps captures these people once they have formed intent. This is exactly the model that delivers the best results for local traffic.
• Google Maps + Instagram — Google for capture, Instagram for remarketing.

Example: a real barbershop case study showed a CPA of 319 UAH on DOOH versus 400+ UAH on Instagram targeting. Plus, customers from DOOH returned 1.8 times more often — because they saw the venue nearby and formed a habit.

Conclusion

If you have a budget of 15,000 UAH/month and you want customers in a specific Kyiv district — start with DOOH or Google Maps, depending on the type of service. Billboards are for large budgets and brand campaigns. The ideal strategy for a local business in 2026 is a combination of DOOH to create demand and Google Maps to capture intent. The main thing is to always calculate CPA for each channel separately, rather than trusting the marketing of ad sellers.

If you're ready to compare the DOOH channel for your business — on HostAd you can see the available screens on a map of Kyiv, with the characteristics of each venue.