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Compared to other outdoor advertising media, bus advertising is a relatively cheap way to promote your product or service to a large market on a consistent and repeated basis. Attracting consumer attention at the best possible time - when people are out of the house or office and ready to respond - helps to establish brand awareness and generates quick recall near point of purchase locations. If you do your homework thoroughly and find the most appropriate market area for your campaign, there is the potential to generate many more enquiries than the equivalent expenditure in print.

Know your audience
The key to any marketing campaign is to fully understand your target audience. Knowledge of where it lives, works and spends its leisure time is crucial in helping you to select the best possible sites and the most appropriate ad for your business.

To target your ad more precisely, it may be possible to select particular bus routes within your chosen area or, for a broader appeal, you could opt for a multi-regional approach.

Right place, right ad
Once you have chosen the area in which to run your advertising campaign, you’ll need to make sure that the type of ad - its design and placement - are appropriate for your business and your budget.

The most common external advertisements are posters or vinyl prints on the side or the back of the bus.

‘Streetliner’ ads are aimed at pedestrians and cyclists as they appear on the lower side of the bus, at eye level.

When you need your message to rise above the high street and be seen from a greater distance, the large format, high impact ‘T-side’ or ‘Superside’ ads higher up the side of the bus will get you noticed when customers are out making their buying decisions.

Advertisements placed on the rear of a bus will attract the attention of drivers and passengers who have more time than pedestrians to read and absorb messages as they follow and queue behind the bus.

For bigger budgets and for when a ‘wow’ factor is required, the entire bus, including the windows, can be covered in a ‘full wrap’ design.

Whichever external ad you decide on, remember that the bus will be on the move and your audience will have only a few seconds to read your ad and register the brand and images. Focus on your most important message to make your advertisement clear and concise and, above all, make it eye-catching.

Your ad can afford to be more detailed if you decide to use internal bus advertising. ‘Headliners’ which appear above the seats can take advantage of a captive audience with more time to read and digest information than passers-by. Your choice of bus companies and available routes will be key to targeting specific passenger types.

On the central routes in London and other major cities, the use of on-board television systems to advertise is on the increase. Monthly campaigns can run throughout the day, or you can select particular time slots to suit your budget.

Get the most from your advertising contract
Once you have an idea of the sort of campaign you want to run, you can either approach advertising agencies specialising in outdoor/transit media or go direct to the bus advertising companies operating in your market area. There is likely to be a choice of bus operators so it’s important to select one that has smart, clean buses, as well as a cost effective solution.

If you decide to run a multi-regional campaign, consider customising your ad for each site so that it will have a local appeal.

To cut the cost of future campaigns, talk to your provider about placing an advert in their upcoming schedules and look to re-use generic ads that won’t become quickly outdated to maximise your return on investment.