What the latest programmatic OOH numbers actually say

A handful of recurring reports drive most of what the industry “knows” about programmatic OOH — the SSP trends reports, the WOO/PwC global figure, the agency forecasts. They’re genuinely useful, and genuinely easy to over-read. Here’s a sourced review of what the latest numbers say, and what they don’t.

The CPM number, read correctly

The most-quoted figure is the blended programmatic OOH CPM — around $7.62 in H2 2024, up from $7.16 (Place Exchange). It’s a real, recurring, transacted-spend series, which makes it the best anchor available. But it’s a single SSP’s blend across all venue types, weighted toward roadside large-format — so it’s an industry pulse, not a salon rate. The reports note “retail and health/beauty venues saw higher CPMs,” but publish no per-venue dollar figure. The honest read: useful for order-of-magnitude, useless as a beauty rate card. (Full series and caveats: the CPM tracker, and why no beauty CPM exists.)

The deal-mix number is the most actionable

The figure that should actually change behaviour is the deal mix: private deals (PMP + guaranteed) are ~95–96% of programmatic OOH spend, with custom PMPs the largest slice and the open exchange down around 4–5% (Place Exchange). That’s the opposite of the open-web instinct, and it’s a direct instruction: buy beauty on a PMP, not the open auction. The premium, curated, brand-safe salon inventory lives in private deals. (Detail: the deal-type mix tracker.)

The global share figure — ~7% of DOOH, ~$1.4B (2024) from WOO/PwC, aggregated from 11 SSPs — is the most rigorous, and the most honest: its publisher says it likely under-reports and that “the vast majority of the opportunity still lies ahead” (WOO/PwC). Set against the ~30% US figure (OAAA) and ~15% on a forecaster basis (MAGNA), the spread is geography and method, not contradiction. The shared signal: rising minority, US-led, mostly ahead. (Detail: the share tracker.)

How to read these reports

Three habits keep you honest with this genre:

Anchor on the deal mix, not the CPM — it’s the actionable, well-evidenced number; the CPM is a blended pulse.
Treat every figure as the publisher’s scope — single-SSP, billboard-heavy, or self-flagged-conservative; none is a universal benchmark.
Never extract a beauty CPM — it isn’t in there, and inventing one is the cardinal error these reports tempt you into.

Read that way, the recurring programmatic OOH reports are exactly what they should be: a reliable read on direction (private deals dominate, programmatic rising, CPMs firm-and-up) and a poor source of beauty-specific precision (which doesn’t exist). Useful, with the caveats attached.

The CPM number, read correctly

The deal-mix number is the most actionable

The share number comes with its own humility

How to read these reports