Programmatic or direct: which one fits your DOOH campaign?

Two ways to buy the same digital screen. What each one gets you, what it costs, and how to choose.

A brand wants its campaign on screens at train stations and on screens along the high street. Simple enough. Then the questions start.

Book it direct, and that can mean two publishers, two negotiations and two sets of conditions. Book it programmatically, and both sit in one platform. Same screens. A different purchase.

We get asked about this every day, so here it is in one place: what direct and programmatic buying are, how they differ, and when to pick which, or whether to use both.

Two ways to buy the same screen

A digital out-of-home screen runs a loop. The industry standard is a one-minute loop built from 6 or 10 second slots, so several advertisers share the same screen and take turns. How much of that loop is yours is called share of time (SOT), or share of voice (SOV). It is one of the key lines on any quote we send: the higher your SOT, the more often your ad comes round.

Direct buying means you buy a fixed slot in that loop from the publisher, the company that owns the screens. Depending on your plan and budget, your ad plays every minute, every two minutes or every three. It is booked before the campaign starts. You know exactly what you get.

Programmatic buying means you buy through a platform that connects to many publishers at once, and you bid for plays in real time. Every time a slot comes up, the system decides whether your ad gets it, based on your targeting and your bid. How often you play is dynamic, and you can change the targeting while the campaign is running.

Programmatic comes in more than one form

What most people mean by programmatic is the open auction described above. Two other deal types run through the same platforms. In a private marketplace, a publisher offers a selected set of screens to selected buyers, at a fixed or a bid price. With programmatic guaranteed, the screens and the price are agreed in advance, as with a direct buy, and the booking runs through the platform. You keep most of the certainty of direct and gain the workflow of programmatic.

Side by side

What about the money?

Two things are true at the same time.

On direct buys, minimum spends are set per publisher, and they differ by publisher and by type of screen. Buy across three publishers and you meet three minimums. On our international campaigns, a direct buy usually starts above €10K.

Programmatic has no official minimum. One screen for one hour near a concert can run on around €500. At Paper Trails, programmatic campaigns usually start from €5K. And because you only pay for plays in the places and hours you chose, a smaller budget goes further. That is why programmatic is usually the better route when the budget is tight.

One caveat. Programmatic is not automatically cheaper per play. Prices per thousand impressions move with demand, and the narrower your targeting, the more each impression can cost. The savings come from spending only where it counts.

In the Netherlands, almost every screen is on the platform

In the Netherlands, basically every publisher is connected to the programmatic platforms. Even the airports: Schiphol went live with programmatic buying in January 2025, after Eindhoven and Rotterdam The Hague started in 2022.

Other countries are sometimes a step behind. Outside the Netherlands, programmatic may not reach every network on your plan, and part of it has to go direct. Check it per market before you choose a route.

When direct is the better buy

• You need guaranteed presence. A launch day, a premiere, a moment that has to land.
• You want to dominate the screen. 100% of the loop is rarely possible, but direct can get you a very high share of time.
• You want a landmark screen or a special format, which are often only sold through direct buying.
• The plan sits on one network in one city, with a budget that clears the publisher’s minimum.

When programmatic is the better buy

• Several cities or several networks, without a separate deal for each.
• A smaller budget you want to spend precisely.
• Creative that reacts to the world around it. An ice cream ad that only runs above 20°C. A coffee ad for the morning commute. We wrote more about this in Programmatic DOOH: how flexible is it really?
• A campaign you want to adjust while it runs.

Or use both

Some campaigns work best with a mix of both. A common setup is a direct base on the locations that matter most, with programmatic on top for extra reach, around events or for a specific audience.

Tell us what the campaign has to achieve

The right route depends on the job. Tell us where, when and who you need to reach, and we’ll tell you how to buy it.

Sometimes that’s one route. Sometimes it’s both.