DOOH Foot Traffic Attribution Benchmarks (2026): Typical Lift Is 6% to 26%

DOOH foot traffic attribution benchmarks for 2026 put typical incremental store-visit lift between 6% and 26%, with a central estimate of about 17%. Lift under 3% may be statistical noise, and lift above 30% needs its control group checked. Measure against a 7 to 14 day window.

Most DOOH reporting stops at impressions. Footfall attribution goes one step further: it asks whether people who passed a screen later walked into your store, compared with similar people who did not see it. The number that comes out is a lift percentage, and almost every vendor quotes a different one.

This post pulls together lift figures from four independent sources, shows how we combined them into a single planning range, and explains what has to be true about a study before you trust its number. If you want the rate card side of the channel, start with our programmatic DOOH CPM benchmarks by screen type.

NAMEX 2026 DOOH Footfall Lift Benchmarks

Here is every lift figure we could trace to a named source this month, side by side. Some are ranges, some are single campaigns, and they measure slightly different things, which is why the next section explains how we combined them.

Two cautions. Perion does not name a source for its category ranges, so treat them as vendor-stated. And the Place Exchange figure is a different animal: it is the share of visits that would not have happened without the campaign, not a lift percentage against a control.

How We Built the NAMEX Planning Range

A single benchmark from one vendor is a sales claim. A figure that three unrelated sources can all live with is closer to a planning number. We combined the three sources that report comparable store-visit lift.

Use the central estimate for forecasting and the range for risk. If a plan assumes 40% lift, it is assuming a result that only a minority of campaigns in this data reached.

Lift by Category: Where Footfall Responds Most

Category matters more than creative. Perion's ranges show a clear pattern: high-consideration or destination visits (entertainment, automotive, apparel) show larger lift than everyday errands. That makes sense. A grocery shopper was probably going anyway, so there is less room for an ad to change the trip.

The practical rule: benchmark your campaign against your own category, not the blended 17%. A grocery brand hitting 12% is performing well. An entertainment venue hitting 12% is below the vendor-stated range and worth investigating.

Real Campaign Results: The VIOOH and Arla Foods Study

The most useful recent dataset is the study VIOOH and Arla Foods published on 23 September 2026. It covers nine programmatic DOOH campaigns run across Arla's brands in Norway through 2025, measured with Spotzi and JCDecaux using geofences around screens and stores, an attribution window of about five days and a pre-campaign control group. Every campaign showed a positive store-visit lift.

Look at the Starbucks Tripleshot pair: 5% in spring, 41% in summer, same brand, same method. Seasonality, creative, screen selection and the baseline all move the result. One campaign is a sample of one. Average time from exposure to first store visit was under two days, which supports a short attribution window. The study reports visits only, not sales.

What Share of Visits Is Actually Incremental?

Lift answers how much more likely exposed people were to visit. Incrementality answers how many of the visits you counted would not have happened anyway. In a Place Exchange case study for an unnamed national retailer, 50.3% of measured visits were incremental, measured against an audience-matched control group. The same study found 38% of DOOH-related store visits happened within 14 days of first exposure.

Read the first number as a warning. Roughly half of the visits a naive report would credit to the screens were people who were coming regardless. Any DOOH report that shows total visits among exposed devices without a control is overstating the channel.

If you want to see how your own measurement stacks up against these numbers, request a free audit and we will review your DOOH reporting for control group design, window length and double counting.

The Measurement Checklist: Is This Lift Number Trustworthy?

Before you accept any footfall number, check six things. Each has a benchmark behind it.

1. A control group exists. Exposed versus matched unexposed devices, or a pre-campaign baseline as in the Arla study. No control means no lift.
2. The window is 7 to 14 days. Lumos and Perion both put typical decay in that range. Arla used about five days. Much longer windows start crediting unrelated visits.
3. The geofence fits the format. Perion cites about 300 metres for a highway billboard and about 15 metres for a mall kiosk. One radius for every screen is a red flag.
4. The sample is large enough. Several hundred thousand exposures across multiple store locations, at 90% or 95% confidence.
5. The result passes the sanity band. Under 3% may be noise. Over 30% needs the control method rechecked.
6. It reports incremental visits, not total visits. See the 50.3% figure above.

The same discipline applies to other channels. Our CTV attribution guide walks through the equivalent control-group logic for streaming, and it is worth running both so your channels are judged on the same standard.

Market Context: Why DOOH Measurement Pressure Is Rising

PQ Media research reported by invidis on 7 September 2026 puts global DOOH spend at $27.47 billion in 2025, up 12%, the fourth straight year of double-digit growth. Traditional OOH grew 4.1% over the same period and total OOH grew 6.8%. DOOH is growing nearly three times as fast as the static formats it sits beside.

On the programmatic side, VIOOH's annual research, reported by ExchangeWire on 19 March 2026, found programmatic DOOH featured in 34% of UK campaigns over the previous 18 months, up from 31% in 2024, and marketers expect that to reach 47%. More money and more programmatic buying mean more scrutiny on proof. If you are new to the buying side, see what programmatic DOOH is and our step-by-step buying guide.

What This Means for Your Plan

Set the expectation at the central estimate, not the best case. A forecast of about 17% lift, with 6% as the floor, is defensible. Ask every vendor for incremental visits against a control, the window and the geofence logic. And judge DOOH on cost per incremental visit rather than CPM alone: the CPM tells you what the impression cost, not whether anyone walked in. For a planning view of the rest of the programmatic stack, see our programmatic services and targeting services.

Methodology

This benchmark draws on: Lumos, "Footfall Attribution in DOOH: The Complete 2026 Guide" (ANZ-based observations, vendor-reported); Perion, "Can You Really Measure Footfall from DOOH Ads?" (page last modified 16 September 2026; category ranges not independently sourced); VIOOH and Arla Foods, "The Proof is Physical" (published 23 September 2026, covering nine campaigns run in Norway during 2025); Place Exchange, national retailer case study (undated); PQ Media via invidis (7 September 2026, covering 2025 spend); and VIOOH UK programmatic DOOH research via ExchangeWire (19 March 2026). Lift figures are vendor and case-study results, not a controlled NAMEX study. Where a source did not report a figure, the table says so.

Cite This Data

Cite this data: North American Media Experts, 'DOOH Foot Traffic Attribution Benchmarks (2026): Typical Lift Is 6% to 26%' (2026). https://www.namediaexperts.com/blog-posts/dooh-foot-traffic-attribution-benchmarks-2026-lift-by-category

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good foot traffic lift for a DOOH campaign?

Most well-planned DOOH campaigns land between 6% and 26% incremental store-visit lift, with a NAMEX central estimate of about 17%. Lift under 3% may sit inside the margin of error, and lift above 30% deserves a second look at the control group before you report it.

How long is the attribution window for DOOH foot traffic?

Plan on 7 to 14 days after exposure. Lumos and Perion both put the typical decay at 7 to 14 days, Place Exchange found 38% of DOOH-related store visits for one national retailer happened within 14 days, and the VIOOH and Arla study used a window of about five days.

Does DOOH foot traffic attribution measure real sales?

No. It measures incremental store visits, not revenue. The VIOOH and Arla study reported visits only, with no sales uplift. To tie visits to revenue you need a separate sales-lift study or your own point-of-sale data.

How many exposures do you need for a reliable footfall result?

Perion recommends several hundred thousand exposures across multiple store locations, with results at a 90% or 95% confidence level. A 50% lift built on 12 visits is noise, not a result.

Is DOOH foot traffic attribution accurate?

It is directional. Mobile-signal attribution depends on location data quality, geofence size and the control group. Use it to compare campaigns against each other and against the benchmarks here rather than as an exact count of people.

Get Your DOOH Footfall Measured Properly

If your DOOH reports show visits without a control group, they are probably overstating the result. Book an intro call with Ryan or request a free audit and we will review your measurement against these benchmarks. For anything else, get in touch.