18th August 2026: Programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) is becoming a more established part of agency media planning in Australia, with the IAB Australia Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home State of the Nation 2026 Report released today finding three in four agencies expect investment to increase over the next year.
IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy said the findings reflect a channel entering a new phase of scrutiny.
“The conversation has moved from ‘explain it to me’ to ‘prove it to me’,” said Le Roy. “Agencies have largely settled what programmatic out-of-home is and where it fits. What they want now is evidence of what it returns, how the tech is adding value, and how it works effectively alongside other digital inventory.”
The Report found buyers are asking for greater transparency around inventory quality, impression delivery and reporting: including campaign pacing and spend delivery, supply path and non-working media costs, screen availability and win rates, proof of delivery and proof of posting. They also want more consistent audience, reach and frequency metrics and a standardised approach to counting impressions across vendors.
Proof of business outcomes and ROI was also identified as critical, including a move beyond impressions and screen counts toward demonstrating business impact. Demonstrating ROI was cited by 42% of respondents as the biggest barrier preventing pDOOH from gaining a larger share of advertising volume. Audience measurement was the next most common issue, at 23%. Understanding cost versus benefit, understanding the channel’s capabilities and role in the media mix, and ad effectiveness measurement were each cited by 22%.
The Report found that Agencies use the channel well for where and when advertising runs, with geo-location a major factor for 88% and day-part targeting for 70%. They’re using it far less for the elements that can add greater value including dynamic creative optimisation at 45%, brand first-party data at 39% and cross-channel frequency management at 39%. However, Agencies indicated they want that to change, asking for smarter automation, creative optimised by context and prediction of business outcomes.
Eighty-two per cent of agencies now factor pDOOH into their overall cross-channel media planning, and 65% plan and buy it alongside other programmatic channels. It most commonly shares a media plan or campaign with digital video (86%), social media (83%) and connected TV (83%). Retail media is paired far less often, at 59% which is notable given retail is the advertiser category most agencies have used pDOOH for over the past 12 months.
“Programmatic out-of-home is well placed to take a larger share of digital budgets, and agencies are already planning it alongside video, social and connected TV. Retail media is something of an outlier here — in a market where so much retail media sits on screens, there’s an interesting opportunity for closer cross-media planning,” said Le Roy.
Additional findings:
- Retail, FMCG and government the top categories using programmatic DOOH. Retail is the advertiser category for which most agencies have planned or bought programmatic digital out-of-home campaigns in the past 12 months, followed by FMCG and government/public sector.
- The way agencies assess pDOOH effectiveness is shifting. Digital brand lift rose from 52% to 60% in importance as a measurement tool year on year, though impressions delivered remains the most used metric overall, at 76%.
- Contextual relevance of a screen’s environment rose 20 percentage points to 79% as a reason for buying pDOOH programmatically, the largest increase of any purchase driver this year.
- Uncertainty around the impact of Australian privacy legislation reforms on DOOH has grown significantly, with 43% now unsure, compared to 21% last year. Delays in Tranche 2 privacy reforms as well as new determinations and guidance from the OAIC have made the market a little less certain on privacy changes and possible requirements.
The IAB Australia Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home State of the Nation 2026 Report was conducted in July 2026 and surveyed 163 advertising decision makers from agencies involved in out-of-home advertising.
IAB Australia’s DOOH Council, which was formed in 2019, offers a range of free resources for marketers and agencies including DOOH Buyers Guide DSP Reporting Matrix, Programmatic DOOH Buyers Guide and an online training program, Foundations of PDOOH.