METER Guide8–10 min read

OOH / DOOH measurement · 2026

From traffic
to real audience reach

How inventory, mobility, and campaign data become OTS, LTS, Reach, Frequency, and media weight.

How it works
[MEASUREMENT FLOW]04 levels

Traffic ≠ Audience

  1. 01
    InventoryWhere the message is available
    →
  2. 02
    ContactHow many opportunities occurred
    →
  3. 03
    AudienceHow many people, and how often
    →
  4. 04
    Media weightDelivery relative to the Universe
    →

Raw flows become audience metrics only after contact qualification, deduplication, and projection.

01Independence

Audience measurement is separate from inventory sales.

02Precision

The period, Universe, and metric basis are stated.

03Transparency

Observed facts, calculations, and models are kept separate.

No. 01Role of measurement

Why measure out-of-home advertising

Measurement turns out-of-home advertising from a list of locations and traffic figures into a comparable media product—with a forecast audience, measurable delivery, and a clear outcome.

01 · Advertiser

Advertiser

Compares inventory by audience, not only by location and format. Understands expected Reach, Frequency, and media weight, then compares the plan with the actual result after placement.

02 · Agency

Agency

Builds an inventory plan for a specific audience, estimates incremental Reach, and identifies overexposure or insufficient Frequency.

03 · Media owner

Media owner

Shows the audience potential of each surface, confirms actual operation, and separates inventory characteristics from delivery for a specific brand.

No. 02From surface to audience

How a contact is formed

Audience is not a property of a coordinate. Each successive layer narrows the raw flow to a metric tied to a specific surface and a specific campaign.

  1. 01
    Surface

    Coordinates, side, format

  2. 02
    Visibility zone

    Realistic viewing geometry

  3. 03
    Movement

    Route, speed, direction

  4. 04
    Session

    Presence at the relevant time

  5. 05
    OTS / LTS

    Qualified contacts

  6. 06
    Deduplication

    Repeat audience members are not double-counted

  7. 07
    Reach / Frequency

    Reach and intensity

Surface and visibility

Coordinates alone are not enough. The calculation must account for side, direction, size, height, operating hours, viewing angle, and obstacles. This is why the visibility zone is built for each structure individually rather than as the same circle around every location.

Route and session

The analysis considers not only whether a device was nearby, but also direction, speed, and time spent in the area. Nearby signals are combined into one session so that a single pass does not become dozens of contacts.

Deduplication example

100 000 + 80 000 ≠ 180 000

If 50,000 people came into contact with both screens, campaign Reach is 130,000. The overlap increases Frequency but does not create new people.

Screen A100k
Screen B80k
Overlap50k
Campaign Reach130 000
No. 03Quick glossary

Six metrics that should not be conflated

Each metric answers a different question. Comparisons are valid only when the period, territory, Universe, and contact basis are the same.

01raw flow

Traffic

The number of people, vehicles, or devices near a location. Traffic shows movement intensity but does not account for the visibility of a specific side, display time, or repeated appearances by the same person. It is an input, not the campaign audience.

02Opportunity to See

OTS

The estimated number of qualified opportunities to see the message. One person can generate several OTS. One million OTS therefore means one million potential contacts—not one million unique people or confirmed views.

03Likelihood to See

LTS

A refined estimate of contacts with a higher likelihood of noticing the ad. It accounts for visibility, movement, and campaign parameters. LTS does not exceed OTS and does not prove gaze direction, attention, or recall.

04unique Reach

Reach

The number of different people who had at least one qualified contact during the specified period. Reach is always tied to a territory, time window, target audience, and selected Universe.

05average Frequency

Frequency

The average number of qualified contacts per reached person. The average should be supplemented with Reach 3+, Reach 5+, and the Frequency distribution, which show how evenly the campaign delivered.

06media weight

GRP / TRP

The relative weight of a campaign. GRP relates to the selected total audience; TRP relates to a predefined target group. The metric can exceed 100 because it includes repeat contacts.

Trafficflow
→
OTS / LTScontacts
→
Reachpeople
→
Frequencyrepeat exposure
All definitions and examples
No. 04Across the campaign

Forecast, monitoring, outcome

Pre-buy, in-campaign monitoring, and post-buy use related data but answer different questions. A forecast does not replace actuals, and delivery does not replace audience measurement.

Before the campaignPre-buy

An estimate of inventory potential, planned Reach, Frequency, GRP/TRP, overlaps, and inventory-plan scenarios. It is a forecast with documented assumptions.

During placementDuring campaign

Monitoring of actual plays, creative, uptime, operating hours, Share of Voice, and pacing. Audience data may be updated after a methodological delay.

After the campaignPost-buy

Calculation of OTS/LTS, Reach, Frequency, media weight, and surface contribution for the actual period. The main task is to explain the result and the gap between plan and actual.

No. 05Two tracks

Measurement and Verification

They are connected through actual placement parameters, but one track does not replace the other.

01Audience

Measurement

  • How many potential contacts were generated?
  • How many different people were reached?
  • What were Frequency and media weight?
  • How did the audiences of different surfaces overlap?
02Delivery

Verification

  • Was the creative placed or played?
  • Was it delivered on the correct surfaces and during the correct period?
  • Did the file, schedule, and number of plays match?
  • Was the screen operating, and is there a verifiable record?
No. 06METER method

Eight steps from signal to report

Core principle: raw location signals are not treated as an audience until contacts have been qualified, deduplicated, weighted, and projected.

  1. 01

    Mobility

    Anonymized signals pass quality control and are combined into physically plausible routes.

  2. 02

    Inventory

    The calculation accounts for coordinates, side, direction, format, size, height, and surface operating hours.

  3. 03

    Visibility zone

    An individual viewing geometry is defined for each structure rather than applying a universal radius.

  4. 04

    Contact

    The route must cross the visibility zone at the relevant time; OTS and LTS are calculated after qualification.

  5. 05

    Deduplication

    Repeated signals and contacts with different surfaces are combined at the observed-participant level.

  6. 06

    Projection

    Statistical weights scale panel observations to the selected population—the Universe.

  7. 07

    Campaign

    The period, operating hours, SOV, advertising loop, uptime, and PoP constrain the potential to a specific brand.

  8. 08

    Report

    OTS/LTS, Reach 1+/N+, Frequency, GRP/TRP, surface contribution, audience profile, and methodology disclosures.

01

Routes, not points

A movement sequence describes direction and contact timing more accurately.

02

Surface-specific visibility

Each surface's visibility zone depends on its geometry and surroundings.

03

Separation of layers

Observed facts, calculation rules, and model-based estimates are disclosed separately.

No. 07Applications

Four measurement use cases

Absolute figures from different cases cannot be compared without accounting for the period, Universe, number of surfaces, and contact basis.

Planning

Planning

Mobility analysis helps identify concentrations of the target audience, compare surfaces, and build an inventory plan for the required Reach and Frequency.

Example: pre-buy analysis of residents and tourists in Dubai.
Post-buy

Campaign results

Actual OTS/LTS, unique Reach, repeat contacts, and structure contribution are calculated for the actual placement period.

Examples: reports for Tashkent and Riyadh.
Retail mobility

Location audiences

Routes, seasonality, visit time, and visitor geography help analyze retail locations. Visiting an area does not prove contact with an ad.

Examples: Uniqlo, Muji, and KFC.
Verification

Placement verification

Proof of Play, inventory monitoring, and uptime show when the message was actually available. These data complement but do not replace measurement.

Checks: screen, creative, schedule, play.
Post-buy excerpt

Tashkent · June 2026

Two digital surfaces. Metrics are shown on both OTS and LTS bases; the period and inventory mix are stated alongside the result.

Source: METER report example [11] from the methodology guide.
OTS1 429 621
LTS459 621
Reach 1+ · OTS4 %
No. 08Next level

Detailed resources

Formulas, limitations, and technical details are separated from this overview so the core logic remains easy to follow.

01 · Glossary

Terms and metrics

OTS, LTS, Reach, Frequency, GRP/TRP, Reach N+, formulas, and examples.

→02 · Campaign

Pre-buy, during, and post-buy

Scenarios, in-campaign monitoring, plan-versus-actual analysis, and comparison rules.

→03 · Methodology

METER data and technology

Sources, privacy, limitations, the full process, and validation.

→
Methodology basis

Sources

  1. MRC Out-of-Home Measurement Standards — Phase 1 & 2 Combined Final, December 2025.
  2. WOO Global OOH Audience Measurement Guidelines 2.0, June 2026.
  3. IAB Digital Out-Of-Home Measurement Guide, July 2025.
  4. METER materials on OTS, LTS, Reach, visibility, data, and route reconstruction.

This material explains the measurement methodology and does not claim MRC accreditation, WOO certification, or an independent audit of METER.