Billboard and Outdoor Advertising Company Revenue Benchmark

Average Billboard and Outdoor Advertising Company Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every indoor and outdoor display advertising business with paid employees, from a local billboard owner to a regional outdoor media company, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of businesses gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$3,204,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $8.3 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 2,601 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,204,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising, NAICS 541850. The Census category is Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising, which counts companies selling advertising space on billboards, transit displays, digital boards and similar media they own or operate. Sign manufacturers and advertising agencies are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5418: 541810 Advertising Agencies; 541820 Public relations agencies; 541830 Media Buying Agencies, and 4 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services, NAICS 5418, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 49.9 to 55.1 percent. This benchmark covers Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services, NAICS 5418, as a whole, and this category accounts for 2,601 of the 38,542 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 20.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share because land leases, structures and printing take much of the cost while a small sales and operations team runs the inventory.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes site leases, sign structures, digital boards, printing, installation and agency commissions, which together carry much of what an outdoor company spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 10.5 people, and the industry averaged 1.2 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a sales team and a small operations crew installing and maintaining displays.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Billboard and Outdoor Advertising Company: what leases, permits and occupancy do to a media owner's average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Static or digital boards? A digital board sells many advertisers on one structure and changes creative instantly, but it costs far more to build and power than a printed face. The mix of static and digital inventory decides both revenue per site and capital needs.
• How full is the inventory? An unsold face is revenue that does not come back later, so occupancy across the inventory is the central number of the trade. An annual total cannot show how many faces stood empty.
• Who owns the land? Many structures sit on leased land under agreements that set rent and renewal terms, and a lost lease can remove a site entirely. Lease terms are a core asset that revenue does not reveal.
• Which permits and codes apply? Sign codes, zoning, highway beautification rules and permit systems vary by state and city, and many places restrict new billboards, which makes existing permitted sites valuable. Regulation shapes the supply side of the trade.
• Local advertisers or national campaigns? Local businesses buy a board near their store at posted rates, while national campaigns come through agencies at negotiated prices with commissions. The customer mix shapes both revenue and collection risk.
• What else does the category count? Transit advertising, indoor displays and other display media sit in this category with billboards, so the average describes a broader trade than roadside boards alone. Product mix within the category is not published by the census.