Billboard Design Guidelines: Big, Bold, and Simple

✓ Be Clear & Concise

Your content will only be visible for a few seconds at a time. The best billboard designs communicate without a lot of words. In fact, most drivers will stop reading after five words. Try to convey the essence of an idea rather than describing it with prose. Because viewers only have a few seconds to absorb your message, short and direct copy always performs best.

✓ Use the Correct Ad Sizes

The billboards you choose will determine the size of the artwork that you will need to create.

The ads you submit must match the pixel dimensions of the billboards they will appear on. Billboard dimensions vary by board. The required dimensions for your artwork are listed as “ad size” in the sign information for each sign individually. This information can be found after you select a sign during the campaign set-up process.

✓ Be Bold

Designing a billboard that stands out means using large, bold fonts and avoiding narrow or ornate fonts. Use bright colors with a high level of contrast between the text and the background so your ad is easier to read at a distance. This is one of the most important billboard design best practices you can follow.

✓ Use the Right Format

Please save your ads as .png or .jpg in order to upload them to your campaign through our billboard maker.

✓ Use Appropriate Content

Make all ad content appropriate for all audiences.

The Rules of Billboard Designs

All content is reviewed before it is eligible to appear on any billboard. Artwork will only be approved if it meets the following criteria.

Blip wants you to be successful! Please follow the below guidelines to make the best ad possible.

Prohibited Content

No nudity, profanity, graphic violence, hate speech, or personal attacks
- Innuendos of any kind will be rejected
No advertising for illegal goods or services
No statements that are verifiably false or needlessly inflammatory
No footnotes, disclaimers, or “fine print” of any kind
No negative ads toward a person, event, or business
No QR codes or text codes, as they encourage distracted driving

Anything deceptive or misleading will not be approved
Sexually charged content may be rejected on a case-by-case basis
Questionable website content may be rejected if deemed offensive to the general public
Messaging that attempts to divert business from the sign owner (for example, “advertise here” or “call for digital billboard advertising”) is not permitted

Required Information

The identity of the advertiser must be clear
Phone numbers alone do not qualify as advertiser identity

Ads must include a logo, brand name, or URL
All website domains shown must be legitimate and functioning

Political & Special Content Rules

All political ads must include a clear and legible “Paid for by…” statement from a legitimate organization
Political campaigns must be for a candidate or a cause

Negative or potentially controversial political ads will not be accepted
Music artists with explicit lyrics must include an “explicit content” label

Billboard Design Standards

No pure white backgrounds (RGB 235, 235, 235 or darker is OK).
Script or cursive fonts must be clear and easy to read.
All website domains must be legitimate and functioning.
Artwork must be professionally designed and follow sound billboard graphic design principles.

No more than 7 words
Content must match the pixel dimensions of the target billboards.
Any wasted space such as grey/white/black bars on the sides of ads looks unprofessional and will be rejected

*Your ad may be approved or rejected for any reason.

Things to Keep in Mind When Designing Your Billboard

Learning how to design a billboard is unique in that the conventions that you would normally use for other forms of advertising formats actually work against you here. Keep these tips in mind when you plan a billboard campaign and design your ad.

Don’t ask a question that a customer could possibly answer “No”: A question with an easy negative response gives people a reason to disengage.

Don’t create a business card on a stick:. Too many pieces of contact on an ad make it look busy. Use the most memorable form of contact – probably a website- since most people won’t have time to memorize a phone number.

E Construction Group contact info with phone, email, and social media icons

Read direction matters. Ads that read right to left feel awkward;, the text should go left to right for natural readability.

Avoid redundancy. If your URL is the same as your business’ name, you do not need to repeat it more than once. Keep your custom billboard clean and focused.

Common Reasons Your Billboard Ad May Get Rejected

Blip partners with a variety of media owners, and some have stricter content requirements for their boards. Here are frequent rejection triggers to avoid when you design a billboard:

Images of marijuana leaves
Images of guns or weapons
Unnecessarily including WWW. in the URL

Risqué images
Anything politically charged
Billboard designs are not as professional as others already on the sign.
Using a hard-to-remember phone number

Billboard Design Guidelines