US pDOOH ad spend set to surge 49% as AI use rises

US marketers that have bought programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) expect their spending in the channel to rise by an average of 49% over the next 18 months, according to new research from VIOOH.

The study also points to broader adoption. Among recent buyers, pDOOH featured in 34% of campaigns over the past 18 months, up from 30% in 2024. Respondents expect adoption to reach 52% over the next 18 months-the highest forecast among the markets surveyed.

The research focused on advertisers and agencies that either purchased pDOOH in the past 12 months or were open to buying it. VIOOH worked with research and strategy consultancy MTM on the study, surveying 1,050 advertisers and agencies across the US, the UK, France and parts of the Middle East, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Budget shifts

US growth is expected to come primarily from reallocating existing digital media budgets. Among US respondents planning to increase pDOOH spend, 97% said they would shift budget from other digital channels, up from 85% in 2024.

Respondents also anticipate movement from offline media. Among those planning to raise investment, 68% expect to shift budget from traditional channels, compared with 51% in 2024.

Some spending is expected to be incremental. Of US marketers planning to increase investment in pDOOH, 31% said they would add entirely new budget earmarked for the channel, compared with a 25% global average.

Planning integration

pDOOH buying in the US is increasingly tied to wider digital planning. Over the last 12 months, 91% of US respondents said pDOOH was planned as part of broader digital or programmatic activity, up from 41% in 2023.

Integration is expected to deepen further: 68% said they plan to integrate pDOOH more closely into multi-channel campaigns over the next 18 months.

The report also highlights how marketers describe the channel's value. In the US, 64% associated pDOOH with driving sales and performance, up eight percentage points since 2024. Flexibility and establishing trust with consumers followed, each at 62%.

When respondents compared pDOOH with digital out-of-home (DOOH) more broadly, the research highlighted several programmatic strengths. Brand safety was associated with pDOOH by 62% of US marketers, up nine percentage points since 2024. A positive emotional response was linked to pDOOH by 61% of respondents, compared with 51% for DOOH.

Creative and automation

Dynamic creative optimisation featured prominently in the responses. In the US, 62% of respondents linked it with pDOOH-six percentage points higher than for DOOH.

Interest in dynamic creative is expected to continue. Two-thirds of US respondents (66%) said they plan to increase their use of dynamic creative over the next 18 months.

The report also points to operational changes in buying, describing curated marketplaces as a likely driver of the next phase of US growth. A large number of media owners and supply pathways can make it difficult to buy at national scale without setting up multiple deals across multiple partners.

More than half of US respondents (59%) said they are likely to use a curated solution in the next 18 months. The research describes curated marketplaces as a way to consolidate inventory under a single Deal ID.

AI usage

The US emerged as the most advanced market in the survey for using AI in pDOOH workflows. Only 4% of US respondents said they were not using AI in any part of their pDOOH workflow, compared with 10% globally.

Reported use was highest in creative and forecasting. In the US, 47% said they used AI to generate creative, compared with 40% globally. The same share (47%) said they used it for predictive audience forecasting, compared with 38% globally.

Use was also higher in measurement and planning. In the US, 43% said they used AI for measurement and attribution modelling, compared with 37% globally. The same proportion (43%) reported using AI for intelligent inventory selection, compared with 37% globally, and another 43% said they used it for dynamic budget allocation, compared with 36% globally.

VIOOH is a supply-side platform focused on digital out-of-home. It trades programmatically in 36 markets and works with more than 50 demand-side platforms.

Jean-Christophe Conti, CEO of VIOOH, said the US market is moving beyond early adoption.

"The US has always been a leading market for pDOOH, but the 2026 findings show the pace of growth here is exceptional. A 49% forecast increase in investment, combined with 91% of campaigns now sitting within digital programmatic workflows, shows this is a market that has moved well beyond early adoption. What sets the US apart is not just scale, but sophistication. Marketers here are deploying AI across their pDOOH workflows, activating first-party data, building dedicated programmatic DOOH teams and pushing DCO from testing into live execution faster than any other market. This combination of ambition and capability is driving lasting growth in the US, powered by pDOOH."