ROI of Street Signage: What Edmonton Businesses Can Expect
Every dollar you spend on advertising should bring back more than a dollar. That’s ROI. For Edmonton small businesses, a portable billboard sign is one of the highest-ROI marketing investments available. Here’s why the numbers work.
The Cost: $149/month
A portable billboard sign from OnePoint costs $149/month. That includes the sign itself, custom graphic design, printing, delivery, installation, panel swaps, and maintenance. No setup fees, no contracts.
On a daily basis, that’s $4.97/day. Less than a large coffee and a muffin.
What Does One Customer Worth?
This is the question that makes the ROI calculation simple. How much is a single new customer worth to your business?
Restaurant: Average table spend of $40-60. If one person comes in because they saw your sign, you’ve covered a week of sign rental.
Dental clinic: A new patient is worth $500-2,000 in their first year of treatment. One patient per month from a street sign and your ROI is 10x.
Pharmacy: A regular customer filling prescriptions monthly is worth thousands over time. One new regular customer pays for years of sign rental.
Property manager: A vacant unit at $1,200/month costs $40/day empty. If a sign fills the unit even three days faster, it’s already paid for the month.
Retail store: Average transaction of $30-50. Three or four extra customers from sign traffic covers the monthly cost.
For almost any business type, acquiring one to three additional customers per month from a street sign makes it profitable. Given that thousands of people drive past most Edmonton commercial locations daily, that’s a low bar to clear.
Compared to Other Advertising
Here’s how the cost-per-impression stacks up against common alternatives:
Google Ads: $5-15 per click for local service keywords in Edmonton. $149 buys you 10-30 clicks. Most of those clicks don’t convert. Your sign gets seen by hundreds of people daily for the same price.
Facebook/Instagram Ads: $3-10 per click for local targeting. Requires ongoing management and creative updates. People scroll past most ads in under a second.
Flyers/Direct Mail: $0.50-1.00 per household for printing and delivery. Response rates are typically 1-2%. To reach 5,000 households, you’re spending $2,500-5,000 for maybe 50-100 responses.
Radio advertising: A single 30-second spot on an Edmonton radio station costs $100-500 depending on the station and time slot. For the monthly cost of one or two radio spots, you get a street sign working 24/7 for an entire month.
Billboard rental: Traditional billboards in Edmonton run $1,500-5,000+/month with annual contracts. A portable sign at your own location costs a fraction of that and targets the exact people who are near your business.
The Compounding Effect
Digital ads stop the moment you stop paying. A street sign keeps working. Every day, it builds familiarity with the people who drive past your location regularly. They might not stop the first time they see it. But by the fifth or tenth time, your business name is in their head. When they need what you offer, you’re the first name they think of.
This is the compounding effect of physical advertising. It builds brand awareness passively, every single day, without additional spend.
How to Measure It
Tracking the direct impact of a street sign isn’t as precise as counting clicks on a Google Ad, but there are practical ways to measure:
Ask customers. “How did you hear about us?” Add this to your intake form or have staff ask. You’ll start hearing “I drove past and saw your sign.”
Track foot traffic patterns. If you notice an increase in walk-ins or calls after installing a sign, the sign is working.
Compare periods. Track your weekly revenue before and after the sign goes up. Even accounting for other variables, a noticeable bump in foot traffic is a strong signal.
Use a dedicated phone number or URL. Put a specific phone number or landing page on your sign that you don’t use elsewhere. Every call or visit to that number came from the sign.
The Verdict
A portable billboard sign at $149/month is one of the lowest-risk, highest-return advertising investments for an Edmonton small business. The math works for almost every business type, the setup is fast, and there’s no long-term commitment.
If your business depends on local customers finding you, a street sign is not optional marketing. It’s infrastructure.
Ready to see the ROI for yourself? Contact OnePoint Solutions — $149/month, free design, no contracts. We can have your sign up within a week.