Recently, I had a conversation with a manager from an advertising agency that specializes in large billboards and hoardings across Mysuru.
I was curious.
Not because I wanted to book a hoarding, but because I wanted to understand something else:
How much are the “big boys” spending just to get their brands noticed?
The answer was eye-opening.
📍 Visibility Has a Price
The cost of outdoor advertising varies dramatically depending on where the billboard is located.
🛣️ Hunusuru Road (from Elawala to central Mysuru)
In and around Mysuru, depending on the location, size and visibility of the hoarding, businesses can reportedly spend anywhere from ₹10,000 to ₹1 lakh per month.
Move towards the most prominent stretches, however, and the numbers change dramatically.
🏙️ Prime Area Premium
The real shocker was the pricing for the corridor from central Mysuru around LIC Circle towards the Bengaluru Road and Srirangapatna.
According to the agency manager, premium hoarding locations along this stretch can cost anywhere between:
💰 ₹1 lakh to ₹4 lakh per month.
Yes.
Up to ₹4 lakh every month—for one advertising location.
That means a company could potentially spend ₹48 lakh a year on a single premium outdoor advertising location.
And that’s before considering the cost of designing the creative, printing, installation, maintenance and the rest of the marketing campaign.
🤔 Why Are Companies Willing to Spend So Much?
Because visibility matters.
A large billboard doesn’t necessarily generate an immediate phone call or website visit that can be easily tracked.
Its purpose is often different.
It is about repeatedly putting a brand in front of thousands of people travelling through a particular location.
Think about the brands you recognize without ever consciously deciding to search for them.
You’ve probably seen their name dozens—or hundreds—of times.
That’s the power of brand recall.
A company selling a high-value product or service may be willing to spend heavily today because it wants people to remember its name when they are ready to buy tomorrow.
🧠 But Here’s What I Found Interesting
As someone involved in digital marketing and local SEO, this conversation made me think about something very different.
A business can spend ₹1 lakh, ₹2 lakh or even ₹4 lakh a month to occupy physical space where people pass by.
But what happens when someone actually becomes interested?
They take out their phone 📱
They search Google 🔍
They check the business profile ⭐
They look at reviews 📝
They visit the website 🌐
They compare competitors ⚖️
And then they make a decision.
This is where offline visibility and online visibility become very different games.
🔎 Billboard Visibility vs Google Visibility
A billboard says:
“Look at me.”
Google search is different.
The customer is already saying:
“I am looking for this.”
That’s a fundamentally different level of intent.
Imagine someone travelling along Bengaluru Road and repeatedly seeing an advertisement for a particular brand.
Later, they need that product or service.
What will they do?
They may search the brand name.
Or they may simply search for the product or service + Mysuru.
And suddenly, the billboard is no longer doing the selling.
The digital presence has to take over.
If the customer can’t find you—or finds a competitor with better information, reviews, website and local presence—the money spent on the billboard may not deliver its full potential.
📊 The Big Lesson for Smaller Businesses
This isn’t an argument against billboards.
Large brands have very different marketing objectives and budgets.
But it does raise an important question for smaller businesses:
Before spending lakhs to get noticed, have you made sure that customers can actually find you when they search?
You may not be able to afford a ₹4 lakh billboard.
You don’t need to.
A well-optimized Google Business Profile, a professional website, strong local SEO and a consistent digital presence can help a smaller business compete for attention in a completely different way.
The goal isn’t necessarily to shout louder.
The goal is to be visible at the right moment.
And sometimes, the most valuable visibility isn’t the billboard that thousands of people pass every day.
It’s the search result that appears when someone is actively looking for exactly what you offer.
🔄 From “Look at Me” to “Find Me”
The advertising industry has spent decades mastering the art of getting people to notice brands.
Digital search has changed the equation.
You don’t always have to convince someone to look at you.
Sometimes, you simply need to make sure they can find you when they’re looking.
That’s one reason I find local SEO so interesting.
Visibility has a price. But visibility with intent can be far more valuable.
And honestly… now I’m embarrassed to ask 😅 ₹65K GeoRank solution!