Getting your advertisement on a semi truck is similar to targeting prospects with a moving billboard. Whether you need to advertise a short-term event or get your products in front of a large audience in an ongoing campaign, a semi truck gets your offerings in front of your target market for pennies on the dollar. Advertising to all of these markets with print, television or radio advertising would cost a small fortune, making truck advertising ideal for building your brand.

Identify your target market to determine in what area the trucks need to travel to be seen by your audience. If you sell products and services in a few states, you don’t need to advertise all over the country and instead, can choose private truck owners or small companies with a small fleet of semis. But if you do want to reach a national audience, you need to advertise on semis that travel cross-country.

Contact an advertising agency that specializes in semi truck advertising to get pricing. Ads are usually put on the backs or sides of the vehicles. Ads on the sides cost more because they are usually about 50 feet in length by about 13 feet in height. Ads on the back panel of the truck are about 8 feet wide and 13 feet high. Alternatively, if you only want to place advertising on a few trucks in a localized area, talk to individual truck owners or local trucking companies to see how much they charge.

Set a budget for how much you want to spend on semi-trailer advertising. The cost of advertising on a truck ranges from $1.75 to $2.00 per 1,000 impressions, says "Media Life Magazine." If your ad is seen on multiple trucks in high-traffic areas, this could add up to millions of impressions per month. You also need to budget for the design and printing of the ads, which costs thousands of dollars.

Design your advertisement so it grabs attention. You may want to hire an advertising agency to design the ad after you supply it with a basic branding concept and a high-resolution image file of your logo.

Ask the advertising agency that arranges for the advertising to track where each semi has traveled once your ad is on the trucks. According to "Media Life Magazine," trucks that display advertising carry GPS units that show where and when the truck is at any point in time. To calculate the number of impressions, the GPS data is used along with road traffic data obtained from the Traffic Audit Bureau. Most agencies specializing in semi-truck advertising belong to the Traffic Audit Bureau, so they can provide reports about how many people have seen the truck.

Things You Will Need

  • Computer

  • Logo image

  • Phone

Tip

Expect the ad campaign to take up to four weeks, including design and print time, before your ad appears on the trucks.

Warning

Don’t choose adhesive-backed ads that must be glued onto the sides of the truck if you may want to use the ads elsewhere or on other trucks. Instead, use vinyl inserts that use a framing system to hold them in place. The ads are easily removed and reused without paying to print the ad all over again.