London, UK, 19 March 2026 – Today, VIOOH, the leading premium global digital out of home (DOOH) supply-side platform, released its annual research into programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) market. The US findings show that over a third (34%) of campaigns included pDOOH in the past 18 months, up from 30% in 2024. Marketers expect this to rise to 52% over the next 18 months, the highest forecast of any market surveyed, with investment projected to rise by an average of 49%.
US marketers are forecasting pDOOH investment to increase by an average of 49% over the next 18 months, a significant change from the 30% growth projected in 2024. Among those planning to increase pDOOH spend, 97% expect to reallocate budget from other digital channels, up from 85% in 2024. 68% also expect to shift budget from traditional channels, up from 51% in 2024.
Notably, the US is leading the way on new budgets. 31% of US marketers say they will add new budget specifically earmarked for pDOOH, compared to 25% globally. This reflects pDOOH’s deeper integration into digital planning structures, making it easier to unlock incremental investment rather than relying solely on reallocation from existing spend.
The shift toward digital and programmatic planning of pDOOH in the US has been dramatic. 91% of US respondents say pDOOH has been planned as part of wider digital/programmatic activity in the last 12 months, up from 41% in 2023. Over two-thirds (68%) of US respondents expect to integrate pDOOH more closely into multi-channel campaigns over the next 18 months.
Performance, flexibility and trust: what US marketers value most
Increasing sales and performance is the strongest association in the US, with 64% of marketers linking pDOOH to driving sales and performance, up 8 percentage points since 2024. Flexibility (62%) and establishing trust with consumers (62%) are the second and third values attributed to pDOOH.
pDOOH also outperforms DOOH on several programmatic-specific strengths. Brand safety is associated with pDOOH by 62% of US marketers, up 9 percentage points since 2024. Over two thirds (61%) associate pDOOH with triggering a positive emotional response, compared to just 51% for DOOH.
Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is linked to pDOOH by 62% of US respondents, 6 percentage points higher than for DOOH, with marketers likely associating pDOOH with DCO more highly due to its inherent data-led qualities which help campaigns stay fresh and better aligned to context. With 66% of US respondents planning to increase their use of dynamic creative over the next 18 months.
Future outlook: curated marketplaces and AI
Curated marketplaces are positioned to drive the next phase of growth in the US. With a large number of media owners and supply pathways, achieving national scale can require traders to set up and manage multiple separate deals across multiple partners, creating workload and slowing activation. Curated marketplaces are well positioned to reduce this friction.
In fact, 59% of US marketers say they are likely to use a curated solution in the next 18 months. By consolidating fragmented inventory under a single Deal ID, curated marketplaces reduce the operational complexity of achieving national scale while delivering the brand safety, transparency and supply-path efficiency that US buyers increasingly demand.
The US is the most advanced market globally when it comes to AI integration in pDOOH. Only 4% of US respondents report not using AI in any part of their pDOOH workflow, compared to 10% globally. The biggest differences are in creative and forecasting, with 47% using AI to generate creative (vs. 40% globally) and 47% using it for predictive audience forecasting (vs. 38% globally). Uptake is also higher for more advanced optimization and planning tasks, including measurement and attribution modeling (43% vs. 37%), intelligent inventory selection (43% vs. 37%) and dynamic budget allocation (43% vs. 36%).
“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,” said Jean-Christophe Conti, Chief Executive Officer at VIOOH.
See the full report here: viooh.com/sotn
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