What a Cheap Sign Actually Costs You
The lowest bid is a real number. So is the cost of replacing it in two years, and the cost of every customer who drove past in the meantime. Here is how the arithmetic usually goes.
- In business since 1976
- Locally owned
- Artwork held on file for reorders
- Printed & laminated in house
- Four counties served
The bid is not the price
Three quotes come in and one is well below the others. It is genuinely cheaper on the day. The question is whether it is cheaper across the period you actually need the sign for.
That comparison is not complicated. Take the price, divide it by the years the sign will realistically last, and compare the annual figures. A sign at twice the price that lasts four times as long is half the cost.
What that arithmetic still misses is everything the failed sign did while it was failing, which is the part that is harder to see and usually larger.
The same sign over ten years
Two ways to buy a storefront sign you need for a decade. The bid column wins on day one and loses everywhere after that.
Buy it twice, maybe three times
- Cheaper substrate, unlaminated print
- Looks correct for roughly two summers
- Faded and tired for the years after that
- Replaced, removed and disposed of
- Bought again — and the second one is not cheaper
Buy it once, reface it once
- Aluminum composite, laminated print
- Holds color through the period
- Frame sized and mounted to outlive the face
- New face on the same structure if branding changes
- One structure, one install, one disruption
What the research actually says
The reference work here is Economic Value of On-Premise Signage, conducted by the University of San Diego in 1997 and published by what is now the Sign Research Foundation. Its headline finding was that adding a single on-premise sign was associated with an average annual sales increase in the region of 4.75%.
It is nearly thirty years old and it is still the study everyone cites, because nothing since has contradicted it. Related industry work has consistently found large shares of first-time customers naming the sign as how they found a business, and has put on-premise signage far below broadcast, print and outdoor advertising on cost per thousand exposures.
Treat all of it as directional rather than a promise about your business. The useful takeaway is not a percentage — it is that a sign is a piece of advertising infrastructure you pay for once and run continuously, which is an unusual thing to be able to buy.
Sources: Economic Value of On-Premise Signage, University of San Diego (1997), Sign Research Foundation.
The costs that don’t show on the invoice
Three costs that never appear on a quote and usually exceed the difference between the quotes.
Looking closed
A faded sign reads as a business that is struggling or gone. That signal runs continuously, to everyone who passes, for as long as the sign is up.
Doing it twice
Removal, disposal, a second install and a second disruption. None of it was in the original comparison.
Dragging the rest down
One tired sign on a property sets the level for all the others. Customers grade the property, not the individual sign.
Deciding whether to spend
How long do you need it?
Six weeks, two years or ten. Everything follows from this and nothing sensible can be decided before it.
Divide price by years
Compare annual cost, not sticker price. This alone settles most of these decisions.
Ask how people found you
For one month, ask every new customer. Free, and better than any estimate of what your sign is doing.
Check if it can be refaced
If the structure is sound, a new face costs a fraction of a rebuild. Always worth asking before replacing.
When cheap is right
This is not an argument for always buying the expensive option. It is an argument for matching the spend to the duration, and plenty of signage should be cheap.
A corrugated plastic sign for a six-week promotion is correct. Yard signs for an event are correct. A banner for a season is correct. In all three cases the material is matched to the calendar and paying more would be waste.
The error is only ever a mismatch — short-term material doing a permanent job, or permanent material doing a six-week one. The first is expensive and visible. The second is merely wasteful.
We publish pricing on the short-term work precisely because it should be quick and cheap to buy. The conversation is worth having on everything else.
Common questions
Is signage actually a good advertising investment?
The industry’s reference study on this is Economic Value of On-Premise Signage, conducted by the University of San Diego in 1997 for what is now the Sign Research Foundation. It found that adding one on-premise sign was associated with an average annual sales increase of around 4.75%. It is an old study, and it remains the most-cited one because the finding has held up.
How does a sign compare to other advertising?
The usual comparison is cost per thousand exposures. On-premise signage sits far below television, newspaper and outdoor advertising on that measure, largely because you pay once and it runs continuously. It also reaches a different audience — people already within reach of your door.
What does a cheap sign actually cost?
The replacement, plus the removal, plus the disruption, plus whatever it did to your appearance in the meantime. A sign that fails in year two on a ten-year need is not a saving, it is a deferred and larger purchase.
Is the most expensive sign always the right one?
No. The right sign is the one matched to how long it has to last. Paying for solid aluminum on a six-week promotion is as much a mistake as coroplast on a storefront, it just costs less.
How do I tell if my current sign is working?
Ask new customers how they found you, for a month. It costs nothing and it is more reliable than any estimate. Industry surveys have consistently found a large share of first-time customers naming the sign.
Do you ever tell customers not to replace a sign?
Regularly. If the structure is sound, a new face on the existing frame costs a fraction of a rebuild, and we would rather do that now and build you a new one when you actually need it.
Visit the shop
Intrepid Signs1700 Walger Ave, Ste E
Rosenberg, TX 77471
281-232-5262
info@intrepidsigns.com
Hours
Monday – Thursday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday – Sunday: Closed
Serving
Fort Bend, Brazoria, Wharton and Matagorda Counties.
Work out whether it’s earning
Tell us what you have and how long it has been there. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth replacing — including when it is not.