What Return on Investment Can I Expect from Commercial Van Wraps?

We work with thousands of British businesses here at WrapUK, from large commercial wraps for extensive fleets to bespoke design van graphics for individual traders.

We’re conscious that any investment you make needs to add value to your business – as well as to make your vehicles look amazing!

Let’s run through some of the costs vs benefits and help you make educated decisions about whether van wraps are the right option for your company. If you’re stuck, don’t know what you could get for your budget, or want a bit of advice from the wrapping experts, give us a ring, and we’ll run through the options!

Benefits of Investing in Van Graphics

Ok, let’s kick off by summarising the advantages of wrapping your fleet vehicles or business car.

Advertise Your Business Locally

It’s all about what sort of exposure you need and whether you’re going to attract new customers in the right way.

Say you’re a mobile hairdresser; as an example, it’s pretty likely you spend a fair amount of time driving around and make your business infinitely more visible, having a smart logo and contact details on your car.

Generate More Customer Enquiries

Leading on from exposure, you don’t just want to use your vehicle as a moving billboard; you need that to translate into calls, enquiries, purchases and profit. An excellent quality vehicle sign-writing service gives a professional appearance and draws attention from passers-by.

Static advertising, like a magazine ad or poster, relies on the customer to happen to walk past and take a look at your sign. Commercial wraps work the opposite way – encouraging attention with vibrant design, stand out graphics and attractive decals

Van Graphics vs Conventional Advertising

So, if we’re putting our marketing hats on, we want to think about a few different things when quantifying the return on investment you might expect from your van wraps.

• • Impressions – how many people will see your ad?
  • Average views – what sort of exposure does your sign have?
  • Cost – how much will you need to invest to start with?

Now, it’s relatively easy to see how commercial wraps make for an intelligent investment compared to other advertising mediums (if you’ve ever paid for a page in a magazine, you know what we’re talking about). Of course, there isn’t a fixed price list for vehicle wrapping. It depends on:

• • The size of the vehicle and the number of vehicles in the fleet.
  • Whether you’re after a full or partial wrap.
  • Custom design wraps vs templates.
  • The vinyl you use – we supply top brands including 3M, Avery, PWF, all with different applications, textures, finishes and price points.

Plus, the advertising impact will vary, with bold, snappy designs the best way to stand out in a crowd. However, we can get some rough ideas about the ROI available, looking at figures from organisations like Perception Research.

Return on Investment From Van Graphic Advertising

Interested in number crunching? Let’s dive into some stats!

• • 96% of people say that they have noticed truck wraps when travelling.
  • 98% feel that they have a positive brand impression through vehicle ads.
  • 75% of viewers have made decisions about a business because of lorry wraps.
  • 29% of people who see a vehicle wrap make a buying decision based on that alone.

Those are seriously impressive figures!

If we take the M25 as an example, Junctions 13-14 carry about 200,000 cars on your regular day. Say even a fraction of those people notice your graphics, take note of the branding, and some go on to look you up online – it’s a vast potential audience, with an opportunity to increase brand awareness without limit. For every mile you drive, van graphics can reach between 600-1,000 sets of eyes, making the cost per impression anywhere from £0.30 to £0.77.

That compares to a cost of around £23 per reader for a newspaper ad, £18 per viewer for a TV commercial, and £2 per person for a traditional billboard poster.

As we’ve mentioned, not all commercial wraps will have the same impact, identical customer base, or similar travel patterns. Therefore, it’s worth taking the time to consider the type of van graphics you want and whether van wrapping near me is the best quality option.

Here are a few tips to make sure you’re getting as much back from your investment in commercial wraps as possible:

Tailor Your Van Graphics to Your Budget

Full van wraps tend to be the most noticeable, but if you have a limited budget or want to customise a reasonably large fleet, you don’t need to exhaust your resources.

Partial body wraps, custom vehicle sign-writing, or van graphics can all be cleverly placed on the most visible parts of your vehicle, reducing your outlay and increasing that investment return. Likewise, it’s better to have a smaller number of exceptional standard lorry wraps than a whole fleet with scrappy decals, bubbling vinyl and low-quality finishes.

Make Sure Your Text and Fonts Are Legible

A massive pitfall is that a set of van wraps look great up close, but from a distance or on the road, the text is so tiny, pale, or swirly; the passers-by don’t have a clue what it says.

We’ve published a separate guide with more information, called How Important is Design and Font in Commercial Vehicle Wraps. Well worth a read, so you’re clued up in how to make sure your van graphics stand out!

Keep Your Wraps in Great Shape

Finally, it’s all about brand image. Hard-working work vans and company cars tend to put in the miles, and road dust and dirt are inevitable.

To keep your lorry wraps looking great, we recommend making an effort to clean your vehicle regularly so it doesn’t become worn, or your wraps don’t become obscured behind a layer of motorway grime. Find more tips on Car Wrapping Maintenance in our online article.

If you’d like more info on any of the advice we’ve included here or want to get to work with a quote on your commercial wrap upgrade, get in touch with the WrapUK team.