Most first-time sellers on EverythingAds price the sticker, not the exposure. They look at a sheet of vinyl, add the printing cost, add a small margin, and post that number. Then a brand that would have paid eight times that for a month of visibility on a busy route walks past, because the listing says "Rp 50.000" and nobody is fooled into thinking that is a bargain.
We have watched this happen a lot. The fix is not to charge more because you feel confident. The fix is to price the thing the buyer is actually buying: repeated, visible, relevant attention from people who already spend money in the category you sell into.
Here is the framework we use, and it works for a car body in Denpasar as well as for a shop window in Jakarta.
Start with time, not surface
The single biggest shift is to stop thinking in rupiah per sticker and start thinking in rupiah per day of exposure. A car that sits on a main road in Renon from seven in the morning to seven in the evening is not a surface, it is roughly twelve hours of being seen by every vehicle that passes. A laptop lid that only comes out of a bag at a coffee shop is maybe two hours a day of exposure, on a much smaller surface, to a much more specific audience.
Price the time first and the surface second. Once you know how many hours a day your object is genuinely visible, most other price questions answer themselves.
The five variables that actually move price
Exposure minutes per day
This is the core number. Count the hours the object is in public view, then multiply by an honest estimate of how many people can actually read an ad on it. A car door holds a large message that a driver can absorb at a traffic light. A helmet shell carries a logo that a passenger beside the rider can read, but only from the side and only for a few seconds.
A rough way to work it: hours visible per day multiplied by passes per hour multiplied by the number of people in a passing vehicle who could read it. That gives you an "eyeballs per day" figure, which is the unit brands actually think in. We keep this estimate deliberately conservative. Brands know you are guessing, and a claim they suspect is inflated costs you the next conversation.
Location or route
The route matters more than the address. A car parked on a side street in a quiet residential area sees far fewer people than the same car driving the same streets in a delivery run. If your object moves, the route is the asset. Describe the route in your listing: where it goes, how many times a day, and at what hours. You can add route points to the listing so the brand can see the line on the map, and you can browse how other sellers in your city have described theirs on the Explore page.
For a fixed location, think about footfall rather than traffic. A shop window on a lane with steady pedestrian traffic is worth more than a shop window facing a parking area, even if the parking area is bigger.
Surface size
Size matters, but it is the third variable, not the first. A large surface that is only visible for twenty minutes a day is worth less than a small surface that people look at for a full hour. What you need is enough area for the message to read, which for most categories is a logo plus a short line of text, not a paragraph.
Measure the usable area in centimetres and put the number in the listing. Buyers who can plan artwork around a real dimension are much more likely to reply than buyers who have to ask.
Audience match
This is where a cheap surface becomes a good deal, and where an expensive one can be a waste. A food brand does not care about the same rider as a fintech app. A clinic wants to reach people in one neighbourhood. A co-working space wants office workers specifically.
Ask who actually sees the object, not just how many people see it. If the answer is "office workers between eight and nine in the morning", that is more valuable to some advertisers than a much larger general audience, and you can charge for the specificity.
Duration
Longer is worth more, and not linearly. A one-month booking is the baseline. A three-month booking at the same monthly rate is a better deal for the brand and much better for you, because the installation cost is paid once and the marginal cost of the next month is close to zero. Price long commitments with a discount and say so plainly in the listing, so brands know what they get.
Sanity-checking a price against local OOH rates
You do not need a media plan to have a rough reference point. Look at what a large static billboard on a busy road in the same city costs per month, and treat that as the ceiling for anything with genuinely comparable reach. A car doing a delivery route in traffic will not beat a roadside billboard, but a car doing a fixed daily route through a commercial district can sit somewhere between a street banner and a small billboard, which is a wide and useful band.
Two rules of thumb keep you in a defensible range. First, your monthly rate should be a clear fraction of what the same reach would cost through a conventional OOH channel, because the buyer is getting a smaller but more targeted slice. Second, if your number is so low that a single day of brand exposure would cost the buyer more than your whole month, you have priced yourself into a corner where nobody takes you seriously.
How to structure the listing
Quote a price per period, and set a minimum duration. A listing that says "Rp 750.000 per month, minimum two months" is a clear commercial offer. A listing that says "Rp 750.000" makes the buyer guess whether it is per day, per week, or per month, and many of them just move on rather than ask.
Be explicit about what is included. Say whether printing is on you, whether installation is on you, and whether the brand supplies final artwork or just a logo. Those three lines remove most of the back-and-forth that otherwise eats a week.
Include the exposure estimate and how you arrived at it. "Twelve hours a day on Jalan By-pass, roughly 200 passing vehicles an hour at peak" tells a brand far more than a price alone.
Common mistakes that cost sellers money
Pricing per impression you cannot measure. If you cannot count impressions, do not sell impressions. Sell the day, the route, and the audience. Brands who trust a measured number will pay for it; brands who suspect a made-up one will not renew.
Ignoring print and replacement cost. A wrap that peels in the rain and needs redoing in month two costs you time and credibility. Budget the material, the labour, and one contingency replacement inside your rate. If replacement is genuinely not your problem, say that in the listing so the price comparison is fair on both sides.
Charging per listing instead of per slot. One car can carry several logos. A body panel can take two, a laptop lid can take a small grid of stickers. Each slot you can sell is a separate line of income on the same object, and most sellers leave that on the table.
Saying no to a long booking. A brand offering six months is offering you predictable income and a reference you can quote to the next brand. Price it, do not panic.
Not using the map. Listings with a map point and a described route get materially more replies than listings with photos alone, because the brand can see the geography. If you can share a point, share it, and study how other listings in your city are positioned on the map view.
A last practical note
Listing on EverythingAds is free and the platform takes no cut, so the number you set is the number you keep. That is a real advantage over a traditional media owner who has a sales team and a minimum rate card. Use it. Set a rate that reflects the exposure, publish the reasoning alongside it, and let the brands with the right fit come to you. If the first serious offer comes in below your number, that is usually a sign the listing description undersold the surface, not that your price was wrong.
Ready to put a number on your own car body, helmet, or shop window? You can list it free in a couple of minutes on the post a listing page, or browse what comparable spaces are asking in your city on Explore.
FAQ
How do I calculate the right price for my car body ad space?
Work from exposure, not surface area. Estimate how many hours a day the car is in public view, roughly how many people in each passing vehicle could read the ad, and multiply to get an eyes-per-day figure. Price per month based on that number, then sanity-check against what a small roadside billboard in your city costs for a month. Most car body listings that feel too expensive are actually too cheap once you compare them to a real OOH rate for the same reach.
Should I charge more for a long-term booking?
Yes, but charge less per month than you would for a single month. The installation effort and material cost are paid once, so the second and third months are close to pure income for you. Offering a clear multi-month discount makes the deal attractive to the brand and gives you predictable income. State the minimum duration and the monthly rate in the listing so buyers can do the arithmetic themselves.
How do I price a helmet or a small surface without losing money?
Price the hours of exposure and the audience, not the physical size. A small surface on a rider who works a busy commercial route for ten hours a day can be worth more than a large surface on an object that is rarely in public. Include the material and replacement cost in your rate, and consider selling several separate slots on the same object when the surface allows it. If you are unsure how a similar space is priced, check what comparable listings are asking on Explore.