Car washes use digital signage to do two jobs at once: turn waiting customers into wash-plan members, and earn from idle screen time by renting it to approved advertisers. Membership is the prize, because recurring plans now carry the business. At Mister Car Wash, unlimited-plan sales made up 75 percent of total wash revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, across more than 2.1 million members.

This guide shows where to put screens, what to run on them, and how to turn the same screens into a second revenue stream.

Why the pay lane and lobby are prime real estate

A car wash holds a captive, repeat audience. Customers queue at the pay lane, ride through the tunnel, and wait in the lobby while interior work is completed. Each of those moments is a stretch of idle attention with a buying decision already in the air. A screen placed there reaches people at the exact point where they weigh a single wash against a monthly plan.

Each of those moments is a stretch of idle attention with a buying decision already in the air

That audience also comes back. Members visit far more often than pay-as-you-go customers, so a message that lands once gets reinforced week after week. Few local businesses get that many repeat at-bats with the same person.

Turn the wait into wash-plan members

Your real KPI is membership conversion, the share of drive-up customers who sign up for a recurring plan. That number sets your monthly recurring revenue, and it is the number signage can move. The subscription model is still growing: an International Carwash Association consumer study found car wash memberships rose about 43 percent from 2019 to 2022.

Screens sell plans best when they do the math for the customer. Put the plan tiers on screen, show that two visits cover the monthly price, and name the perks that matter, such as skip-the-line lanes and any-location access. 

A 2026 study in the Journal of Marketing, based on 237 campaigns and 30 million shoppers, found that in-store digital signage increased the likelihood of buying a featured item by 8.1 percent. Treat that as directional, not a guarantee, but the direction favors putting your best plan in front of a waiting customer.

Earn from idle screen time

Here is the part most operators miss. Your screens run every hour you are open, but your own promos only need a slice of that time. The rest sits idle. An advertising network fills those open slots with paid ads from approved brands and pays you a share, which turns a cost center into income.

The demand behind that is real and growing. U.S. out-of-home ad revenue hit a record 9.1 billion dollars in 2024, and digital screens were the fastest-growing part of that spend at about 34 percent of the total, according to the OAAA. A car wash sits on a high-traffic road with strong daily volume, which is exactly the kind of inventory advertisers want to reach.

What signage will not do

Screens influence the decision in the room. They will not fix a slow tunnel, a weak wash, or a plan priced above what your market will pay. Signage attribution stays directional, so resist crediting every new member to the TV, and read the purchase-lift figures above as averages that will vary with your site and traffic. Being clear about the limits is how you plan around them.

How Beam helps

Beam runs both revenue streams from one dashboard. The Beam Network matches your idle screen time with approved advertisers and pays you a revenue share, while you keep the rest of the loop for your own plan promos. You approve which advertiser categories can run, so no rival wash and nothing off-brand shows up next to your menu. 

A three-bay express wash can run plan tiers and a "two washes cover the month" prompt on the pay-lane and lobby screens, let the network fill a share of the loop with paid ads, and see both the ad payout and the new sign-ups in the same report.

Turn your screens into a revenue stream

If you already run TVs in the lobby or pay lane, they can start paying you back today. See how the Beam Network turns idle screen time into revenue at usebeam.io

FAQ

Where should I place screens in a car wash?

Put them where customers wait and decide: the pay lane or menu board, the lobby or waiting area, and the vacuum stalls. Those spots hold attention long enough for a plan message to land.

What should the screens show to sell memberships?

Lead with plan tiers and the break-even math, then rotate in member perks and seasonal offers. Keep each message short so it reads in the few seconds a customer is looking.

Can I run paid ads without hurting my brand?

Yes. With Beam, you approve advertiser categories and keep a share of the loop for your own content, so the screen still promotes your plans and blocks rival washes.

How fast will the screens pay for themselves?

It depends on your traffic, dwell time, and how many screens you run. Higher-volume sites on busy roads fill ad slots faster, so treat the income as a growing monthly offset rather than a fixed figure.

Do the screens work in outdoor lanes and the tunnel?

Outdoor and pay-lane screens need weather-rated displays built for sunlight and temperature swings. Lobby and waiting-area screens can use standard commercial displays.

Does signage guarantee more members?

No. Signage nudges a decision the customer is already close to making, and results vary with your pricing, wash quality, and traffic. The lift is directional, so measure your own sign-up rate before and after.

Sources

• Mister Car Wash, Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results: https://ir.mistercarwash.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mister-car-wash-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2024

• International Carwash Association, Industry Information and Consumer Research: https://www.carwash.org/industry-information

• OAAA, Out of Home Advertising Revenue Surpasses 9 Billion: https://oaaa.org/news/out-of-home-advertising-revenue-surpasses-9-billion-highest-revenue-volume-to-date/

• Journal of Marketing (2026), In-Store Advertising with Digital Signage: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222429251351578