Signage optimisation
You're paying for signage rights you're not using.
Every storefront has a legal limit on how big its signage can be. Most of yours run far below it — and below the limit means below the radar.
Installed today
18 sq ft
Hard to see from the street
Permitted by code
64 sq ft
What the ordinance already allows
Headroom
+46 sq ft
Unused, on one facade
Illustrative single-store example
The problem, in your P&L
One under-signed store is a rounding error. Two thousand is a growth strategy you haven't run.
The rules differ in every city, county and township, and nobody on your team can read 400 sign codes and walk 2,000 storefronts. So the gap between what your stores may display and what they do display goes unmeasured, year after year.
No database
The rules live in thousands of places
Sign codes are written city by city, county by county, township by township — size caps, frontage formulas, height, illumination, overlay districts. There is no national source to look them up in.
Below max
Most stores never use what they are allowed
A store permitted 20 square feet of signage that runs 5 is invisible next to what it could legally be. Invisibility is lost traffic, and lost traffic is lost sales.
Doesn't scale
The work cannot be done by hand
One store is an afternoon. A portfolio means reading hundreds of ordinances and reviewing every storefront. Nobody can walk 2,000 stores — so nobody does.
Worked at 2,000 locations
What the audit costs by hand, and what it is worth.
Finding each governing sign code, reading it, extracting the caps, then pulling the lease clause and a current storefront photo for every location. Both figures below are stated at one portfolio size, with every assumption printed.
~400
Municipal sign codes to find and read
~2,200 hrs
Of ordinance research and per-store review
~1.2
Full-time-equivalent years, per audit pass
~$143K
In loaded labour, at $65 an hour
…and months of calendar time before a single prioritised decision. Surfaice runs it automatically, with the first audited locations back in 24 hours.
The opportunity
~$64M
A year in unrealised signage-driven revenue, across roughly 400 locations with detectable upside.
What that figure assumes
- Portfolio size
- 2,000 locations
- Average revenue per location
- $2M a year
- Locations with detectable upside
- 20%
- Sales lift at an optimised location
- 8%
Improved primary signage is repeatedly linked to sales lift in signage research. Surfaice models that lift; it does not promise it.
How the agent does it
Proof the number is real.
Three steps, each leaving behind something you can check — the ordinance section, the storefront, the arithmetic.
- 01
Reads the local sign code
Finds the governing ordinance — city, county, township or overlay district — and extracts permitted sign types, size caps including frontage formulas, height, illumination and permit requirements.
The exact section quoted, with a link
- 02
Sees what is actually there
Pulls real storefront imagery from street-level photography and assesses the current sign: type, approximate size and condition. No site visits, no asking store managers for photos.
Current storefront, not a survey response
- 03
Ranks the gap
Computes headroom — allowed minus existing — for every location, then prioritises the portfolio by revenue opportunity, feasibility and visibility upside.
Highest-headroom stores first
Cited sources
Every cap traces back to a quoted ordinance section.
Confidence scores
Per-field certainty on every output.
Flags, not fabrications
An unclear code surfaces for review instead of being guessed at.
Any jurisdiction
City, county, township and overlay codes.
What you get
fictional brandA ranked list your team can act on Monday.
Not a methodology deck. A prioritised portfolio table, and a per-location report with the storefront photo, the quoted ordinance, the headroom math and any fields flagged for verification — ready to hand to your signage vendor and permitting team.
| Location | Jurisdiction | Allowed | Installed | Headroom | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Store 214 — Riverbend Commons | Maple Glen, OH (city) | 64 sq ft | 18 sq ft | +46 sq ft | High |
| Store 087 — Lakeside Plaza | Fox Hollow, TX (city) | 48 sq ft | 16 sq ft | +32 sq ft | High |
| Store 309 — Cedar Point Crossing | Bremerton Twp, MI (township) | 40 sq ft | 22 sq ft | +18 sq ft | Medium |
| Store 152 — Old Mill District | Harlow County, GA (county) | 36 sq ft | 24 sq ft | +12 sq ft | Medium |
| Store 261 — Gateway Square | Avon Park, FL (overlay) | Flagged | 20 sq ft | Verify | Review |
Each line opens a per-location report: the current storefront photo, the quoted ordinance section with its citation, the headroom calculation, and any field flagged for verification.
Accuracy, honestly
Why it isn't 100% — and why that's the point.
~90%
Field accuracy on sign-code extractions, storefront reads and headroom math included.
Street-level imagery isn't always current, and some parcels can't be zoned remotely — overlay districts and parcel-level exceptions occasionally need a human eye. So when the agent isn't sure, it flags the field for verification instead of guessing, and tells you exactly which stores need a look before you spend money on them.
Field accuracy you can audit beats a perfect-looking number nobody should trust.
For finalist locations, on-site capture before fabrication is the recommendation.
How the service works
Send a list. Get back a plan.
Ten stores or five thousand — the same process either way.
- 01
Send your location list
A CSV or a pasted list of addresses. That is all it takes to start.
- 02
First audited results in 24 hours
A real sample of your own stores — sign code quoted, storefront assessed, headroom computed.
- 03
Full portfolio in days
Every location, every jurisdiction, ranked by opportunity. Days rather than quarters.
- 04
A prioritised, sourced action list
Hand it to your signage vendor and permitting team, and start with the highest-headroom stores.
On the roadmap, not yet live
Today the ceiling is the municipal allowance plus existing conditions. Next, your lease signage rights layer in, so the ceiling becomes the lower of what the city allows and what your lease grants.
Send your locations. In 24 hours, see the first stores worth fixing.
A free sample audit on a subset of your own stores: the quoted sign code, the current storefront, the headroom and the priority. Your list stays your list.