Key takeaways
- Make the dish, portion and options easy to understand.
- Check the advertising terms in your Merchant Portal before launch.
- Count promotion costs and platform fees when reviewing ad performance.
Review the menu as a new customer
Keep recognizable dish names, then add useful details where needed. A house-special name can stay if its description explains the ingredients and portion. Check combo contents, paid extras and sold-out items. The goal is clarity for the customer; a naming change is not a guaranteed search-ranking technique.
Review food images with the kitchen team. Show the correct dish and portion, and check whether included sides are clearly distinguished from optional extras. A consistently presented menu is useful, but it should still look like the restaurant’s actual food.
Understand what the ad product charges for
DoorDash’s US Sponsored Listings page describes a pay-per-order product and directs merchants to Campaign Reporting in the Merchant Portal. Verify the applicable pricing, attribution rules and available features in your Canadian account before starting a GTA campaign.
Record the audience, budget, dates and any promotion attached to the test. Assign a person to check that the listing is available and the kitchen can fulfill the promoted orders. Increased demand is only useful if the restaurant can serve it consistently.
Review the money left after the order
For each reporting period, separate gross order sales, refunds, restaurant-funded discounts, platform fees, food and packaging costs, ad charges and management fees. Use the same currency and dates throughout. Platform-attributed orders may overlap with customers who would have ordered anyway, so attribution alone does not establish incremental growth.
Use your own order statements and kitchen costs to work out what remains after each order. Subtract the actual advertising and management charges for the same period, then review what remains to cover overhead. Platform fees and campaign costs depend on your account and agreement.
Give every location its own review
A downtown location and a suburban location may have different menus, capacity and trading patterns. Keep campaign notes and results by store before combining them into a brand total. Document closures and menu changes so a quiet week is not automatically labelled an advertising problem.
Our restaurant work combines listing improvements, creative, websites and campaigns. We agree the scope and reporting with your team before work begins.
Before we start
A few useful answers.
Should we advertise on DoorDash or Uber Eats first?
Start by reviewing the data and margins for each location and platform. Prioritize the opportunity you can fulfill, measure and afford rather than choosing by a universal revenue threshold.
Your next project
Let’s put a plan together.
Tell us what needs to change. We’ll recommend a scope, explain the work, and agree the next steps with you.