How Much Should You Spend on DoorDash and Uber Eats Ads?

Start at the minimum and scale only when the return earns it. On Uber Eats that's about $3 a day. On DoorDash it's a $3 manual bid per order, or about $7 to $8 a day if you set a daily budget. From there, raise spend 10 to 20% at a time, and only when the return clears that app's bar.

There's no right percentage of sales. A store in a small market might do great on $3 a day for months. A store in a crowded market might justify a lot more. The return tells you which one you are.

Differently, which is part of why the budgets look different.

• Uber Eats ads are bid per click in the portal, with a minimum around $3 a day. Uber shows you impressions, click-through rate (about 5% is typical), cost per click ($0.20 to $0.70 is what I've seen) and click-to-order (11 to 12% is healthy).
• DoorDash sponsored listings charge you per order. The manual minimum bid is $3 per order. DoorDash will suggest $5, and auto-bidding usually lands around $5 to $6. Weekly budgets I've seen start around $70 to $98, and they often underspend.

Both come straight out of your payout. That's why I show owners the math before we add a dollar. Say you add $5 a day on Uber Eats at a $0.20 cost per click. That's about 25 more clicks. At a 12% click-to-order rate, it's about 3 extra orders a day. If those orders are worth it to you, the extra $5 is worth testing.

The apps calculate it differently, so you can't compare them side by side.

• Uber Eats: 8 to 10x is healthy. At 8 to 12x or higher, I scale up. Under 8x, I hold. Around 6x, I stop adding money. That rule came from Uber reps.
• DoorDash: DoorDash calls anything over 3.5x excellent and under 2.5x fair. 7x on DoorDash is very high.

One more thing about Uber's number. It counts any order from a customer who saw your ad, including orders that also used a promo. So read it as Uber's attributed return, and don't add it on top of your promo sales. I go into that overlap in running ads and promos at the same time.

When the return is above the line for that app, and not before. When it is, I move in small steps:

• Step up 10 to 20% at a time. Let the return settle before the next move.
• Wait 1 to 2 weeks between changes. Don't revert a budget after a week. Sometimes the algorithm takes a second to adjust.
• Log every change in the campaign name. A month later you'll want to know what changed and when.
• Find the floor on DoorDash auto-bidding. Step the bid down each month until orders drop. That tells you the least you need to pay.

Market size matters a lot. For a halal South Asian restaurant I advised (a partner agency ran the account), a $3 manual DoorDash bid returned 13 to 14x in a small market. In a competitive market I'd start nearer $4 and check back in a month.

Underspending can be its own problem. I once wrote to an owner, "In eight months the campaign has never once spent above $109 in a week, so we've simply never tested higher." If the return is strong and you've never pushed the budget, you don't actually know your ceiling.

No. Don't go by the recommendations they give you. They'll always tell you to multiply spend. The "recommended for max sales" budget and the projected sales next to it are, honestly, money in Uber Eats' pocket.

The same goes for the reps. They can be helpful, but they don't work for you. They work for the company. When a rep suggests a bigger budget or a second sponsored listing on the same store, I usually say no. One sponsored listing per store is enough. Two usually means a rep pushed it, and you end up competing against yourself.

What I do ask reps for is ad credits, early. If credits are about to expire, pace the budget so you use all of them before the date. It's free money. We'll take it.

The most common reasons I see:

• The listing went stale. If a sponsored listing ad is set at the same level for a long time, it goes quote unquote stale. I nudge the budget each month, even $70 to $73. A DoorDash rep's rule I follow: replace any listing that has run more than 6 weeks with a fresh one.
• Manual bidding in a crowded market. At a historic diner in San Francisco we manage, switching to manual bids made impressions plummet. We switched back to automatic, and boom, it jumped back up. In competitive markets, automatic usually wins.
• No offer running. Ads work best when there is an offer running alongside them. Your store card shows your best live campaign, and that tag is part of what gets the tap. Match the offer to the audience, too. My customer ladder for delivery promos covers who gets what.
• The store isn't ready. Ads multiply what's already there. If photos, prices and ratings are weak, more traffic just means more people passing on you. Fix the marketplace basics before buying ads.

If ads are on and orders still aren't coming, the problem may be conversion. This post on going invisible on DoorDash and Uber Eats helps you tell the two apart.

What percentage of sales should go to delivery ads?

I don't use a percentage. Start at the minimum ($3 a day on Uber Eats, a $3 bid per order on DoorDash) and raise it 10 to 20% at a time only when the return clears the app's bar.

What's a good return on Uber Eats ads?

8 to 10x is healthy. At 8 to 12x or more, scale up. Under 8x, hold. Around 6x, stop adding money.

How much does a DoorDash sponsored listing cost?

You pay per order. The manual minimum bid is $3, DoorDash suggests $5, and auto-bidding usually lands around $5 to $6 per order.

How long should I wait before changing an ad budget again?

One to two weeks. Then judge the result on the full month, not a few days.

If you're not sure whether your ad spend is paying for itself, that's something we check first for every restaurant we take on. Get in touch and I'll take a look.