Restaurant marketing ideas, with what each one costs

The restaurant marketing ideas that cost least are the ones that send regulars to a page you own: an ordering link on your Google Business Profile ($0), QR codes on tables and bags (printing), an email to past guests ($0 under 250 contacts on Mailchimp, $13 a month after), and promo codes for slow days, where the discount is the only real cost. Paid reach, like DoorDash Promotions and Sponsored Listings, finds new guests but adds fees on every order it brings.

What does each idea cost?

Prices are from each company’s own pages, read on November 4, 2026.

The free ideas make your own ordering page the first thing a regular sees, and your Google profile also reaches people searching nearby. The two paid ones put you in front of DoorDash users who have never ordered from you.

How do you get Google to show your own ordering link?

Google Business Profile is free, and its Food ordering section lets you add your own ordering link and mark it as preferred for pickup and, separately, for delivery. Third-party providers such as delivery apps can show up there too. Google’s help page says you can remove one, and the provider has to take its link down within 5 business days of your request.

Setting your own link as preferred for pickup matters most if Google currently sends pickup guests to a delivery app. In the DoorDash app a pickup order costs you a 6% commission (with pickup menu prices matching in-store prices); on your own page on Expresso it costs card processing only. DoorDash’s own Online Ordering link has no commission but does carry a payment processing fee.

Do QR codes and table tents bring in orders?

They bring in repeat orders from people who already know you. A QR code on a takeout bag or a table tent sends the next order to your page instead of an app. The cost is printing. Our guide to QR code ordering covers what table ordering systems charge.

Is email marketing worth it for a small restaurant?

For a restaurant with a few hundred regulars, email costs little. Mailchimp is free under 250 contacts. Essentials starts at $13 a month and Standard at $20 a month, both with a 14-day free trial. Standard sends up to 6,000 emails a month at the 500-contact tier. One email a month with this week’s special and your ordering link is enough to start, and a sign-up sheet at the counter or a form on your site builds the list.

Which restaurant promotions cost the least?

A $5 discount costs $5 wherever you run it; what changes is the fee the channel adds on top. The table prices a $5-off promotion on a $30 order, before tax and tip. DoorDash pickup is in it because delivery commission also pays for the Dasher, and Expresso has no delivery.

On Expresso, card processing is 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total, and the guest pays a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal after the promo. With the promo that is 63¢ on $25, so processing runs on $25.63. Without it the guest fee is 75¢ and processing runs on $30.75. Tax and tip raise Expresso’s processing a little, since it runs on the whole total; DoorDash’s commission stays on the pre-tax subtotal.

DoorDash’s help page says a promotion’s cost “can include the customer discount or delivery fee, plus the DoorDash Marketing Fee.” It does not publish the Marketing Fee, so the table leaves it out. DoorDash applies the commission to the subtotal less discounts, so the 25% Plus rate runs on the $25. Your Merchant Portal shows a cost estimate before you launch a campaign. DoorDash also offers up to $100 in promotion credit to select merchants who run their first “Discount for Customers” campaign.

A promo code on your own page reaches only people who already have the link. A DoorDash promotion puts you in the app’s Deals tab, on your store page and on the DoorDash homepage, and you can aim it at new, existing or lapsed customers. For a restaurant short on new guests, that reach is what the fees pay for. Keep the promotion narrow: DoorDash lets you set a minimum order, a maximum discount, the hours it runs and an average weekly budget.

What do DoorDash Sponsored Listings cost?

You set a bid, the most you will pay per order, and a budget. DoorDash charges only when an order comes through the ad, not for clicks or views. Ads show on the DoorDash homepage and in category and search results. DoorDash says businesses earn $6 for every $1 spent on ads on average, from its own study of 15,700 merchants’ two-week campaigns in April 2023. On the Premier plan, DoorDash runs ads for you at no extra cost. Select merchants can get $100 in credit per store for a first campaign.

Every order an ad brings still pays the usual commission: 15% to 30% of the subtotal on delivery, depending on the plan, or 6% on pickup. Our breakdown of DoorDash fees for restaurants has the full rates.

How do you choose where to start?

Start with the free ideas, because they lower the cost of orders you already get. Moving 100 pickup orders a month at $30 from DoorDash pickup ($1.80 each at 6%, $180 a month) to your own page on Expresso ($1.28 each before tax and tip, $128) saves about $52 a month, more than two months of Mailchimp Standard. At a typical restaurant profit margin of 3% to 9%, those fees decide whether an order makes money.

Spend on DoorDash Promotions or Sponsored Listings when the problem is that not enough people know you exist. Set a weekly budget, watch the reorder rate DoorDash reports after 30 days, and stop a campaign that brings one-time discount hunters.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is a direct ordering page for independent restaurants: pickup, curbside, scheduled orders and QR code ordering at the table, with no monthly fee and no contract. It has promo codes, percent or dollar off, with start and end dates and a usage limit. Card processing is 3.2% + 30¢ per order, guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee shown at checkout, and the kitchen tablet is $149 once. Payouts go to your bank every week.

Expresso has no marketplace, no delivery, no loyalty program and no email tool, so it brings you no new guests the way DoorDash can. It is the page your Google link, QR codes and emails point to. Our comparison of online ordering systems covers the other options.