I worked in regional online marketing at PedidosYa, on the delivery-app side, and from there you see something few restaurant owners account for: a restaurant pays for marketing three times. In the app’s commission, in the advertising it buys inside the app, and in its own ads on Google or Instagram. Each is measured separately and nobody adds up the total.

The delivery app is an acquisition channel, and charges like one

Part of the commission is, functionally, the cost of being found by customers who did not know you. That is valuable when you open or enter a new area, and much less valuable on regulars who order every week. The useful question: what share of app orders are new customers, and what share would have ordered anyway?

In-app advertising: measure what is incremental

  • Watch new-customer orders, not total orders. If ads lift orders but not new customers, you are buying your own customers.
  • Switch on and off. Two weeks with, two without, same part of the month. See a real experimentation program.
  • Compute margin after everything: commission, the discount you fund, ad cost, packaging. A promo order can be margin-negative and look like a win in the app dashboard.

Google: the cheapest channel almost nobody works

“Restaurant near me”, “sushi palermo”, “steakhouse open now” are answered by Google Maps through Google Business Profile. Correct category, real hours, your own food photos, reviews with replies, and a menu with an order or booking link. Paid Google Ads come later, with the setup in Google Ads for local businesses.

Meta and Instagram: to be chosen, not found

Instagram is where people decide they want to go next time. It works for openings in a tight area, for building a direct channel with click-to-WhatsApp ads, and with local creators; see macro vs micro influencers.

The direct channel

Moving a weekly app customer to ordering by WhatsApp or your website saves the commission on every order. It needs a reason (an exclusive item, a lower price, a rewards program) and an easy channel. Check your contract with each app first: some have clauses on price parity or on contacting customers who came through them.

How to split the money

  1. A flawless Google Business Profile. Free.
  2. A direct ordering channel, with someone answering.
  3. In-app ads, measured by new and incremental customers.
  4. Meta with WhatsApp destination to build your own customers locally.
  5. Google Ads once you know what a customer is worth.

Once a month, add the three layers (commission, in-app ads, own ads) and divide by new-customer orders. That number is what growth actually costs you. For the general order for any local business, see small business digital marketing: where to start.