DoorDash ads for restaurants and brands

This guide is built from DoorDash's merchant and advertising pages: Boost visibility with Sponsored Listings, How to create and manage Sponsored Listings, Overview of DoorDash Ads and Advertising solutions for CPG brands. For the same topic on Uber Eats, see our Uber and Uber Eats ads guide.

Two kinds of DoorDash ads

• Restaurants and local stores on DoorDash run Sponsored Listings from the Marketing tab of the Merchant Portal. They pay per order placed through the ad.
• Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands whose products are sold through grocery and convenience stores on DoorDash use DoorDash Ads: Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands in Brand Center, plus managed formats. These are bid on a cost-per-click basis.

The two are set up, priced and reported differently, so the sections below take them one at a time.

Sponsored Listings for restaurants

DoorDash's help article describes them as "ads that help more customers discover your business on DoorDash." They can appear "on the DoorDash homepage and at the top of relevant search results", and DoorDash's product page adds category results.

Placement is competitive. The Sponsored Listings page says: "Your ads will appear based on your relevance to a customer's search and the strength of your bid compared to other businesses on DoorDash."

How restaurants pay: per order

DoorDash contrasts this with other platforms: Sponsored Listings "are pay-per-order. That means you'll only be charged for orders placed through your ad — not for clicks or impressions."

• Budget: you set an average weekly budget across the stores in the campaign. DoorDash's help page says "Your recommended budget is based on your sales and data from businesses like yours", and shows estimated weekly costs, sales and return on ad spend as you adjust it.
• Bid: "Your bid is the maximum amount you're willing to pay per order." Automatic bidding lets DoorDash adjust it to stay competitive; custom bidding lets you set the maximum.
• Trial credit: select US merchants who have never run Sponsored Listings may get $100 in credit per store. DoorDash calls it a limited-time offer that "DoorDash may end this offer at any time", and after the credit is used, "merchants will be automatically charged for the remainder of the campaigns per store."
• Premier plan: on DoorDash's highest restaurant plan, "DoorDash automatically runs a free Sponsored Listing as an included plan benefit." DoorDash's pricing article lists Premier at a 30% delivery commission.

DoorDash publishes no standard cost per order. What you pay depends on your bid and on competing businesses in your delivery area.

Setting up a Sponsored Listing

In the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing, then Run a campaign, and select Create ad in the Advertise to customers tile. The help article lists these choices:

• Stores and audience: all customers in your delivery radius, new customers, existing customers ("ordered from your business within the last six months"), or lapsed customers (no order in six months or longer).
• Duration and schedule: keep it going until you pause it, or set an end date; continuous scheduling runs during your open hours.
• Average weekly budget and bid strategy, as above.
• Expanded Ad Reach: "allows your ad to appear on partner platforms like Facebook and Instagram, using the same campaign budget and with no additional setup." You choose whether to turn it on.
• Name and credits: apply any marketing credits from your Marketing Wallet.

Ads, promotions and Smart Campaigns

DoorDash's Marketing 101 guide separates three tools: "Sponsored Listings help more local customers see your business, Promotions encourage them to place an order, and Smart Campaigns automatically tailor promotions to individual customers."

• Promotions: item promotions (such as buy one, get one free or discounted items), order discounts (spend x, get y) and free delivery. You fund the discount.
• Smart Campaigns: promotions that DoorDash tailors per customer from your store data. "Every Smart Campaign includes Spend x, get y", with buy one, get one free included by default unless you opt out.

DoorDash suggests running a promotion alongside an ad, so customers who see the ad have a reason to order.

Restaurant reporting

In the Merchant Portal, go to Marketing, then Campaigns. For Sponsored Listings you can track:

• Impressions, campaign sales, orders and spend.
• Return on ad spend: "How much you earned in sales for every $1 spent."
• A reorder view for new or lapsed customers, "available after 30 days of campaign activity".
• A chart comparing the cost to acquire each customer with what they spent over 30, 60 and 90 days.

DoorDash Ads for consumer brands

For brands, DoorDash's ads overview says: "DoorDash offers both self-serve and managed service advertising solutions." Self-serve means Brand Center or an approved API partner: "Pacvue, Flywheel, Skai, or CommerceIQ."

• Sponsored Products: item-level ads in store collections, category pages, search results and DoubleDash (the add-on screen right after checkout).
• Sponsored Brands: your logo and message with "a curated set of products in a shoppable carousel" on store pages, in-store search and category pages.

Getting access is not open sign-up. The CPG page says new advertisers start "by contacting the DoorDash team, filling out our interest form or reaching out to your account manager", and users are added by a DoorDash Account Executive or an existing user on the brand account.

Brand Center: budgets and bidding

Brand Center replaced Ads Manager. DoorDash's Brand Center guide says it "builds on the previous Ads Manager platform," adding catalog, inventory and retailer views. Before ads can run, "Your catalog must be complete and properly linked to retailer listings before you can run ads."

From DoorDash's Sponsored Product setup guide:

• Budgets: daily or lifetime. A daily budget can have a total campaign cap, and Optimized Pacing spends "more on high-traffic days and less on slower ones".
• Auto-bidding: "attempts to spend your budget while optimizing for sales and minimizing cost-per-click (CPC)." It needs a daily budget and is only available to US advertisers.
• Custom bidding: you set bids, targeting and placements yourself, with either budget type.
• Time zone: "DoorDash runs on UTC," so a midnight Eastern launch needs a 5:00 AM UTC start.

Campaign reports are in Brand Center, "with key metrics updated hourly", according to the CPG page.

Managed formats and offsite ads

Some brand formats are only sold through DoorDash's team. The ads overview says "Spotlight, Banner Ads, and Promotions are available through managed service."

• Spotlight: a large static or short video creative on the homepage.
• Banner ads: on DoubleDash post-checkout pages and dedicated vertical landing pages. "Banner campaigns are subject to a spend minimum."
• Brand promotions: advertiser-funded discounts shown as badges on store pages, also subject to a spend minimum.
• Offsite ads: the CPG page lists Meta, Google Shopping, YouTube and TikTok, with programmatic buying through The Trade Desk.

DoorDash does not publish the spend minimums; it asks you to contact your Account Executive.

How we start a DoorDash campaign

This is our own practice, not DoorDash's guidance:

• For a restaurant, we check menu photos, prices and hours first, then start one Sponsored Listing for new customers with automatic bidding and the recommended weekly budget.
• We compare ad-driven sales with ad cost, DoorDash commission and food cost after two to four weeks, not with sales alone.
• We add a promotion only after the ad has a baseline, so we can see what each adds.
• For a brand, we fix catalog and retailer links in Brand Center before the first Sponsored Products campaign.

For dine-in, bookings and orders on your own site, see Google Ads for restaurants. If you want help with delivery-app or retail advertising, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

How much do DoorDash ads cost for restaurants?

You set an average weekly budget and a maximum bid per order. Sponsored Listings are pay-per-order, so you are charged for orders placed through the ad, not for clicks or impressions. DoorDash publishes no standard price per order.

Where do DoorDash Sponsored Listings appear?

On the DoorDash homepage and at the top of relevant search and category results, for customers in your delivery area. With Expanded Ad Reach on, they can also show on Facebook and Instagram.

What is the difference between DoorDash ads and promotions?

Ads (Sponsored Listings) make your business more visible; promotions give customers a discount or free delivery to order. DoorDash suggests running both together.

What happened to DoorDash Ads Manager?

For brands it became Brand Center, which builds on Ads Manager and adds catalog, inventory and retailer tools. Restaurants use the Marketing tab in the Merchant Portal.

Can any brand advertise on DoorDash?

CPG brands start by contacting DoorDash or filling out its interest form; a DoorDash Account Executive then adds users to Brand Center. Products must be linked to retailer listings to be eligible.

For other delivery and retail ad platforms, see Uber and Uber Eats ads, Instacart Ads and Walmart Connect. To plan a campaign with us, see our services.