Restaurant promotions: three that can pay, three that can cost

What should you measure before choosing a promotion?

Measure contribution: the money left from an order after costs that change when you sell it. It still has to cover rent and fixed salaries. A promotional order can contribute money while the campaign reduces profit.

Start with net sales after discount, excluding tax collected. Subtract ingredients, packaging, payment fees, channel commission and restaurant-funded delivery. Deduct any extra labour, then subtract advertising and other campaign spending from total contribution.

The pickup examples assume cash payment, no commission and no added labour. Costs combine ingredients and packaging; selling amounts exclude tax collected. Add any costs your branch incurs beyond these assumptions.

An 8 JOD pickup order costing 3.40 JOD contributes 4.60 JOD. Give an existing buyer 1 JOD off the same planned purchase and contribution falls to 3.60 JOD.

This guide's ROI convention defines campaign investment as restaurant-funded redeemed discounts, promotional subsidies and separate campaign spending. Promotion ROI = net contribution gained over a comparable no-offer period ÷ campaign investment × 100. The net gain already reflects discounts and subsidies; do not deduct them again.

For the quiet-hour offer below, contribution rises from 68 to 87 JOD. Subtract 5 JOD of advertising and the net gain is 14 JOD. Redeemed discounts total 30 × 0.50 = 15 JOD, so investment is 20 JOD and ROI is 70%. Without advertising, investment is 15 JOD and the gain is 19 JOD. Track the JOD gain alongside the percentage.

Which three campaigns can pay?

These campaign shapes pay under the assumptions shown. Compare them with what customers would otherwise have bought.

1. A combo that adds more revenue than cost

Build around an item people already buy. The combo collects 2 JOD more and costs 1 JOD more to produce, leaving an extra 1 JOD. Check the side's actual portion cost before setting the bundle price.

2. A happy-hour offer that creates additional orders

The quiet-hour example earns less per order but more across the period: 30 orders contribute 87 JOD, compared with 68 JOD from 20 full-price orders.

3. A minimum-spend offer that changes the basket

Set the threshold above the usual basket, with room for an item customers want. Here, collecting 3 JOD more adds 1.20 JOD of cost. For someone already planning to spend 12 JOD, the discount removes 1 JOD from contribution.

Consider a mixed response to that minimum-spend offer: of 100 redemptions, 40 customers genuinely upgrade from 8 to 12 JOD, adding 40 × 1.80 = 72 JOD. The other 60 would have spent 12 JOD anyway, losing you 60 × 1 = 60 JOD. The campaign gains only 12 JOD before advertising; spend 15 JOD and it loses 3 JOD. Apply the same split to combos: separate genuine upgrades from buyers receiving a discount on their usual meal.

Which three campaigns reduce contribution in these examples?

1. A blanket percentage discount during busy service

Take 25% off the 8 JOD basket and you collect 6 JOD. With costs unchanged at 3.40 JOD, contribution becomes 2.60 JOD instead of 4.60 JOD. You need about 77% more orders just to match the previous contribution, before extra staffing or advertising.

If the kitchen is already full on Thursday evening, that increase may be impossible.

2. Free delivery on baskets too small to fund it

Absorb a 2.50 JOD delivery charge on the same 8 JOD basket and contribution falls from 4.60 to 2.10 JOD. This assumes the customer otherwise paid delivery separately. A courier still needs paying when checkout says delivery is free.

3. An always-available code for existing purchases

Give 100 customers 1 JOD off purchases they would have made anyway and you lose 100 JOD of contribution. A high redemption count does not fix that.

The discounted pickup and free-delivery orders still contribute 2.60 and 2.10 JOD toward overheads. Negative contribution begins when an order's variable costs exceed its net sales.

How should the offer change by ordering channel?

Nexara charges 0% commission on your own website, installable app and call-center orders. Talabat and Careem keep their own commissions on orders they bring. Direct ordering still has costs, including customer acquisition and delivery where you fund it.

Assume a contract charges 25% on an 8 JOD commission base. That is 2 JOD before other contractual charges. Check the agreement and settlement statement for the commission base after a discount and who funds the offer.

• Website and app: test a platform-exclusive offer against your normal direct-order contribution.
• Pickup: assess a combo without mixing courier costs into the result.
• Phone: give staff clear eligibility wording and record which offer was used.
• Talabat and Careem: calculate promotions using each partner's actual commercial terms.

Nexara's partner connections include order intake and catalogue flows. See Talabat and Careem order intake for the integration scope.

What can Nexara configure and measure today?

Nexara supports combo deals, happy hour, minimum order, percentage discounts, fixed amounts, free shipping, new-customer offers and platform-exclusive offers. Promotions start on Starter.

The tools include a campaign composer and calendar, segments, autopilot rules, campaign analytics and promo codes.

Recipe costing and food-cost analytics support your cost worksheet. Reports cover channels and customers, among other areas. Customer records include addresses and order history. Review Nexara promotion and costing features for the tools used to configure and assess offers.

How do you test a restaurant promo code strategy?

Prepare a written test sheet. Nexara has campaign analytics; you still need to choose a fair comparison period.

1. Choose one objective, such as additional quiet-hour contribution, rather than total redemptions.
2. Choose one campaign and channel. Give the code a recognisable name, such as LUNCHTEST.
3. Record basket costs, discount funding and a maximum budget. Assign someone to pause the offer when it reaches that budget.
4. Record comparable non-promotion periods, accounting for weekday patterns, holidays and closures.
5. Compare total contribution after campaign spending. Check the rest of the day for displaced full-price orders, then inspect refunds and service problems.

```mermaid flowchart LR A["Choose campaign objective"] --> B["Cost the offer"] B --> C["Record comparable baseline"] C --> D["Run limited test"] D --> E["Compare net contribution"] E --> F["Keep or pause"] ```

Compare contribution before deciding whether to repeat the offer.

For a new-customer campaign, record any initial acquisition loss separately and use customer order history to measure later purchases before calculating payback.