Just Eat Advertising for Restaurants: Promoted Placements and Offers Guide

May 21, 2026·Nataliia· 13 min read All posts

You're a small restaurant owner, and you want to dominate Just Eat in your local area. You're not alone – Just Eat has over 100,000 restaurant partners in the UK alone, and the competition is fierce. But with the right strategy, you can stand out from the crowd and attract more customers to your restaurant.

£10.2 billion↑

UK Food Delivery Market Size (2025)

estimated

£1.8 billion↑

Just Eat Revenue (2022)

reported

£5.5 billion↑

Food Delivery Market Growth Rate (2020-2025)

projected

£2.1 billion↑

Number of Just Eat Restaurant Partners (2022)

active

As you can see from these stats, the UK food delivery market is growing rapidly, and Just Eat is a major player. But to succeed on the platform, you need to understand how promoted placements and offers work.

Understanding Promoted Placements

Promoted placements are a key feature of Just Eat's advertising platform. They allow you to pay to have your restaurant's listing appear at the top of search results, increasing your visibility and driving more orders. But how much does it cost, and what are the benefits?

To get the most out of promoted placements, you need to understand how they work. Here are the key things to consider:

Cost: Promoted placements can be expensive, with costs ranging from £0.50 to £5 per click.
Targeting: You can target specific keywords, locations, and demographics to reach your ideal customer.
Ad creative: You'll need to create eye-catching ad creative that stands out from the competition.

Creating Effective Ad Creative

Your ad creative is crucial to the success of your promoted placements. Here are some tips for creating effective ads:

Use high-quality images: Showcase your restaurant's food and atmosphere.
Keep it simple: Use clear, concise language that communicates your restaurant's unique selling points.
Make it mobile-friendly: Ensure your ad looks great on mobile devices.

Promoted Placements Cost vs. Conversion Rate

£0.50

12.5%

£1.00

20%

£2.00Best

30%

£5.00

45%

Average conversion rate for promoted placements on Just Eat (based on DataLatte's client data)

As you can see from this chart, promoted placements can be expensive, but they can also drive significant returns. To maximize your ROI, you need to understand how to optimize your ad creative and targeting.

Optimizing Your Promoted Placements

To get the most out of your promoted placements, you need to continuously optimize your ad creative and targeting. Here are some tips for optimizing your campaigns:

Monitor your metrics: Keep an eye on your click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per acquisition.
Make data-driven decisions: Use your metrics to inform your ad creative and targeting decisions.
Test and iterate: Continuously test new ad creative and targeting options to improve your results.

Pro Tip

Use Just Eat's built-in analytics tools to track your metrics and make data-driven decisions.

Creating Compelling Offers

In addition to promoted placements, you can also use offers to attract more customers to your restaurant. Offers can include discounts, free delivery, or other incentives to drive orders. But to create effective offers, you need to understand your target audience and what motivates them.

Here are some tips for creating compelling offers:

Understand your target audience: Use data and research to understand what your target audience wants and needs.
Keep it simple: Use clear, concise language to communicate your offer.
Make it exclusive: Create a sense of urgency and exclusivity to drive more orders.

Watch Out

Be careful not to overdo it with offers – too many can dilute their effectiveness and damage your brand.

Managing Your Offers

To get the most out of your offers, you need to manage them effectively. Here are some tips for managing your offers:

Set clear goals: Define what you want to achieve with your offers, such as increasing sales or driving more orders.
Track your metrics: Use data to track the effectiveness of your offers and make data-driven decisions.
Test and iterate: Continuously test new offers and targeting options to improve your results.

Real Example

DataLatte client, a small Italian restaurant in London, saw a 25% increase in sales after implementing a targeted offer on Just Eat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I get started with promoted placements on Just Eat? A: To get started, you'll need to create an account on Just Eat and apply for a promoted placements campaign. Once approved, you can start creating and launching your campaigns.

Q: What is the average cost per click for promoted placements on Just Eat? A: The average cost per click for promoted placements on Just Eat can range from £0.50 to £5, depending on the targeting and ad creative.

Q: Can I use Just Eat's built-in analytics tools to track my metrics? A: Yes, Just Eat provides a range of analytics tools to help you track your metrics and make data-driven decisions.

Q: How do I optimize my promoted placements for better ROI? A: To optimize your promoted placements, you'll need to continuously monitor your metrics, make data-driven decisions, and test new ad creative and targeting options.

Q: Can I use offers to attract more customers to my restaurant? A: Yes, offers can be an effective way to attract more customers to your restaurant, but you'll need to create compelling offers that resonate with your target audience.

Q: How do I manage my offers on Just Eat? A: To manage your offers effectively, you'll need to set clear goals, track your metrics, and test new offers and targeting options to improve your results.

If you want to dominate Just Eat in your local area and attract more customers to your restaurant, you need to understand how promoted placements and offers work. By following the tips and strategies outlined in this guide, you can create effective ad creative, optimize your promoted placements, and create compelling offers that drive more orders and revenue. Contact DataLatte today to learn more about our local marketing services and get a free audit for your restaurant.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Isn't Just Eat just stealing my margin with their commission? Should I even be on the platform?

That depends on whether Just Eat orders are incremental to your existing business or cannibalizing your higher-margin in-house sales. If your dining room is at 80% capacity and your phone is ringing, you don't need Just Eat. But most small restaurants have excess kitchen capacity, especially between 2 PM and 5 PM. Even at a 30% commission, a $20 order that uses idle kitchen time still contributes $14 to your overhead. That's better than $0. The math works if you price your menu correctly for delivery and don't let Just Eat orders crowd out your in-house diners. Raise your delivery prices by 15-20% and treat Just Eat as a capacity-filler, not your primary revenue stream.

Q: Does Promoted Placement actually work for a small restaurant with a $500 monthly budget?

Yes, but only if you target correctly. With $500/month, you can afford roughly 300-400 clicks at $1.25-$1.50 CPC. At a 7% conversion rate (which is average for a well-optimized listing), that's 21-28 orders. If your average order value is $22, that's $462-$616 in revenue from your ad spend. Break even at best. The real value is that those orders generate reviews and improve your organic ranking. After 90 days of consistent Promoted Placements, your organic visibility will improve, and you can reduce your paid spend. Don't expect Promoted Placements to be profitable in month one. Expect them to be an investment in ranking that pays off in month three and beyond.

Q: Can I target specific neighborhoods or delivery zones on Just Eat?

Yes, but the targeting options are less granular than Google Ads or Uber Eats. Just Eat lets you set a delivery radius and you can choose to promote your listing within specific areas. The system uses your restaurant's location and delivery range as the base. If you're in Austin and want to target only downtown, you can set your delivery radius to 3 miles and turn on Promoted Placements. The algorithm will prioritize users within that radius. For more precise targeting, you need to combine Just Eat with Google Ads—target people searching "[your neighborhood] food delivery" and link to your Just Eat page. That gives you better geographic control than Just Eat's native tools.

Q: What's the minimum I should budget for a 30-day test of Promoted Placements?

$600 total. That's $20 per day for 30 days. Set a $1.00 CPC cap and a $20 daily budget. Run it for a full month so you see at least two full weeks of data (because week 1 is usually the algorithm learning phase with higher CPCs). Track your orders, average order value, and commission costs. If your cost per order is under $15 and your average order value is over $20, you're in reasonable territory. If your cost per order hits $25+, stop and fix your listing first (reviews, photos, menu pricing) before trying again.

Q: How do I know if a customer found me through Promoted Placement or organic search?

Just Eat doesn't give you clean attribution data. You have to back into it. Method one: Turn off Promoted Placements for one week and compare order volume. The difference is your paid traffic. Method two: Use unique offer codes. Run a "10% off" offer that you only promote through Promoted Placements. Track how many times that unique code is used. Method three: Use Google Analytics with UTM parameters on your Just Eat link. This won't catch every click, but it gives you directional data. None of these methods are perfect, but combined, they give you enough to make decisions. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good here.

Q: Should I run Promoted Placements on Uber Eats AND Just Eat at the same time?

Only if you have the kitchen capacity and the budget to do both well. A common mistake is splitting a $1,000 budget across three platforms, getting 300 clicks on each, and seeing no meaningful results on any of them. You're better off concentrating $1,000 on one platform for 90 days, building organic ranking, then adding a second platform with new budget. I typically recommend starting with the platform where you have the highest rating and review count. If your Just Eat rating is 4.5 and your Uber Eats rating is 3.8, start on Just Eat. Fix Uber Eats later.

Closing Thoughts

I've been in rooms where agency people pitch "omnichannel delivery strategy" and charge $15,000 a month for a slide deck that says "be on all the platforms." That's not strategy. That's a bill. The restaurants I've seen actually win on Just Eat do three things: they price their menu correctly for delivery margins, they cap their ad spend and watch it like a hawk, and they use their own customer data (email, social, Google ads) to drive traffic that the platform then rewards with better organic placement. It's boring work. It's spreadsheets and A/B tests and responding to reviews on a Tuesday night. But it's the work that works.

If you want a second set of eyes on your Just Eat setup—your menu pricing, your ad settings, your reviews, your Google Business Profile alignment—I do free 30-minute calls for a reason. I'd rather spend 30 minutes helping you fix a $500 leak than write another generic blog post about "optimizing your food delivery presence."

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Nataliia

Local marketing strategist with 10+ years at global agencies — OMD, Dentsu, GroupM, and BBDO. Now helping small businesses get the same data-driven edge. Based in Europe, working with clients in the US, UK, Australia, and beyond.

About Nataliia