Targeting Overview
Available targeting options for restaurants
DoorDash Ads provides advanced targeting options that help advertisers reach customers based on order behavior, membership status, customer attributes, and demonstrated interests.
You are able to target based on:
Customer status: New, existing, or lapsed customers
Order frequency: Low- or medium-frequency customers
Average ticket size: High average ticket size, medium average ticket size, or low average ticket size customers
Membership: DashPass or non-DashPass customers
Customer interest by dish: Customers with demonstrated interest in specific dish categories or dish types
Customer interest by brand: Customers with demonstrated interest in specific brands
Dayparting: Specific days and times when your campaign is eligible to run
These options can be layered to help build audiences that align with your campaign goal.
Important: In Ads Manager, "customer" can refer to any consumer on DoorDash, whether or not they've ordered from your business before. Review your audience setup carefully to confirm it matches your intended targeting strategy.
You can also exclude certain audience segments from one ad group and target them in another ad group. This can help you separate strategies by customer type, test different offers, or compare performance across audience groups.
Audience layering in Ads Manager
Audience layering lets you combine multiple audience attributes in one ad group. Audience targeting can be combined using structured logic:
Use AND logic across audience categories
Use OR logic within a category
For example, you can target customers who are:
New AND interested in a specific dish category
DashPass customers AND lapsed customers
Customers interested in pizza OR desserts
This flexibility allows you to build audiences that are broad enough to scale while remaining relevant to your campaign goals.
Adding more layers can make your audience more specific, but it can also reduce reach. If your audience becomes too narrow, campaign delivery and performance may be limited.
Inclusion and exclusion rules
You can refine targeting by including or excluding specific audience segments. Use inclusions to define who should be eligible to see your campaign. Use exclusions to remove customers who don't match the ad group's goal.
For example, you might include all past customers while excluding those who ordered within the last 30 days. This approach allows you to isolate specific segments, such as lapsed customers, and tailor your campaign accordingly.
Common setups include:
Lapsed customer targeting: Include customers who ordered from your business in the past, then exclude customers who ordered recently
New and lapsed customer targeting: Include a broader customer audience, then exclude recent customers
Retention targeting: Include existing customers to encourage repeat orders
Frequency-based targeting: Include low-frequency or medium-frequency customers to help increase order frequency
Offer testing: Exclude one audience from an ad group and target that audience in another ad group with a different offer or setup
Reach estimator guidance
The reach estimator helps you understand whether your selected audience is broad, moderate, or narrow before your campaign goes live.
As you adjust audience attributes, the estimator updates to reflect how your selections work together. This gives you directional visibility into your full audience setup and can help you avoid overly narrow targeting.
Reach indicators may include:
Broad: Larger potential reach
Moderate: Balanced reach and specificity
Narrow: More limited reach
Too narrow: Very restricted reach that may limit delivery
Use the reach estimator to check whether your audience is likely to support your campaign goal. If your audience is narrow or too narrow, consider:
Removing one audience layer
Expanding your customer status selection
Selecting broader dish or brand interest categories
Adjusting membership targeting
Expanding your store or market selection
Reviewing dayparting to make sure your schedule isn't too limited
Splitting different audience strategies into separate ad groups
The reach estimator is directional. It doesn't guarantee delivery, spend, or performance.
What to do next
Learn how to create a Promotion ad group
Learn how to create a Sponsored Listings ad group
Check out the Sponsored Listing Targeting Playbook
