Every time a customer opens DoorDash and sees your restaurant, a decision is being made.
Should they see a promotion? If so, what kind of offer? How much should it be worth?
For many marketing tools, those decisions are made once when a campaign is set up. You choose a discount, set a budget, pick an audience, and the same offer goes to everyone.
But customers aren't all the same. Someone who orders from your restaurant every week may respond differently than someone discovering you for the first time. Someone who hasn't ordered in months may need a different incentive than someone who's already planning to place an order tonight.
That's the challenge Smart Campaigns were built to solve.
Instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all promotion, Smart Campaigns combine your store's performance data, DoorDash customer insights, and AI-powered decision-making to determine which promotions are most likely to resonate with each customer — all within a single campaign.
Why the same offer doesn't work for every customer
Promotions can be a powerful way to attract new customers, bring back lapsed ones, and encourage repeat orders. The harder part is knowing which promotion to run, who should receive it, and whether your marketing dollars are actually making a difference — especially when you're busy running a restaurant.
Historically, promotions have been a game of averages. A discount is offered to a broad audience, and some customers redeem it while others don't. The challenge is that every customer needs a different incentive. Some customers are already loyal, while others may be drifting away, or just discovering your restaurant for the first time.
Smart Campaigns were built to solve exactly that. Instead of making one decision when a campaign is created, Smart Campaigns make decisions continuously — evaluating each customer, each visit, and each opportunity to determine which promotions are most likely to resonate.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, successful marketing will be less about finding a single promotion that works for everyone and more about understanding which customers need an incentive — and which don't.
From one promotion to millions of decisions
Behind the scenes, Smart Campaigns use your store's performance data, DoorDash customer insights, and AI to answer a simple question: Would a promotion change this customer's behavior?
The answer comes from a combination of real-world performance data, customer behavior patterns, and learnings from previous campaigns.
While every customer is different, Smart Campaigns generally look at a few broad groups:
Loyal customers who would likely order anyway. These customers may not need a promotion, helping preserve budget for moments where an offer can have a greater impact.
Customers whose ordering habits may be changing. A small, well-timed offer may help keep them engaged.
New or lapsed customers. These customers may need a stronger reason to place an order, but winning them over is where real business growth happens by increasing your repeat customer base over time.
"Most promotion budgets get wasted on people who would have ordered anyway. Smart Campaigns spend the same dollar differently — finding the customers whose decision is most likely to be influenced by an offer and tailoring promotions accordingly." — Akshat Khandelwal, Product Manager, Smart Campaigns
One misconception about Smart Campaigns is that they only focus on acquiring new customers. In reality, the goal is to focus on the work that actually grows your business — bringing back lapsed customers, helping new customers discover your restaurant, and keeping valuable customers engaged over time.
The thought process behind Smart Campaigns
Every time someone is eligible to receive a promotion, the system evaluates a range of signals: How price-sensitive is this customer? How often have they ordered from your store? How recently have they ordered? How have similar customers responded to similar promotions in the past?
Using those signals, Smart Campaigns estimate which offer is most likely to resonate with that specific customer.
"The system is constantly asking a counterfactual question: would this person have ordered without the promo? We can't ask them directly, so we infer it from the patterns of millions of similar customers — and we re-tune the answer every day." — Songjie Huang, AI Engineer, DoorDash
Smart Campaigns also continue learning over time. As customers respond to promotions, the system uses those results to improve future decisions.
The goal is to spend your budget more effectively, shifting investment toward the promotions and customer moments that are most likely to influence future orders.
What this means for your restaurant
While the technology behind Smart Campaigns is sophisticated, the experience is designed to be straightforward. The goal is to take the guesswork out of promotions while giving you more confidence that your marketing budget is working toward long-term results.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
More sales without unnecessary discounting. Smart Campaigns evaluate whether an offer is likely to influence a customer's decision before the budget is spent.
More opportunities to attract new and inactive customers. Smart Campaigns focus on customers who may need a reason to order — whether they're discovering your restaurant for the first time, returning after time away, or ordering less often.
More impact from your marketing budget. Smart Campaigns help ensure your budget is directed toward the promotions and customer opportunities that can create the most value over time.
More time back. No daily tuning or constant campaign adjustments. Smart Campaigns handle the ongoing optimization so you can focus on running your restaurant.
For Pubbelly Sushi, a Florida-based sushi restaurant group, one key benefit of Smart Campaigns has been moving beyond one-size-fits-all promotions.
"Smart Campaigns helps us reach guests with promotions they actually want instead of always running the same offers for everyone." — Miriam Sanchez, Operations Manager, Pubbelly Sushi
The team also appreciates how little day-to-day management Smart Campaigns require.
"Using Smart Campaigns is super easy. I set it one time and forget it, and then I have more time to focus on operations." — Miriam Sanchez, Operations Manager, Pubbelly Sushi
Building trust through transparency
Smart Campaigns do a lot behind the scenes. We're giving restaurants more visibility into how those decisions are made and the impact they're having.
DoorDash is continuing to invest in reporting that helps show who your promotions are reaching, how your budget is being allocated across promotion types, and how different parts of your campaign are contributing to performance.
The goal is to give restaurants more visibility into how Smart Campaigns are working so they can feel more confident in the decisions being made on their behalf.
What's next for Smart Campaigns
We're continuing to improve Smart Campaigns to better understand which promotions create the most meaningful, long-term value for restaurants.
The future of restaurant marketing is becoming more personalized, more adaptive, and more responsive to customer behavior. What was once possible only for large brands with dedicated marketing teams is becoming accessible to restaurants of every size.
