The state of restaurant marketing in Australia: 2026 benchmarks

Most "restaurant marketing statistics" articles online are recycled from the same three US blog posts and dressed up as fresh research. This is our attempt at something more honest: a single, organised reference of the marketing and economics benchmarks that actually matter to an independent Australian venue, each one framed as a typical or illustrative range, sourced where a source exists, and flagged plainly where the data is thin. Use it to sanity-check your own numbers, brief a marketing agency, or just settle an argument about whether your delivery commission is normal.

About this report

Every figure here is compiled from public, named industry sources, no invented survey, no fabricated sample size, no "we surveyed 500 Australian restaurants" claim you can't verify. Where a genuinely Australia-specific figure exists, it's flagged as such. Where the best available data is US or global (this happens most with paid social benchmarks and some review statistics), that's flagged too, with a note on why it's still a reasonable directional read for an Australian venue. Ranges, not single numbers, are used throughout on purpose, because real-world rates vary by platform tier, venue type, city and time of year. Treat every figure below as a starting point for your own numbers, not a substitute for checking current terms with your own suppliers and platforms.

Summary table

Each of these is unpacked with more context and sourcing below.

Delivery & ordering economics

Commission is charged on the order subtotal, and tiers largely buy visibility inside the app rather than just logistics. As a typical range across both major platforms, Uber Eats' standard marketplace tier and DoorDash's higher tiers commonly land in the 25-30% band for delivery, with lower entry tiers (illustratively 15-20%) trading a lower commission for reduced visibility. Pickup or collection commission is much lower on both platforms, typically in the 6-7% range, and self-delivery or ordering through your own website roughly halves the effective commission compared with standard marketplace delivery.

Beyond the headline commission, most active venues also carry additional costs: an activation fee on first joining a platform (illustratively a few hundred dollars), and ongoing sponsored-placement spend to stay visible in search results inside the app, commonly a few hundred dollars a month for venues doing meaningful volume. Menulog ceased Australian operations in late 2025, leaving Uber Eats and DoorDash as the effective duopoly, so any commission comparison should be checked against current terms on those two platforms specifically. For the full breakdown by tier, see our UberEats & DoorDash commission guide.

Influencer & creator rates

Australian creator rates vary widely by niche and deliverable, but food and hospitality creators typically sit at or below the mid-point of general influencer rate cards, partly because gifting culture (a comped meal in lieu of or alongside a fee) is well established in this category. As a typical range: nano creators (roughly 1,000-10,000 followers) are often satisfied with a gifted meal alone or a small fee; micro creators (roughly 10,000-50,000) commonly charge somewhere in the $150-$900 range per post depending on following and effort, often alongside a comped meal; mid and macro creators charge substantially more and are rarely cost-effective for a single independent venue.

Engagement rate matters more than follower count when judging whether a creator is worth the spend. As a rough guide, a genuinely engaged nano or micro account often shows engagement in the mid-single-digit percentage range, and anything well below roughly 1% at those tiers is a signal of bought or inactive followers. Our influencer marketing guide covers vetting and pay rates in more depth, including how to structure gifted versus paid deals.

Paid ads (Meta)

Honestly: a reliable Australia-only benchmark set for restaurant Meta ads is hard to find, and we'd rather say that plainly than dress up a US figure as an Australian one. The best available data is US/global food-and-beverage industry benchmarks, which show food sitting toward the cheaper end of CPM and CPC across all industries (illustratively single-digit-to-low-teens US dollars per thousand impressions), but with comparatively modest click-through and conversion rates and a direct last-click ROAS often well below e-commerce categories. Australian costs are typically similar or somewhat lower, but venues should treat these as directional rather than precise.

The practical takeaway that holds regardless of exact figures: paid social for hospitality tends to work better as an awareness, foot-traffic and retargeting channel than as a direct last-click sales channel, and its returns are usually lower than owned channels like email and SMS (see below). Build your own baseline from your own ad account after a few months of consistent spend rather than anchoring hard to any published number.

Email & SMS

Owned channels are consistently the strongest-performing marketing a venue has, and the gap is large enough that it changes the priority order most venues should follow. Restaurant email open rates typically run higher than the all-industry average, illustratively in the 35-50% range, though open-rate figures generally have been inflated industry-wide since email privacy changes made "opens" a less precise metric; click rates and revenue are a more reliable read. Illustrative restaurant email ROI figures sit around $42 returned per $1 spent, ahead of the broader all-industry average.

SMS performs even more strongly on engagement: open rates are consistently cited around 98%, and discount or coupon redemption via SMS is commonly far higher than paper coupons, illustratively in the 40-60% range for a well-targeted offer. For a venue trying to fill a specific quiet shift or move a specific deal, SMS is usually the highest-leverage single channel available. See our email & SMS marketing guide for how to build and use a list without over-messaging it.

Reviews & reputation

Review behaviour is close to universal across markets, so the best available data (mostly US survey sources) is a reasonable read for Australian diners too. Illustrative figures suggest the large majority of diners, commonly cited around 90%, check ratings and reviews before choosing a restaurant, and a similarly large share say they'd avoid a venue rated below roughly 4.0 stars. Google is typically the dominant platform diners check, well ahead of other review sites.

Two findings are worth building a habit around. First, review freshness appears to matter more than raw volume, illustrative figures suggest a majority of diners weight reviews from the last month or so far more heavily than an old pile of five-star ratings, which argues for a steady drip of new reviews over a one-off push. Second, responding to reviews (all of them, not just the negative ones) is itself linked to higher conversion and, in some sources, a modest lift in star rating and review volume over time. See our Google reviews guide for a practical system.

Menu & restaurant economics

These figures are Australia-specific and reasonably well sourced. A typical target food cost percentage sits in the 28-32% range of relevant revenue, though this varies meaningfully by venue type: fine dining and venues with a strong beverage program often run lower food cost (illustratively 18-24%) offset by higher labour, while cafés and quick-service venues often run higher (illustratively 28-35%) on thinner food margins. Blended gross margin across a typical venue commonly sits in the 60-68% range, with beverage margins well above food margins.

Net profit margin is the number that matters most and the one most owners underestimate the difficulty of hitting: a typical healthy independent venue nets somewhere in the 5-7% range, with strong performers reaching 10-15%. Because margins run this thin, marketing efficiency isn't a nice-to-have, it directly determines whether a venue is profitable in a given month. See our menu pricing guide for how this connects to individual dish pricing.

No-shows & booking conversion

No-show rates without any deposit requirement are commonly cited in the 20-27% range for Australian venues, a figure that hasn't been comprehensively re-measured in recent years but remains the best available reference point. Requiring a deposit is the highest-leverage fix available: illustrative figures suggest deposits cut no-shows by roughly half on average, and full prepayment reduces the rate further still. Given typical margins (see above), a handful of no-shows on a given night can be enough to erase that night's profit entirely, which is the strongest argument for deposits on higher-demand nights specifically.

Booking-engine conversion data is genuinely thin for Australia. The most-cited figure (roughly 18-20% of people who start a booking flow complete it) comes from an older, non-Australia-specific report and should be treated as optimistic rather than current. We flag this as a data gap rather than presenting it as solid.

General marketing spend

As a typical range, established venues with a steady base of repeat customers often run total marketing spend around 3-6% of revenue, covering everything from paid ads to content production to loyalty programs. Newer venues, or those in an active growth phase, commonly spend substantially more while building initial awareness and a customer database, illustratively in the 10-25% range, before settling toward the lower, maintenance-level range once the venue is established. Our marketing budget guide breaks this down by channel and venue stage.

What we don't have good AU data on

In the interest of the same honesty this whole report is built on, here's where the data is genuinely thin, so you can weight these figures accordingly rather than treat them as gospel: a dedicated Australia-only Meta ads benchmark set for restaurants; a current, clean Australia-only website booking-conversion figure; granular Australian influencer rates broken out specifically for the hospitality/food niche (general AU creator rate data exists, but few sources isolate food specifically); and a fresh, post-2020 Australian no-show rate study. Where we've used a global or older figure as the best available proxy, it's flagged above rather than presented as a precise Australian number.

FAQ

What commission do UberEats and DoorDash actually charge in Australia?

It depends on the tier, but most venues doing meaningful volume land on an effective 25-30% commission on delivery orders once they've bought the visibility tier both platforms push them toward. Pickup/collection commission is far lower, typically around 6-7%, and self-delivery or your own website ordering roughly halves the cost versus standard marketplace delivery. Always check current terms directly with the platform, as tiers and rates change.

What's a healthy marketing budget for an independent Australian restaurant?

As a typical range, established venues with a steady customer base often run marketing spend around 3-6% of revenue, while newer or growth-focused venues frequently spend more, illustratively in the 10-25% range while they build awareness and a database. These are directional benchmarks, not a formula, since the right number depends on your margins, location and growth stage.

How much do deposits actually reduce restaurant no-shows?

Illustrative industry figures suggest no-show rates without any deposit sit somewhere around 20-27% of bookings, and that requiring a deposit cuts that by roughly half on average, with full prepayment reducing it further again. Given how thin restaurant margins typically run, a small number of no-shows can be enough to erase a night's profit, which is why deposits are one of the higher-leverage moves available to most venues.