Marketing for delivery
Marketing for delivery businesses: what works, what it costs, and when
A delivery business sells the standing order, not the first one. We know because we run one: Ice Express, a real ice delivery company, runs on this software and its drivers, orders and invoices are the reason it exists. The marketing that pays is the reorder message, the route density and a customer who can order without calling. Do that before buying a single lead.
Delivery marketing ideas, sorted by cost
The free ones first. Most shops that fix the first four never need to buy the rest.
Free
Answer every call, and text back the ones you miss
The first shop to answer usually wins. A missed call is the most expensive leak in the trade, and fixing it costs no media.
Finish your Google Business Profile
Every service listed, real photos of real jobs, hours that are true, and a reply to every review within a day.
Ask for the review while you are still on the driveway
The customer who just paid is the one who says yes. Ask in person, then text the link before you leave.
Track where every job came from
One question at booking, written down every time. In three months you know which spend to cut and which to double.
Let customers reorder without calling
A link that repeats the last order in one tap. The customer who has to call is the customer who forgets.
Sell the standing order on the second delivery
Same day every week, same quantity, no call. Ask when the driver is there, not from the office.
Sell the street, not the stop
The shop next to a customer is the cheapest lead there is. Route density is the margin.
Under $500 a month
Google Local Services Ads
Pay per lead, exclusive to you, above the search results with a Google Guaranteed badge. Verification takes weeks, so start early.
A missed-call text-back that actually sends
Under $400 a month from most vendors. The catch is A2P carrier registration, which takes weeks and can be rejected.
Over $500 a month
Search ads on the jobs you want more of
After Local Services Ads, on the searches they do not cover. Budget on your own card, management fee separate, reported in booked jobs.
A website that loads fast and books a job in two taps
Not a brochure. Phone number, service area, reviews and a booking button above the fold on a phone.
A branded order page, not a marketplace listing
Your name, your prices, your reorder link. A marketplace owns the customer relationship; your page does not.
The delivery slow season, and what to do in it
Our own working calendar, drawn from running Ice Express. Your product moves the dates; the shape holds.
Peak season, whatever yours is
For ice it is the hot months. For most delivery businesses it is the weeks the customers are busiest.
Standing orders locked in before it starts. Peak is when you run, not when you sell.
The shoulder
Volume drops and customers reconsider.
Reorder messages, a check-in from the driver, and the pitch to the shop next door.
What we learned running one
Ice Express is a real delivery business that runs on this software: orders come in by message, dispatch puts them on a driver, invoices go out, and the dock camera counts the bags. The lesson from running it is the one above: the first order is the cost, the standing order is the business, and the marketing that matters is whatever makes the second order effortless.
Marketplaces own the customer
A listing on someone else's app brings orders and keeps the relationship. The customer knows the app, not you, and the app sets the fee. A branded order page with a one-tap reorder is the thing a marketplace cannot take away.
Questions to ask a delivery marketing agency
1. What number do you report, and who counts it?
The answer that should worry you: Leads, calls or impressions. A lead is not a job. Ask for booked jobs and cost per booked job, from your own books.
2. Does my ad budget go on my card or through your invoice?
The answer that should worry you: Through theirs, with the markup unstated. The fee and the spend should never blur.
3. Who owns the ad account, the pixel and the landing pages when we part?
The answer that should worry you: A vague answer. Get the ownership of what they build and what you brought in writing before you sign, not at offboarding.
4. What happens in week three?
The answer that should worry you: A monthly report. That is a subscription, not a service. Ask who touches the account each week and what they do.
5. Show me a client in my trade, not in home services.
The answer that should worry you: A case study from a different trade. HVAC is not roofing is not dental, and an agency that says otherwise has not run one of yours.
6. What is the contract length and how do I leave?
The answer that should worry you: Twelve months with a build fee you forfeit. A short term with a real notice period is what a confident agency offers.
Want this worked out on your own numbers?
A free consultation, and a straight answer on whether we are a fit, including no.
Straight answers
Delivery owners ask
How does a delivery business get more customers?
Make reordering one tap, sell the standing order on the second delivery, pitch the shop next door to every stop, and own the order page rather than renting a marketplace listing.
Do you actually run a delivery business?
Yes. Ice Express, an ice delivery company, runs on this software: orders, dispatch, drivers, invoices and the dock camera. It is why the delivery flows exist.
What should a marketing agency report for a delivery business?
Standing customers started and cost per standing customer, from your own order records.
Sources
- 1.Four vendor pricing pages plus eight practitioner threads, our own pricing review · read 2026-09-02
- 2.hookagency.com, own pricing page · read 2026-09-02
- 3.Practitioner threads on r/PPC, our own pricing review · read 2026-09-02
- 4.r/agency, agency owner's own post, 2025-12-27 · read 2026-09-02
- 5.Vendor pricing pages · read 2026-09-02
- 6.callrail.com, own pricing page · read 2026-09-02