CASE STUDY 03 / NEW-OUTLET GROWTH
Growing a new restaurant outlet.
21-outlet dessert chain · new outlets
- Market
- Chennai, India
- Platforms
- Swiggy · Zomato
- Year
- 2026
- Clients
- Names withheld
- Order growth in month two, best outlet +242%
- Orders a month, month two 38→130
- Return on ad spend, up from 2.4x 3.4×
- Ad budget ceiling, as share of sales 8.5%
WHAT THE NUMBERS SHOW
Zomato business report, Apr–May 2026 · orders × 12, a run-rate, not a forecast
3x line
Zomato business report, Apr–May 2026
Annual run-rate = the latest full month's orders × 12. It shows the scale each business reached, not a forecast. These results relate to this India engagement; outcomes vary by restaurant and market.
THE STARTING POINT
A closer look
at the work.
A Chennai dessert chain with 21 outlets on Swiggy and Zomato, opening new outlets through 2026.
The challenge
New outlets start with no ratings and no repeat customers. The brand needed to know which ones were ready for more ad spend and which would waste it.
What we did
- Tracked the new outlets as a cohort from their first sale: orders, ad returns, the conversion funnel, rejections and order accuracy.
- Set a monthly ad budget system across both platforms, held under a ceiling of 8.5% of sales, with extra budget for new outlets showing flagship potential.
- Flagged outlets where operations, not demand, were the limit, so spend went where it would convert.
The results
- The best new outlet grew from 38 to 130 orders a month in its second month, up 242%. That took its annual run-rate from about 460 to about 1,560 orders, while its return on ad spend rose from 2.4x to 3.4x.
- A second outlet's return on ad spend recovered from 1.73x to 3.35x in a month, on the cohort's highest volume of 197 orders.
- Across the cohort, return on ad spend converged above 3x by month two.
What we'd look at next
Budget follows readiness: outlets with high rejection rates fix operations before they get more spend.
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