World’s Leading Restaurant Gets a Taste of Retargeting Success

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global food service retailer with over 37,000 locations in more than 100 countries, employing over 1.9 million people worldwide, and serving over 69 million customers daily.

As the world’s largest fast food restaurant chain, McDonald’s aims to enhance sales and customer engagement through innovative digital solutions.

McDonald’s is the outright leader in an industry known to be fiercely competitive. Rival restaurants invest heavily in advertising and apps to win over customers, so McDonald’s faced the challenge of increasing sales and enhancing user engagement with its own app while maintaining the efficiency of ad campaigns.

RTB House was brought on by master regional franchiser, Arcos Dorados, to work with McDonald’s in numerous countries across Latin America. Our task was to develop personalized strategies that would boost their retargeting efforts. This required a deep understanding of the diverse needs of a broad audience, and the technological ability to reach out to users at the right moments—during the week or even the right time of day–so that they would be most enticed by the famous McDonald’s menu.

The RTB House team identified the needs of McDonald’s and then shaped a solution, utilizing fully automated Deep Learning-powered technology, that could adjust campaigns in real-time based on traffic flow within the McDonald's app.

Postback mapping made it possible to segment and redirect users who preferred in-store pickup or home delivery, guided by their behavior in the app. All users were shown personalized, dynamic banners with precise product recommendations. Sharing the exact right products that would awaken users’ appetites enhanced engagement and encouraged more orders through the app.

After an initial successful campaign in Chile, we began working to promote the McDonald’s app in countries such as Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Our new approach helped identify high-value users and then target them with tailored ads in highly visible placements at times when they were most likely to make an impact.

Over the course of a year, the conversion rate for new app users engaging with RTB House ads was twice as high as that of other active retargeters. We also achieved a five times better click-through rate (CTR) and a 50% increase in user retention compared to competitors. As a result, McDonald’s is looking to expand our partnership and build on this success, making sure that the world’s leading fast food chain has the world’s best food app.