As part of its broader DoorDash Ads strategy, Ruby Tuesday adopted Brand Interest Targeting, using DoorDash's first-party audience insights to reach consumers already engaging with similar casual dining brands. While the brand already operated a sophisticated, highly optimized DoorDash Ads strategy, Brand Interest Targeting quickly emerged as its top-performing campaign, helping Ruby Tuesday drive stronger returns, unlock incremental growth, and outperform its strongest existing campaigns.
"It's foundational. It's bedrock. It's the best tool in the arsenal." — Devin Wade, Co-founder, Linked Eats
Expanding an Already Optimized Strategy
Ruby Tuesday is a longstanding casual dining brand known for approachable meals and familiar favorites across dine-in, takeout, and delivery. While the brand remains best known for its in-restaurant experience and signature Garden Bar, it has also embraced digital ordering as an important way to connect with guests wherever they choose to dine.
By the time Brand Interest Targeting launched, Ruby Tuesday had already built a mature DoorDash Ads program, spending years testing campaigns, bidding strategies, dayparts, and budget allocation to identify its strongest-performing strategies. After significant investment and optimization, the team entered 2026 with a proven set of high-performing campaigns and a clear understanding of what drove results.
As competition intensified, Ruby Tuesday continued looking for opportunities to improve performance and unlock incremental growth. The team wanted a more precise and predictable way to reach diners most likely to convert while maintaining efficiency.
"DoorDash has helped us drive revenue while giving us access to a highly engaged consumer base." — Kevin FitzPatrick, CMO, Ruby Tuesday
Turning Audience Precision Into Performance
Ruby Tuesday launched a Brand Interest Targeting campaign to reach consumers already engaging with similar casual dining brands. Leveraging DoorDash's first-party audience insights, the campaign helped the brand connect with diners whose ordering behaviors aligned closely with Ruby Tuesday's customer base.
"With Brand Interest Targeting, DoorDash had already curated the audience for us—customers already aligned with our category and audience profile." — Devin Wade, Co-founder, Linked Eats
A New Top Performer
After several months of testing, Brand Interest Targeting quickly became the top-performing component of Ruby Tuesday's DoorDash Ads strategy, outperforming campaigns the team had spent years refining and optimizing.
Key results included:
17%+
Increase in conversion rate
5.28X
ROAS
Beyond campaign metrics, Brand Interest Targeting also contributed to Ruby Tuesday's broader business performance, helping narrow its sales growth gap relative to casual dining peers during the campaign period.
For Ruby Tuesday, the results were particularly notable because the benchmark was already high. Even against that backdrop, Brand Interest Targeting emerged as the program's top performer.
"We exited 2025 with what we felt was bedrock for 2026 in terms of our rock star campaigns. And this thing comes along and it just blew them away.” — Devin Wade, Co-founder, Linked Eats
The results quickly reinforced Brand Interest Targeting's role within Ruby Tuesday's broader DoorDash Ads strategy. As a result, the team shifted a larger share of its DoorDash Ads budget toward Brand Interest Targeting, which continues to rank among its strongest-performing campaigns.
A Foundation for Continued Growth
By leveraging DoorDash's first-party audience data through Brand Interest Targeting, Ruby Tuesday reached more relevant diners, unlocked incremental growth, and established one of the highest-performing campaigns within its DoorDash Ads strategy.
The campaign also helped introduce the Ruby Tuesday brand to new diners on DoorDash — expanding its customer base and creating opportunities for future engagement both on and off the platform, including in-restaurant visits.
The results spoke for themselves: immediately after their first campaign ended, Ruby Tuesday launched a second Brand Interest Targeting campaign — which has already delivered a 5.44x ROAS.
"DoorDash has felt like a true strategic partner throughout this process. The team understands our goals, helps us test and optimize aggressively, and consistently brings ideas that help us grow. That collaboration has helped us scale successful strategies faster and invest with greater confidence." — Kevin FitzPatrick, CMO, Ruby Tuesday
