Last updated: Feb 26, 2026, 8:55 AM
Learn how to run ads on channels such as Google, Facebook and Instagram with Toast Advertising.
Toast Advertising allows you to launch, manage, and pay for advertising campaigns on third-party platforms like Google and Meta—all without leaving Toast. It’s designed to help you attract new guests and boost sales by ensuring your restaurant appears prominently when potential customers search for a place to eat.
With Toast Advertising, you can:
| Typical users running campaigns with Toast Advertising are seeing an average return on ad spend of over 8X.* On average, typical users are earning $8 for every dollar spent with Toast Advertising*. *Based on Toast Advertising data from beta users from Jan. 1, 2025 - Oct. 30, 2025 for live Google Ads campaigns with at least $300 in ad spend and that launched on Sept. 30, 2025, or before. Data based on actual online order values, as well as estimated store visits and average on-premise order value. Individual results will vary. Ad spend excludes any applicable service fees from Toast. |
Toast Advertising allows you to run ad campaigns on third-party platforms like Google and Meta directly within Toast. To get started, you are required to authenticate and link your Google Business and Meta accounts. To connect your Google Business and Meta accounts:
If you are continuing with Meta Ads, follow the steps below:
Note: You must have a Facebook page for your business in order to connect your Meta account. Instagram-only connection is not supported at this time.
| You must have the 4.8 Marketing Info or 4.1 Sales Reports permission enabled to access Toast Advertising. |
To create your first ad campaign with Toast Advertising:
You can now set your campaign details, such as campaign name, the business location this ad should be run for, which website page you would like your guests to land on when they click on your ad, and the location of your target audience.
You can set the location for your target audience by radius (set a number of miles surrounding your restaurant), or by zip code.
Note: Zip code is typically best used by restaurants in urban, walkable areas.
Once you’ve adjusted the campaign details and select Save and Continue, you will now be able to view and adjust the text within the campaign itself. Toast automatically creates a few suggestions for you based on information about your business and campaign goals, but you can adjust all of the fields on this page. You will find an example advertisement on the right side of your page that will reflect your changes in real-time so you can preview your ad as you make edits. You can also create an offer with a unique, auto-generated promo code by selecting the Add Offer button and following the prompts.
Finally, you will select information regarding the target audience for your ads. You can select:
After these options are selected, select Save and Continue. Finally, you will be able to review all details of your new ad, and when ready, you can select Launch Campaign or select Save as paused if you’d like another chance to review it before officially launching to your guests.
Once you have launched your campaign, you can view your campaign’s performance within the Campaign Performance Dashboard. Here, you can view the following information about your ads:
You can review further metrics on any ad you are running by simply selecting the ad from your list. You can also edit any campaign details you wish from this page.
You will see details about your ad performance related to online ordering, catering, and estimated in-store impact. This estimate is generated by using Store Visits by Google which reviews the number of people who saw the ad and visited your location.
For those looking for more advanced metrics, simply select the Advanced Metrics toggle at the top of your Metrics Overview tab in the Campaign Performance Dashboard.
Advanced Metrics include:
Note: Meta ads reporting metrics are consolidated into one view showing overall return based on aggregate sales. There is no Advanced toggle as seen with Google campaigns. For Meta campaigns, we cannot break out ROAS by channel (online vs. on-premise). Sales and return metrics may not appear because the campaign is still ramping up and has not yet generated attributed sales.
This typically happens if the user who tried to create a campaign does not have correct ownership permission for their Google Business Profile and must be resolved in your Google Business Profile settings, not your Toast settings.
In order to resolve this:
Yes! During onboarding, you can onboard all Toast locations with Toast Advertising and link them to your corresponding Google Business Profiles and/or Facebook pages. Once this is complete, there will be a location selector on your dashboard that will allow you to easily jump between locations when reviewing your Toast Advertising campaigns.
Note: You will need to purchase Toast Advertising for each location you wish to connect. If you have purchased Toast Advertising for one of your locations and would like to add it to another, make sure you are logged into the location to which you would like to add Toast Advertising before proceeding to Toast Shop to avoid any errors with purchasing.
Once a campaign is launched, Google or Meta must review your campaign before it reaches your guests. Newly-launched campaigns may take 24 hours (sometimes longer) to start spending. If it has been less than 24 hours, check back later to see if your campaign has started spending.
If you do not want to use the suggested keyword themes, you can create custom keyword themes by selecting the Generate custom button and typing three to four words describing your restaurant and campaign goal. For example, modern Italian food delivery.
Toast uses an optimization engine for your ads that takes time to learn and improve based on ad activity. Campaigns can take two to four weeks to fully ramp up to expected performance levels.
If you have Toast Advertising and no longer wish to use it, you can simply pause any live campaigns. You will only be billed for any campaign spend in the current month in addition to the Toast usage fee. After the current month has passed, you will not be billed unless you choose to resume campaigns again at a later date.