{"id":29082,"date":"2026-10-28T16:36:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpak.com\/advertise\/?post_type=case-study&p=29082"},"modified":"2026-10-28T16:36:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:36:49","slug":"qsr-direct-mail-incremental-roas","status":"publish","type":"case-study","link":"https:\/\/www.valpak.com\/advertise\/case-study\/qsr-direct-mail-incremental-roas","title":{"rendered":"National QSR Brand Earned $8.39 for Every $1 Invested with Valpak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Key takeaway:<\/strong> A national quick-service restaurant brand\u2019s seven-week Valpak campaign generated $22.4 million in incremental sales and an 8.39X incremental return on ad spend (iROAS), according to an independent test-vs-control study by ABCS Insights<\/a>. Households that received the campaign spent 5.33% more with the brand than a matched control group, and 4.34% more households made a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those numbers matter because they measure what a quick-service brand actually cares about: sales that would not have happened without the campaign. Not clicks. Not impressions. Receipts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QSR Campaign Results at a Glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Metric<\/strong><\/td>Result<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Incremental ROAS<\/td>8.39X ($8.39 in sales per $1 invested)<\/td><\/tr>
Incremental sales<\/td>$22.4 million<\/td><\/tr>
Incremental purchases<\/td>More than 1.5 million<\/td><\/tr>
Average sales per household<\/td>+5.33% vs. control (buyers and non-buyers)<\/td><\/tr>
Household penetration<\/td>+4.34% vs. control (about 2X the casual dining norm of 2.18%)<\/td><\/tr>
Sales per buying occasion<\/td>-0.05% (essentially flat)<\/td><\/tr>
Households reached<\/td>More than 56 million<\/td><\/tr>
Campaign length<\/td>Seven weeks, summer 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Do You Measure Direct Mail Incrementality?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ABCS Insights compared households that received the campaign against a matched control group that didn\u2019t. Purchases were tracked through a receipt panel of 1,158,098 households, and the measurement window ran about two weeks past the campaign\u2019s end. That buffer captures shoppers who held onto an offer before redeeming it, which is common with mailed coupons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return on ad spend was calculated against total campaign investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Incremental ROAS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Incremental ROAS measures only the revenue a campaign caused, not total revenue from everyone who saw it. Standard (attributable) ROAS counts a regular who would have stopped in anyway. Incremental ROAS subtracts that baseline by comparing exposed households to similar households that weren\u2019t exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why 8.39X carries more weight than a standard ROAS figure. It\u2019s the lift above what the brand would have sold on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Growth Came from New Households, Not Bigger Tickets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most telling number in the study might be the flattest one. Sales per buying occasion barely moved (-0.05%), which means people weren\u2019t spending more per visit. The lift came from more households showing up at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Household penetration rose 4.34%, about twice the casual dining norm of 2.18%. For a QSR brand competing on every corner, that\u2019s the hardest lever to pull: getting a household that wasn\u2019t planning on you this week to choose you over the drive-thru next door. Across more than 56 million households, that shift added up to more than 1.5 million incremental purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Do Restaurant Coupons Perform in Direct Mail?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Valpak coupon users are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n