Billboard Advertising for Takeaways: Owning Friday Night

Every takeaway fights two battles. The first is the nightly one: being the answer to "what are we having?", a question your whole town asks itself between five and seven and settles in about ninety seconds. The second is quieter and more expensive: the delivery apps sit between you and your own customers, taking their commission off every single order and keeping the customer data for themselves.

A local screen helps with both, which is a lot of work for something that costs less than a large mixed kebab.

The dinner decision is local and fast

Takeaway choice is habit plus timing. People order from the same three places on rotation, and the rotation was set by whatever got into their heads first. Being physically visible on the street where your customers live is how you get into the rotation, and it's why the shops with the big lit signs on the main road always seem busier. They are. The sign is working.

A digital screen extends that sign up the road, to the junction, the parade, the route home. From £5 for an hour-long post or £10 to £15 per screen per day, booked online, live in minutes. The 5pm to 7pm window on a screen near the estates you deliver to is your exact market at its exact moment of weakness. See the pricing.

The direct-order angle

This is the part with real money in it. An order through your own counter, phone or website keeps the whole margin; an order through an app doesn't. Every takeaway owner knows the difference, and most spend nothing at all telling customers the direct route exists.

A billboard is one of the few ad channels the platforms have no stake in. "Order direct, collection discount, here's the number" on a screen half a mile from the shop is a message with an immediate payback: each customer who switches from the app to your counter is worth the commission on every order they ever place again. The apps advertise themselves on television. You get to advertise yourself on your own high street.

The nights and moments that pay

Friday and Saturday

Peak nights reward whoever's front-of-mind by teatime. An hour-long post at 5pm on the two busiest screens in your delivery zone costs about a tenner and lands at the moment the sofa negotiation starts.

The weeknight offer

Quiet Mondays and Tuesdays are where an offer earns most: meal deal, free sides over a threshold, collection discount. Same-day booking means the offer can exist because the shop is quiet, not because you predicted a quiet fortnight.

New openings and menu launches

The two weeks around opening set the rotation for the whole neighbourhood. Screens near the shop with "now open" and one hero dish photo beat leaflets that arrive folded into next door's pizza menu.

Match nights and big TV

Fight nights, tournament fixtures, the finale everyone's watching: takeaway demand spikes on the sofa schedule. Put the shop's name next to the occasion during the afternoon and be the path of least resistance by kick-off.

What it actually costs

Goal	Setup	Rough cost
Friday teatime push	1 to 2 screens, hour posts at 5pm	£10 to £15
Weeknight offer	1 screen, same day	£10 to £15
Direct-order campaign	1 to 2 screens, a week	£70 to £210
New opening	2 to 3 screens, two weeks	£280 to £630

Self-service rates, VAT included. The traditional route books in two-week cycles at £200 to £1,000+, which is a strange shape for a business whose whole week happens between Friday and Sunday.

Picking the right screen

• Inside your delivery radius, full stop. An impression you can't deliver to is decoration.
• The routes home from work: hungry people, decision pending, keys in hand.
• Near the estates and streets you deliver to most: reinforce the habit where it lives.
• Your own parade: collection customers are your best margin, and they're already nearby.

You don't need a designer

Food sells itself if the photo's good. The AI designer turns a phone shot of your best seller into a proper advert: dish, name, number, offer. That's the whole brief. Nobody reads a menu on a billboard, and the ones who try crash.

Measuring it

Takeaways can measure better than almost anyone, because ordering leaves a trail:

• A collection code: "BILLBOARD" for 10% off collection. Every use is attributable.
• Direct orders per week versus app orders: the ratio is the whole game.
• Watch the phone on screen nights against the same night last week.
• Postcode check: if new orders cluster near the screen, it's working.

Run the 5pm hour on one screen for two Fridays. If the phone doesn't move, you've spent less than one night's app commission finding out. If it does, you've found a channel the apps can't touch.

Getting started

The dinner decision on your streets is being made tonight either way. A screen puts your name in the running at the moment it's decided, and sends the order to your counter instead of through someone else's app. Browse screens in your delivery zone and check tonight's price before the rush starts.

The sit-down version of this playbook is here: billboard advertising for restaurants.

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Prices are indicative 2026 UK self-service rates and include VAT. Actual costs vary by screen, size and availability.