Delivery Hero Grows Revenue As Marketing Share Drops
Delivery Hero kept its sales and marketing budget stable at approximately 300 million euros per quarter from early 2025 through the third quarter of 2026, while revenue grew by one billion euros to reach 4.4 billion euros.
AI-Assisted Marketing Improves Profitability
The Berlin-based delivery group watched its marketing share of revenue drop from 8.8 percent in the first quarter of 2025 to 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2026. This disciplined spending directly supports the company’s profitability. To achieve this growth without inflating ad spend, CFO Marie-Anne Popp pointed to several core measures implemented across the platform.
The company deployed AI-assisted personalized marketing to steer customers across segment boundaries, moving them from restaurants to quick commerce and health and beauty offerings. Subscriptions and everyday app features also boosted order frequency and cross-selling. “That works very, very great,” Popp noted regarding the strategy.
Operations also benefited from refined performance measurement. Management gained the ability to determine the precise yield of individual advertising formats and adjust them continuously. Brand partnerships further insulated the marketing budget. Large consumer goods companies now fund and run their own promotions directly within the supermarket and quick commerce segments. Popp stated that this represents “no marketing investment on our part,” but rather an outlay by external partners.
Order Volumes Surpass One Billion
Order volumes surpassed one billion for the first time during the third quarter. Building on this momentum, the company raised its full-year guidance for the second time. Management pegged adjusted EBITDA to land between 980 million and 1.02 billion euros, up from the prior forecast of 960 million to one billion euros.
Uber currently pursues an acquisition of Delivery Hero, placing these efficiency gains under intense scrutiny as the US company evaluates the business’s valuation. Meanwhile, management has already factored the ongoing decline in the marketing-to-revenue ratio into its upgraded 2026 profit targets.