Dave’s Hot Chicken Just Got the Number-1 App Store App, and the Explanation Is Brilliant

I don’t know about you, but I’ve downloaded a few food and delivery apps on my phone, and only used them a few times, because I wanted a free offer — or maybe more to the point, because I wanted to write about a free offer:

• There’s the McDonald’s app that I downloaded when I was writing about the McDonald’s Gold Card giveaway.
• There’s the Burger King “Whopper Detour” campaign that required you to be at a McDonald’s to order a one-cent Whopper.
• And there’s the Starbucks app that I think I originally downloaded as a result of the Starbucks “Free Starbucks for Life” contest.

Now, there’s a new download-the-app story. I don’t know if it’s the best campaign ever, but it’s a brand-new one that seems to prove this strategy still works.

Last Thursday, Dave’s Hot Chicken (of all things) knocked OpenAI’s Sora out of the #1 spot on the iOS App Store after announcing that they were giving away free chicken sandwich sliders for Drake’s birthday. (Drake apparently invested in the company back in 2021.)

Result: In a single day, Dave’s drove 343,531 new account sign-ups, according to Wired, which works out to about a 10 percent bump in their total downloads.

It turns out this is a very smart acquisition strategy, just going by the numbers:

First, a Dave’s Hot Chicken slider retails for about $7.99 to $8.50, depending on location.

So, what do those sliders actually cost Dave’s? Restaurant industry standards suggest food costs should run between 28-35% of menu price. So, if we split the difference and go with 30%, that would put the actual ingredient cost of each slider at roughly $2.40.

Not everyone who actually downloads the app will get around to picking up their free chicken slider, of course.

Some estimates are that industry-wide, between 30% and 40% of digital coupons actually get redeemed; let’s be conservative and, since this is actually a free offer, suggest that 80% of those who downloaded the app actually got their slider.

That would put the actual cost-of-sandwich-per-download figure at $1.92 each.

With the caveat that it’s been a while since I’ve run campaigns myself, that’s a very good rate. It’s hard to pin down exact numbers across an entire industry, and app downloads aren’t exactly one-size-fits-all, but take a look at a few average numbers I came across:

• Google Ads: $2.65 to $3.50 per install.
• Instagram Ads: $2.23 to $3.50 per install.
• Twitter Ads: $2.54 per install.

Short version: It seems it’s probably a lot more cost-effective to pay for app downloads with chicken sandwiches than it is to pay with actual money.

Actually, there’s another benefit:

I’d be willing to bet a significant percentage of customers who took advantage of the free slider offer wound up buying something else — fries, a drink, or both, which also effectively lowers the net cost per install.

Of course, the real benefit to Dave’s is what these new customers are worth over time. If you’re young enough to be enticed to take an action based on the fact that it’s Drake’s birthday, you’ve almost certainly got quite a few decades of buying decisions ahead of you.

“The Dave’s app is very important to our long-term success because of two things,” CTO Leon Davoyan told Wired. “Our core demographic is young and very digital forward. And generally speaking, digital sales in the restaurant industry are on the rise.”

Having a direct relationship with customers also means Dave’s can send push notifications and loyalty programs, and collect data on ordering patterns—all without paying a third-party platform for access to their own customers.

Look, I have a doorknob confession to make as we near the end of this article:

It’s that this is the first story I’ve written like this where I didn’t actually download the app; I just paid attention to how it managed to overcome most of the hottest, long-term AI-related apps that have been dominating the app store rankings recently.

It’s kind of neat that real, tangible chicken sandwiches beat out virtual tools, at least for a little while.

That only goes to show once more that this kind of thing works. Which is why I suspect Dave’s will try it again.

I mean, Drake turns the big 4-0 a year from now, right?

What better way to celebrate.