In an environment of rising costs and tight margins, every investment has to work harder. Traditional restaurant marketing — ads, loyalty programs, and promotions — often produces uncertain returns. You can see the spend, but not always the incremental profit. 

Upside is different. It’s a performance-based investment that proves its value with every visit

Upside’s pay-for-performance model 

Upside only earns when you do. Restaurants pay a share of incremental profit, not for clicks or impressions. If your partnership with Upside doesn’t generate new, profitable transactions, you don’t pay a cent. That means marketing investment and business outcomes are finally aligned. 

This model gives operators a cost-efficient growth lever that ties directly to traffic and revenue goals. For a company like Bloomin’ Brands, where leadership is focused on simplifying the business and prioritizing ROI, Upside is a natural fit. It removes guesswork, minimizes waste, and ties spend to verifiable, profit-based outcomes.

Measuring incrementality with finance-grade rigor

Upside’s test-vs-control methodology identifies which visits were truly incremental and which would have occurred without Upside. Our data quantifies lift in:

• Guest visits
• Spend per check 
• ROI by user segment 

Each metric is backed by confidence intervals that meet finance-team expectations, so brands can make investment decisions with clarity and trust.

Upside’s dashboards show, at a glance, how performance translates into real business outcomes. You can see:

• Incremental guest counts, frequency, and spend
• Profit flow-through across stores and brands
• ROI broken down to the store, region, or brand level

How it worked for The Rose Group

When Applebee’s franchisee The Rose Group partnered with Upside across its Applebee’s locations, they saw:

• +127% increase in average monthly transaction count
• +5% increase in average transaction size

As The Rose Group CFO Chris Tobin said: “We wanted to see that Upside meaningfully boosted trip frequency and resulted in profitable transactions every time. The test proved both to be true. That gave us a lot of confidence.” 

Those results were third-party validated, adding independent credibility for finance-driven restaurant leaders looking for proof, not promises.

The payoff

For restaurant groups focused on positive same-store traffic, higher guest satisfaction, and intent to return, Upside delivers measurable progress on every front.

Upside drives:

• Incremental visits from new and lapsed diners
• Increased frequency among existing guests
• Verified ROI to satisfy both operators and investors

In a business environment where every dollar must earn its keep, Upside is a performance engine that proves its value with every visit. Reach out to learn more about what we can do for your business.