The best fast food affiliate programs include fast food restaurants themselves, as well as takeout services, delivery services, coupon providers, and even companies that support the restaurant industry. These programs are particularly relevant now, since as a result of everyone being locked inside from 2020 to 2022, there has been a movement away from eating inside restaurants to grabbing bags of take-out food through apps and pickup at drive-through windows.
Burgers, fries, and shakes may be on our minds now, but there are a lot of different food options—and there are ways that affiliate marketers can make income by promoting these products. These fast food affiliate programs below would be perfect for many types of food blogs, though maybe not those vegan, organic healthy ones LOL.
At the end of this article, I’ll share some food niche ideas that can help you promote these affiliate programs, or if you haven't started your food blog yet, pick a topic to focus on so you can get started promoting.
Table of Contents
Fast Food Affiliate Programs
- Restaurant.com
- GrubHub
- SecretBurger
- Postmates
- The Entertainment Coupon Book
- Caviar
- Groupon
- Upserve
- Home Bistro
1.
- URL: Restaurant.com Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15% for gift certificates, 3% for Special deals
- Cookie: 45 days
Restaurant.com is all about helping customers find the best deals on restaurants, which includes offering more than 500,000 deals every day. This company is actively adding new restaurants every month.
One nice thing about this company is that the certificates don’t expire, and they can be exchanged at any time.
The Dining Discount pass through Restaurant.com includes fast food restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Popeyes, Panda Express, and Pizza Hut.
The affiliate program is administered through Commission Junction. Affiliates are provided with text links, banner ads, emails, and a product catalog, as well as detailed reports. Restaurant.com also runs special offers and promotions.
Why Should You Promote Restaurant.com: Restaurant.com provides a lot of options for customers to choose from, as well as great deals for fast food restaurants.
2. GrubHub
- URL: GrubHub Affiliate Program
- Commission: Unlisted
- Cookie: Unknown
GrubHub is a delivery service for fast food orders purchased online or through mobile devices. This company works with several different service companies, including All Menus, Seamless, LevelUp, and Menu Pages.
GrubHub delivers in London and in 3,200 cities in the United States, with more than 300,000 different restaurants. When all its subsidiaries are taken into account, GrubHub processes more than 500,000 orders every day. GrubHub provided close to $6 billion in gross sales to takeout restaurants in 2019.
The affiliate program, which includes both GrubHub and the delivery service Seamless, is run through Impact.
Why You Should Promote GrubHub: GrubHub is a well-known fast food and takeout delivery service that works with several other services and many restaurants. The affiliate program includes Seamless, as well, so affiliates can promote two companies at once. The downside is that the affiliate commission rate isn’t listed, so it’s difficult to tell how much you could make.
3. SecretBurger
- URL: SecretBurger Affiliate Program
- Commission: Unlisted
- Cookie length: Unknown
SecretBurger is a platform where restaurants can sell off-the-menu dishes, such as specials or holiday events. The restaurant submits a unique off-the-menu dish to Secret Burger, and the orders are pre-sold so that restaurants can get paid a week before they host the event. Generally, 50 to 250 dishes are sold for an event.
The other upside for restaurants is that the off-the-menu events can create word of mouth marketing and increase traffic at their stores. Affiliate marketers can make a percentage of the sales of the pre-orders they refer to these events.
Why You Should Promote SecretBurger: SecretBurger provides customers with off-the-menu dining experiences and brings extra revenue to restaurants. The commission rate isn’t listed for this company.
4. Postmates
- URL: Postmates Affiliate Program
- Commission: $10
- Cookie: 7 days
Postmates is a reliable delivery service that brings takeout food or groceries to customers who order online. This company has more than 25,000 merchant partners and works in several areas of the United States.
Postmates runs its affiliate program through Impact. Affiliate marketers work with a CPA payout model, and they’re provided with text links, banner ads, and other marketing materials. The base commission rate is $10 for each new referral that uses Postmates. Affiliates who consistently bring in one new customer per day could earn around $300 each month.
Why You Should Promote Postmates: Postmates delivers both fast food and groceries, which is great for people who work from home, are quarantined or are homebound for other reasons. The cookie is on the short side, but the commission rate is generous.
5. The Entertainment Coupon Book
- URL: The Entertainment Coupon Book Affiliate Program
- Commission: 15%
- Cookie: 7 days
The Entertainment Coupon Book provides a coupon book that helps customers save money on groceries, restaurants, local attractions, hotels, and travel. The coupon books cover every major city in North America, with 77 local editions as well as a mobile app.
Some of the fast food restaurants this company partners with include the Popcorn Factory, Aunty Anne’s, Leatherby’s Family Creamery, Fatburger, Arctic Circle, and Costa Vida. Many of the coupons can save customers up to 50% on their fast food meals.
This company runs its affiliate program through FlexOffers. Affiliates are given access to current and new offers, marketing materials, and reporting tools, as well as consistent promotions throughout the year.
Why You Should Promote The Entertainment Coupon Book: This company saves customers money on fast food and other products and services. The commission rate is nice, too.
6. Caviar
- URL: Caviar Affiliate Program
- Commission: Unlisted
- Cookie: 30 days
While Caviar is a food delivery service, it offers a more upscale feel than GrubHub or other fast food delivery companies. Caviar brings food from the best restaurants to customer’s doorsteps in around 30 major metropolitan areas across the United States, including cities such as Manhattan, Boston, Washington D.C., Sacramento, Chicago, and Dallas.
Customers start by choosing their location, and then they order the food they want to be delivered. Because the restaurants are independent, the availability changes from location to location. Caviar offers a mobile phone app for placing orders. Food deliveries are usually made within about half an hour.
The app allows customers to track their orders in real-time with GPS. Caviar also offers exclusive affiliate promotions and the first-sale bonus to affiliate marketers.
Why You Should Promote Caviar: The exclusive affiliate promotions, first-sale bonuses, and other bonus opportunities are great for affiliate marketers, and the commission rate is nice, too. However, Caviar only provides services in certain U.S. cities.
7. Groupon
- URL: Groupon Affiliate Program
- Commission: 5% for existing customers, 10% for new
- Cookie: 3 days
Groupon provides shopping deals and coupons that help customers discover local businesses and make their first purchases at discount prices. This company offers discounts in several areas, including food and drink, health, beauty, wellness, and more. There are more than 425,000 active Groupon deals around the world, and more than 105 million people have downloaded the app for mobile phones.
The food and drink category includes fast food restaurants such as Quizno’s Subs, Pizza Hut, Gandalfo’s, and Domino’s Pizza. The affiliate program provides deep links, widgets, banners, and other marketing materials. Groupon also runs sales contests and promotions that can help affiliate marketers earn more income from commissions.
Why Should You Promote Groupon: Customers get great deals on a wide variety of goods and services, including several dining and fast food restaurants. The commission rate for new customers is great, and affiliate marketers can earn commissions from existing customers, as well. The only downside I can see is that the cookie length is relatively short.
8. Upserve
- URL: Upserve Affiliate Program
- Commission: $100-$300 per demo, and $1,000-$2,500 when a referral signs up
- Cookie: 120 days
Upserve supports restaurants by providing unique point-of-sale services, as well as restaurant management services, inventory management, online ordering support, and more. The services are designed to help restaurants boost sales by about 30% and increase employee productivity, as well.
The types of restaurants that can benefit from Upserve’s products range from coffee shops and delis to cafes, fast food outlets, and breweries. Upserve prides itself on setting up unique point-of-sale services to best fit the needs of individual restaurants.
Upserve has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Nation’s Restaurant News, Politico, CBS News, and New York Post.
The affiliate program welcomes affiliate marketers who are restaurant distributors, consultants or work in similar food-related careers. Affiliates can make up to $2,500 per referral.
Why You Should Promote Upserve: Upserve can help fast food restaurants increase their efficiency, boost sales, and better manage the restaurant behind the scenes. For affiliate marketers, the cookie length and commission rates are terrific.
9. Home Bistro
- URL: Home Bistro Affiliate Program
- Commission: 10%
- Cookie: 30 days
Home Bistro offers gourmet meals that are freshly made and naturally frozen. This delivery company doesn't require a subscription or membership and shipped throughout the 48 states. They made it possible for customers to enjoy gourmet meals in just 10 minutes or less.
Home Bistro believes that you can achieve gourmet and healthy eating – with innovation, skill, and ethics added to the mix, they're able to provide the finest cuisine available with only the best and natural ingredients.
They cater to a large market – diet and weight loss, healthy lifestylers, diabetic meals, senior or caregiver services, low sodium foods, as well as food gifting.
Home Bistro partnered with ShareASale to run its affiliate program. Affiliates can earn 10% commission, bonuses, and special promotional codes.
Why You Should Promote Home Bistro: Aside from the generous commission, they also have a steady website conversion rate of 2-4% daily with an average order size of $160.
Affiliate Website Ideas
Now that you’ve read through the list of the top 9 fast food affiliate programs, do you know how you want to use them with your affiliate websites? I have a few ideas to share that could help you get started.
For example, you might consider starting a time management website for families who are always on the go. A website like this could feature productivity apps, alarm clocks for kids, and time-saving devices like robot vacuum cleaners. Food options such as meal kit delivery services or some of the fast food programs listed above could also be included here.
Another idea is a website for mom-and-pop restaurant owners. Programs such as Upserve from the list above could be featured here, but you could also promote small business loans, business management software, and hiring/staffing solutions. Anything related to b2b is definitely a lucrative niche, since companies are very, very willing to spend money if you can help them grow and optimize their own income.
What about a fine lifestyle website? This type of website could include upscale food services such as Caviar or SecretBurger from the list above. High-end fashion, cruises, furniture, and technology could also be promoted here.
Boost Your Affiliate Earnings
These 10 affiliate programs are just the beginning of what's possible. There are hundreds of ways to earn affiliate commissions with your website, including product reviews, top 10 lists, how-to guides, and more
But what about traffic and conversions? How do you make sure your affiliate links get clicked?
I used the affiliate training here to turn my brand new website into a six-figure income generator in less than two years. Build a business, not just a pocket-money side project!
Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
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