Marketing · Restaurant · Charlotte, North Carolina
The number was agreed before the work started.
The short version
Tikka Shack gave us one month to prove something, and we agreed the measurement first: the average of the previous three months, $75,288, fixed in writing before anything ran. August 2023 closed at $94,291 — 25.2% above it. More useful than the total: the sales the restaurant owns outright grew 20.7% while delivery-app sales grew 12.2%, reversing an eight-month slide.
Agreeing the number first
Most trial engagements are judged after the fact, against whichever comparison flatters whoever is arguing. We asked for the opposite: pick the number now, write it down, and hold us to it.
The base was set at the average of May, June and July 2023. Not the weakest month, not last year’s same month, not a projection. An average of the three months immediately before we started, agreed by both sides.
- Agreed baseline
- $75,288
- August 2023 actual
- $94,291
- Above baseline
- +$19,003
A baseline you agree in advance is worth more than any attribution model you build afterwards. It removes the argument before it starts, and it means the number on this page is the same number the client signed off on.
For completeness: against July alone, August grew 16.9%. We report the figure against the agreed base because that is what was agreed, and we report the July comparison because leaving it out would be selective.
What the sales mix was actually doing
Total sales were the headline. The more serious problem sat underneath them.
Tikka Shack was losing its own customers to the delivery apps, month after month. In December 2022, 81% of sales came through channels the restaurant controlled — dine-in, its own website, its own counter. By July 2023 that was 55%, and brand sales in dollars had fallen 31% from their December level. Total revenue moved around; the composition only went one way.
| Month | Brand sales | Share | Share, indexed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 | 63,416 | 80.9% | |
| Jan 2023 | 53,666 | 62.1% | |
| Feb | 49,977 | 68.3% | |
| Mar | 60,876 | 64.6% | |
| Apr | 52,519 | 60.4% | |
| May | 45,476 | 63.4% | |
| Jun | 43,647 | 59.5% | |
| Jul | 44,128 | 54.7% | |
| Aug | 53,257 | 56.5% |
August broke the run. Brand sales grew 20.7% against delivery’s 12.2%, so for the first time in eight months the restaurant’s own share of its own business went up rather than down.
Within that, dine-in grew 17.7% and the restaurant’s own online ordering grew 39.9% — the smallest channel by value and the fastest growing, which is the one you want moving first.
Results
| Measure | Before | August | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total sales | $75,288 | $94,291 | Against the baseline agreed before the engagement: the average of May, June and July 2023. Square POS, including delivery. |
| Total sales, against July alone | $80,684 | $94,291 | A single prior month rather than the agreed three-month average. Up 16.9%. |
| Brand sales | $44,128 | $53,257 | Dine-in, own website and counter orders. Excludes third-party delivery apps. July against August. |
| Brand share of total sales | 54.7% | 56.5% | First increase in eight months, after falling from 80.9% in December 2022. |
| Dine-in sales | $39,023 | $45,931 | POS, July against August. |
| Own online ordering | $3,940 | $5,511 | Website ordering only. Up 39.9%. |
| Third-party delivery | $36,556 | $41,034 | Grew 12.2% — slower than brand sales, which is why the share moved. |
| Google Search clicks | 5,230 | 7,610 | Search Console, whole domain, July against August. Impressions rose from 66,300 to 81,200 and average position improved from 24.9 to 22.8. |
| Searches for the brand by name | 2,360 | 3,206 | Clicks on the query “tikka shack”. Clicks on “tikka shack charlotte” rose from 63 to 175 on a small base. |
| New website users | 22,287 | 26,104 | Google Analytics, all channels. Site revenue recorded in Analytics rose from $108,209 to $125,263. |
How to read these numbers
Only a fifth of the growth is directly attributed. Campaign-level tracking ties $4,185 of revenue to specific offers — 41 units on a curry and appetiser combo, 343 on an anniversary offer. That is 22% of the $19,003 above baseline. The rest is not individually attributed, and we are not going to claim it was.
One month, one location. This is a trial period, not a trend. It is enough to settle whether an association was worth continuing and not enough to call anything durable.
Marketing did not do this alone. The sales figures are the whole restaurant. The kitchen, the menu and the staff were doing their work throughout, and August is a month with its own seasonal character. What the agreed baseline gives is a fair comparison, not a controlled experiment.
Revenue, not margin. Apply your own food and labour cost. The shift toward brand sales is worth more than the same revenue through a delivery app, but only your own P&L can say how much more.
Constraints that shaped the work
A single month is a short runway for anything structural. Most of what moved in August was demand-side — offers, campaigns, search visibility and content — because that is what can move in four weeks. The channel-mix problem underneath it took eight months to develop and would take considerably longer than one month to fix properly.
The social results were uneven and we would rather say so than pick the flattering half. Facebook reach and visits rose sharply from a very low July base, while Instagram reach fell 48.5% in the same month. We had prioritised reaching more people over reaching the same people more often, and on Instagram that trade did not pay. Percentages calculated off bases that small tell you very little in either direction, which is why none of them appear in the results table.
What happened next
Tikka Shack engaged Debox from October 2023 to June 2026.
If you are trialling an agency
Agree the number before the work starts, and make it a fair one — an average of the months immediately before, not the worst month you can find and not a projection. Write it down.
Then look underneath the total. A restaurant whose sales are flat while its delivery share climbs is losing something that will not show up in the headline for another year.
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Every figure sourced from the client’s own systems, with the basis stated and the exclusions named.Bawarchi Atlanta
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Measurement note. Sales figures are from the client’s Square point of sale and include delivery. Traffic and search figures are from Google Analytics and Google Search Console for the periods stated. The baseline of $75,288 was agreed with the client before the engagement began and is the average of May, June and July 2023.
