Toast just integrated Google and Meta ads.
they are calling it a feature release. i am calling it a mandatory tax.
this is the end game for the all-in-one OS.
the reality is they now have the data to link an ad click directly to your net payout.
they can automatically kill campaigns that push low-margin items.
they can optimize spend based on who actually repeats.
your entire marketing budget just became a forced fee, enforced by the POS itself. it’s genius. the cash register is the marketing dollar.
the next move:
– dynamic pricing is coming. Toast will automate 3P pricing in real-time based on labor and prep costs to maximize your net payout %
– the Toast-powered “agency” is next. it automates the high-volume, low-complexity creative and bidding, leaving a shell of a market.
– the only wedge left for rivals (Olo, Thanx) is making your first-party capture so sticky that customer data never leaves your control.
the biggest gap is still the operator.
you can’t automate competence.
the real unlock is the growth manager who can cut prep time by 5 minutes & optimize a hero image for a 10% CTR lift. we know this because we live in the trenches.
fix the menu fundamentals. then, and only then, throw money at Toast’s new tax channel.
should we become a Toast powered agency next?
comment:
Someone finally pieced it together.
Toast will become a defacto tax on dining given their market share; only thing in their way will be an antitrust suit.
Think about it: the cost of lunch in your town just went up 11% because Toast controls the pricing at 70% of the establishments. Toast restaurants see a 3% revenue lift, Toast takes the remaining 8%, and Americans are poorer as restaurants are defacto factories for Toast.
Because restaurants refuse to pay for anything, Toast will eat it – quietly – out of the payment stream, which restaurants cannot and will not audit.
I expect Toast to have a net take rate in the hundreds of basis points of restaurant GDP. $1T industry = $50B+ of revenue for Toast.
Retail is about the only industry where you could pull this off because the operators are so unsophisticated.
Masterclass.