How COVID-19 Has Affected Advertising For Meal Kit Delivery Companies
May 13, 2020 Affiliate Managers, Agencies, Marketing Teams, Retail, We LOVE Data™ 
This post was written by Michele Reina.
I have been a consumer of meal kit deliveries for about 3 years. About 3 weeks ago, I started noticing changes to my orders, reduced menu item choices, and the inability to reschedule skipped weeks.
When I reached out to my service they said that the surge in demand created a situation where they had to limit the number of choices offered to try to serve as many customers as possible.
Unlike many online retailers, food delivery services have seen a huge increase in demand. Everyone still needs to eat, but stay at home orders and limited supply at grocery stores have created an increased demand for home delivery of food.
Since February I have been monitoring meal delivery keywords to track trends and data in the vertical. Here is some data I found based on the non-branded keywords “home delivery meals” and “meal delivery” in the US:
In contrast, looking at market share for the same keywords over the last 2 days shows that the meal kit brands are taking over a large portion of the market from the affiliates.
But when we look at who is updating their ad copy, it is still the affiliates that are dominating:
It seems that while brands are spending more, they are not adjusting ad copy. Companies like Freshly are taking advantage of the situation by adjusting their ad copy and increasing spend, trying to get a larger share of the people at home looking for options for getting food for their homes.
Want to see what changes are happening in your vertical? Reach out to our team for a look at the data.
I have been a consumer of meal kit deliveries for about 3 years. About 3 weeks ago, I started noticing changes to my orders, reduced menu item choices, and the inability to reschedule skipped weeks.
When I reached out to my service they said that the surge in demand created a situation where they had to limit the number of choices offered to try to serve as many customers as possible.
Unlike many online retailers, food delivery services have seen a huge increase in demand. Everyone still needs to eat, but stay at home orders and limited supply at grocery stores have created an increased demand for home delivery of food.
Since February I have been monitoring meal delivery keywords to track trends and data in the vertical. Here is some data I found based on the non-branded keywords “home delivery meals” and “meal delivery” in the US:
- In February, affiliates like “top10bestmealdelivery.com”, and “top5mealdeliveryservices.com” dominated the market, with market shares over 50%.
- Only one actual meal delivery service was in the top 10 for market share, with “homechef.com” getting 46.2% market share for February
In contrast, looking at market share for the same keywords over the last 2 days shows that the meal kit brands are taking over a large portion of the market from the affiliates.
But when we look at who is updating their ad copy, it is still the affiliates that are dominating:
It seems that while brands are spending more, they are not adjusting ad copy. Companies like Freshly are taking advantage of the situation by adjusting their ad copy and increasing spend, trying to get a larger share of the people at home looking for options for getting food for their homes.
Want to see what changes are happening in your vertical? Reach out to our team for a look at the data.