McDonald’s launches an advertising network and targets $1 billion in revenue
The restaurant chain will start selling ads to other brands in its app, kiosks and menu boards. For marketers, this is another paid channel based on customer data, alongside Amazon’s and Walmart’s platforms.
McDonald’s announced on September 23, 2026, during its investor day in Chicago, the launch of McDonald’s Media Network, its own advertising network. As Adweek (opens in a new tab) reports, global chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley said ads could generate as much as $1 billion in revenue. The company did not say when it wants to reach that level. The financial targets for 2030 published on that occasion do not list advertising as a source of revenue.
The pilot launched in August in 450 company-operated restaurants in the US. For now, ads are displayed only on digital menu boards after an order is placed. One example shown was an ad for insurer Geico that takes up half the screen at the drive-thru window. Eventually, the network is also to cover the app, self-service kiosks and restaurant space. For now, there are no online campaigns outside McDonald’s channels.
The program does not yet include franchisee locations, which operate most of the chain’s roughly 14,000 restaurants in the US. The figures differ across sources: CNBC (opens in a new tab) reports 13,700 restaurants in the US, analyst Andrew Lipsman about 14,000. Worldwide, about 70 million customers use McDonald’s every day, and according to chief financial officer Ian Borden, the company reaches about 85 percent of US residents at least once a year.
In this way, McDonald’s is entering commerce media, the market for ads sold by companies based on their own customer data and their own sales channels. According to eMarketer, spending on this segment in the US is expected to reach $84 billion this year, and most of the growth is going to Amazon and Walmart. According to a comparison cited by Adweek, Roundel, Target’s advertising network, had $915 million in revenue last year, and Macy’s network had $188 million. Uber’s advertising revenue exceeded $2 billion in 2025.
For marketing departments, this is another paid channel with first-party data, meaning data collected directly from customers, alongside retail networks.