How do I create a promotion?

Build an offer step by step — type, code, trigger, limits and validity — including the free-ticket cap and the under-30p free-order rule.

You build offers on the Promotions page (sidebar → Grow). Click New promotion and the builder opens full-screen, asking one question per screen — a You're building panel alongside narrates exactly what the offer will do as you answer, and only a name and a type are truly required; everything else has safe defaults. Leaving part-way is always safe: the exit button says Exit — saved as draft, and re-opening the builder picks up where you left off (with a Start afresh link if you'd rather not).

Not sure where to start? Let the AI draft it. On Pro and Complete, the builder's first screen offers Not sure? Draft it for me. Say what you're trying to achieve in your own words — "Tuesdays are dead", "I want more early tables" — and the AI proposes one promotion: the type, the value, where it works, whether customers type a code, and a trigger if your goal implies one. It costs 1 AI credit (the same as a written marketing draft), and if it can't finish, the credit isn't taken. The draft opens straight on the Check & create screen, paused, with the plain-English readback of exactly what would be saved and a line explaining why the AI shaped it that way. Nothing is saved until you press Create promotion, every answer is editable, and the AI deliberately never sets your dates, use limits, members-only or saving-to-account — those stay your call. It also never suggests a promo code you're already using.

The eight steps

• Type. Percentage off or Amount off (money off event tickets or Order & Pay orders — collection, delivery or table), Free tickets, Buy one, get one free, Treat, Free item when you buy (Order & Pay orders only), or Showcase. Choose carefully: the type can't be changed once a promotion exists — you'd delete it and create a new one (the edit flow says exactly that).
• The offer. The type's own value — the percentage, the amount off, the free-ticket cap, the buy/get quantities or the treat text. For Free item when you buy this is the Buy / Get step: under Buy, how many of which categories or dishes the customer must have in the basket (e.g. any 2, with the Mains category ticked) and What customers call these (e.g. "mains"); under Get free, the categories or dishes the free item can come from and What customers call the free thing (e.g. "dessert" — customers see it as "Free dessert"); then How many free per order: Once per order, or Once for every multiple, up to a cap with the most free items one order can earn. A box on the step explains in plain words exactly what a basket will earn ("With 4 mains in the basket this gives two free desserts…"). The cheapest qualifying item in the order is always the free one, it comes off at its real price, and set menu & deal prices never count towards the buy quantity and are never the free item. Ticking a category covers every dish in it (marked "Counts via" or "Included via" that category).
• Name and description. The name is what customers see when the offer applies.
• Where it works. Tick Ticket checkout, Table bookings, Order & Pay table orders, Collection orders, Delivery orders and/or At the venue (a money-off promotion with neither collection nor delivery ticked stays at-table only). Some types lock this automatically — free tickets and buy-one-get-one show "Event ticket checkout only — set automatically for this type", and money-off types remind you that "Money-off offers never discount table-booking deposits — use a treat for bookings. On Order & Pay orders — collection, delivery or table — the discount applies to the dishes only, never the tip." With Delivery orders ticked, a Free delivery switch appears — see How do I set up collection and delivery ordering?.
• How customers get it. No code, A shared code (4–24 characters — letters, numbers and hyphens, e.g. SUMMER-20) or One-per-person codes (the code generator opens by itself when you save, pre-filled from your total-use limit).
• Conditions (optional — skippable). No trigger, around the customer's birthday (within a number of days — 7 by default), The customer's first booking, The customer's first order (Order & Pay orders only — you then pick what counts as their first: First order on that channel, First order of any kind or First visit of any kind; see How do promo codes and automatic offers work?), certain days of the week, off-peak times, or What's in the basket (Order & Pay orders only — collection, delivery or table). A basket-condition promotion switches itself on the moment a customer's order qualifies — set a minimum number of qualifying items, a minimum spend on them, or both — and the customer's basket shows the discount live as qualifying items are added. It's how you build "buy two cocktails, get 20% off cocktails": scope the discount to cocktails (under More options) and both conditions then count only the cocktails in the order. Basket-condition promotions must be a money discount (percentage or amount off), use No code, and have Order & Pay orders (collection, delivery or table) as their only places. On a promotion whose places are all Order & Pay orders you can also stack conditions: pick the first, then Add another condition under More conditions — every condition has to be met (a day rule and a basket rule on one promotion, say), a promotion can't carry two conditions of the same type, and the narration joins them with "and" so you can read exactly what you've built. Pick The customer's first booking on an Order & Pay-only promotion and an amber note points you at The customer's first order instead, because "first booking" counts bookings, never orders.
• More options (optional — the skip link says "Skip the optional extras — use the defaults"). Everything optional lives here, grouped: Start date and End date (on table bookings these go by the date of the visit, not the day the booking is taken — so a booking made in March for a meal in your May offer window gets the offer, and one made during the window for a meal after it doesn't; on Order & Pay orders and ticket checkout the dates are judged on the day the code is used), Total uses (blank = unlimited), Uses per customer (blank = unlimited), Minimum tickets in the order (ticket-checkout offers only), Minimum spend (£) (ticket-checkout and Order & Pay offers — collection, delivery or table; on money-off orders you choose what it measures: the whole order's dish subtotal, or qualifying items only; either way it's checked before any tip or delivery fee), the What it discounts on orders scope for money-off Order & Pay offers (on any order channel) — Whole order (the default), Only these or Everything except these, picking categories and/or individual dishes (ticking a category covers every dish in it automatically, marked "Included via" or "Left out via" that category) plus a required short Customer-facing label (e.g. "food" or "cocktails") that customers see in the discount label ("20% off food") — for ticket offers Which events? (none selected = all events), and the saving & membership toggles below. Set menu & deal prices are never discounted either way, and if the scope leaves any alcohol-marked dish discountable a neutral licensing note appears (it never blocks saving).
• Check & create. The final screen restates the whole promotion in plain English — the same sentences the narration panel has been building — with the Set live immediately toggle. Click Create promotion. (A live promotion can't be saved with an end date that's already passed — pick a future date or save it paused.)

The free-ticket cap (required)

A Free tickets promotion cannot be created without a Maximum free tickets value — the builder asks "How many free tickets can it ever give away?" and explains that "A cap is required — even a leaked code can never empty an event." It must be a whole number between 1 and 10,000.

Orders under 30p become free

For the money-off types the builder shows this note, and it's worth knowing: "If a code brings an order under 30p, the customer pays nothing." Card payments can't collect tiny amounts, so a discount that leaves 1p–29p to pay rounds the whole order down to free — the customer skips the card step entirely. Size your discounts with that in mind.

The licensing notice for drinks offers

If your title, description or treat text looks like a free or discounted alcohol deal (including happy-hour or multi-buy shapes), an amber notice appears: "Check your local licensing rules — in Scotland, multi-buy and short-term alcohol price offers are prohibited for licensed venues." It never blocks saving — you can dismiss it — but as the licence holder you're responsible for making sure any alcohol-shaped offer is lawful in your area, so do check before going live.

Two extra toggles (under More options)

• Customers can save this to their account — a saved offer appears in the staff scan result for one-tap redemption at the venue, and when you attach the offer to a marketing campaign, loyalty members get an Add to my account button in the email. It also unlocks a Send to members action on the promotion's card, which banks the offer straight into members' accounts yourself — quietly, with no email needed. Switching it on reveals a nested toggle, Customers can claim it again after using it — off by default (claiming is normally once per member per offer, ever); on, a member whose saved offer has been used can claim a fresh one, though a cancelled saved offer never comes back. Leave Uses per customer blank with it on and the builder shows an amber warning, because with no per-customer limit a customer could claim and use the offer on every visit. See How do saved offers work?.
• Loyalty members only — restricts the offer to confirmed loyalty scheme members.

Both of those toggles, and the Send to members action, only do anything for loyalty members — so if you haven't set a loyalty scheme up yet, or yours is paused, the builder shows an amber note saying so and pointing at the Loyalty page. It never stops you saving: setting your promotions up before your scheme is perfectly sensible.

Showing a Showcase card on your public pages

A Showcase card has one extra switch, Show on your public pages. While the card is live it also appears as a small banner in your brand colour on your booking page (the first step) and your event pages. Off means the card is for email campaigns only.

Related: What can Promotions do? · How do promo codes and automatic offers work? · How do promo codes work on event tickets?