Make letters follow path with delay

[JonT.]

I am new to After Effects.

How do I make each individual letter of a word follow a path but with slight delay? Do I have to create a path for the individual letters?

[ShiveringCactus]

Without making separate paths, I'm not sure, but check out some of the included text animation presets.  "Lasso In" for example uses a keyframes on the anchor point and offset to create movement with different speeds for each letter.

[JonT.]

Would you be so kind as to show me so I can analyze what you did? I attached my project below.

My goal: The letters "Waze" should bump into the little car-like icon in quick succession. So they stretch on the way to the icon, then bump together and land where I already set them to stop.

I would be mighty grateful!

[ShiveringCactus]

Sounds like you just need to add a Tracking animator to the text.  And keyframe that.  I've spent about 5 minutes on this, I think the animation could be better, but should be enough for you to see what I'm doing.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/chnu4he2u7axr9yqerbxf/Waze-intro_most-complicated.aep?rlkey=u3ajiwjku...