We define the signal-relevant efficiency (SRE) of a diffractive optical element as a measure of the proportion of the incident field power that ends up in the desired output signal. An upper bound for SRE is determined in the presence of arbitrary constraints imposed on the element, such as phase-dependent loss due to absorption within the microstructure and quantization of the surface profile. We apply the theory to the important class of diffractive elements that contain only one desired diffraction order (such as diffractive lenses) and derive the surface profile that provides the highest efficiency allowed by the constraints.