We all want more customers; we need them to keep the lights on, and we need them to take the business to the next level. If you can nail your customer acquisition strategy, then it's probably harder to crash a business than it is to succeed.
If it was that easy though, everyone would be doing it. We work with a lot of restaurants and even for us, there's no silver bullet as every restaurant or bar is unique. We like to think that despite this, there's always a way you can grow you customer base, it just may be a bit different from what you would have thought.
Here are five ways you can grow your restaurant through digital ads. I hope it's useful but at the very least I hope it makes you think just a slight bit more out of the box when you run your digital marketing.
Covers: The Ultimate Goal

Any marketing campaign should ultimately drive more covers, whether through reservations, walk-ins, or takeout.
For this, you need to know exactly what you are actually driving so make sure you are tracking this within the platforms you are using. Platforms like SevenRooms are great for integrations with ad platforms and they can give you the exact booking data you need to optimise and scale your activity. In our opinion, there are some poor platforms for this out there we tend to recommend people avoid such as Opentable or Collins as they tend to keep the data to themselves leaving you in the dark.
This is what brings in the money, and you need to survive. This may be the sexy one but the following 4 are, in my opinion, the smarter ones.
Subscribers: Building Long-Term Relationships
Your restaurant doesn’t only depend on one-time visits. If you can acquire a customer once who then returns multiple times then you have a much higher ROI on your initial investment. This is why we are big advocates of a strong subscriber list.

Think of it this way, you can show someone your ad once and then they may forget. If you can get them on your subs list you can show them an ad whenever you send out your emails. This could be for years and years. It's usually always quite cost-effective to grow your subs list compared to direct covers as well. Make sure you're considering the below.
Lead Generation Ads: Use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to run campaigns designed to collect emails or phone numbers.
Incentives for Opt-ins: Offer discounts, freebies, or exclusive access to special events in exchange for signing up. A really good example we have seen in the wild was from Wagamama. Free Gyozas when you sign up, they can then hit us with ads whenever they please, knowing full well we already like their food.
Provide Value: Sort of the same point as above but please just make sure your content is giving something of value. Otherwise, you're just going to annoy people who won't book out of principle.
Traffic: Digital browsers basically
Increased website traffic is interest in your restaurant. Whether they are browsing your menu, booking a table, or checking your hours, this is the equivalent of people checking out the menu board outside.
For ads, it's pretty cost-efficient to drive traffic so you want to make sure you're thinking about 2 things.
You're sending the right traffic. It's a bit pointless sending some farmer in Australia to your page if you're a Cafe in Bolton. Make sure it's local and preferably they fit your ideal customer profile.
Your website isn't terrible. Get a second opinion on this as well as it's easy to think it's great when you designed it.
Use tools like Google Analytics to reveal where traffic comes from and what users do once they arrive. Once someone has been on your site, it stands to reason that they will remember who you are next time they are in the market for what you offer.

Code Redemptions: We all love a freebie
Promo codes are a straightforward way to measure the direct impact of your campaigns. Offering exclusive discounts or perks through specific campaigns allows you to track how well those campaigns perform.
Codes are great as they can be passed around easily as well. You can tell your mates or a neighbour that this local place is doing 50% off with 'SAVE50' meaning it can have a much bigger impact than direct conversion.
Unique Codes for Each Campaign: Assign different codes for email, social media, and paid search ads to pinpoint which channels drive the most redemptions.
POS System Integration: Ensure your POS system can track and report code usage to simplify the analysis process.
Limited-Time Offers: Create urgency with time-sensitive promo codes to encourage immediate action.
Ad Engagement: Going 'Viral'
'How do we go viral' is probably every social media manager's least favourite question. It's really not that simple, but if you design and run ads to engage and do it well then this puts you in as good of a place as any.
Engagement metrics like clicks, likes, shares, comments, and video views reveal how well your ads are resonating with your target audience.
If you're running these then you'll want to keep tabs on the below.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): This shows the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
Social Interactions: Likes, shares, and comments provide insight into how your content is being received.
Video Completion Rates: For video ads, measure how many viewers watched the entire video. High completion rates suggest that your content is engaging.
And these are some of our main tips for improving ad engagement:
High-Quality Visuals: Use professional photos and videos of your dishes, ambiance, and events to catch attention.
Targeted Messaging: Tailor your ads to specific demographics and interests to increase relevance.
Interactive Content: Polls, quizzes, and contests encourage users to interact with your brand, boosting engagement.
Summary
There isn't a silver bullet to grow your restaurant. Using a few of the above may help but most importantly you need to be testing, tracking and building your strategy to work towards the goals you have set yourself.
We obviously advocate for using a professional, but there's no reason you can't learn to do all of the above yourself if you don't have the budget. Just make sure you are confident in the process each step of the way otherwise, it's likely your results won't be fully representative of what you could achieve.
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