How Restaurants Use Google Ads to Get More Customers
He was sitting in my friend Maria’s Italian place. Three customers. THREE. The pasta smells incredible, the wine list is solid, prices aren’t crazy – but the place feels like a ghost town.
Meanwhile, there’s this pizza joint that opened six months ago right down the street. Line out the door. Every night. And honestly? Their pizza’s pretty mediocre.
Maria’s losing her mind. “What am I supposed to do?” she asks me while we’re splitting a bottle of Chianti (hey, someone had to drink it). “My grandmother’s recipes, fresh ingredients, twenty years in this neighborhood…”
That’s when it hit me. The pizza place wasn’t winning because of better food. They figured out how restaurants use Google Ads to get more customers while Maria was still hoping people would just… find her somehow.
Spoiler alert: Hope isn’t a marketing strategy.
Google Ads Actually Work
I’ll be honest – I used to think Google Ads were a total scam. Just another way for tech companies to squeeze money out of hardworking restaurant owners, you know?
Then my buddy Jake proved me completely wrong.
Jake’s got this burger place in Austin that was basically bleeding money. His wife kept showing him the bank statements with this “I told you so” look. He was dumping $800 a month on those old-school newspaper ads (remember those?) and getting maybe ten new customers. Maybe.
So Jake tries Google Ads instead. Same budget, $800. Within three months? 150 new customers monthly. I’m not making this up.
The difference is wild when you think about it:
- Someone googles “best burger delivery Austin” at 9 PM – boom, Jake’s ad pops up
- Guy searches “burger place open late” – there’s Jake again
- Lady wants “food near downtown Austin” – guess who shows up?
It’s like having a salesperson who only talks to people already looking to buy burgers. Genius, right?
Plus you can actually see what’s working. No more throwing money at newspaper ads and crossing your fingers.
Location Targeting (AKA Stop Paying for Clicks from Mars)
Sarah learned this the absolutely worst way possible. She’s got this adorable coffee shop in downtown Portland – great espresso, homemade pastries, the whole nine yards.
Her first Google Ads campaign? Complete disaster. Her ads were showing up for people in Salem, Oregon. That’s like an hour drive for coffee. Who does that?
She was literally paying for clicks from people who would never, ever drive that far for a latte. It’s like advertising snow boots in Florida.
Here’s what saved her business:
- Only target people within reasonable distance (she picked 8 miles)
- Block areas where you don’t deliver (obviously)
- Spend more during rush hours when people actually want coffee
- Focus on neighborhoods where your customers live
After fixing this mess, her clicks cost 40% less AND she started getting real customers instead of random website visitors.
Pro tip: If you do delivery, don’t make Sarah’s mistake. Check out these location-based advertising strategies before you waste a bunch of money on people who live in different zip codes.
The Hunger Games: When People Actually Want Food
There’s this huge difference between someone bored at work googling “restaurant reviews” and someone at 8 PM desperately searching “Chinese delivery open now.” One person’s just killing time, the other’s ready to order.
Tony figured this out with his pizza shop and it changed everything. Instead of competing with Domino’s and Pizza Hut on generic terms like “pizza,” he started targeting the good stuff:
Searches that actually make you money:
- “Pizza delivery [his neighborhood]”
- “Tony’s Pizza hours” (people already know him!)
- “Late night food delivery”
- “Best Italian restaurant [his area]”
- “Pizza place open right now”
His success rate went from 2% to 12% just by focusing on hungry people instead of browsers. Makes sense, right?
Fun fact: Google says searches with “open now” double during dinner time. That’s not coincidence – that’s hungry people with money ready to spend.
Real Numbers from Real Places
I hate boring charts as much as the next person, but these results are too good not to share:
Restaurant Type | Before Google Ads | Six Months Later | What They Actually Did |
Family Diner | 50 people daily | 120 people daily | Targeted “breakfast near me” crowd |
Fancy Steakhouse | Only busy weekends | Packed 5 nights a week | Went after anniversary and date night searches |
Food Truck | Random $300 days | Steady $800+ days | Used location ads to follow their route |
This isn’t some marketing agency’s made-up success stories. These are real restaurants owned by real people who figured out restaurant digital marketing actually works when you do it right.
Every Mistake I've Seen (And Made Myself)
Marcus almost quit Google Ads entirely, and honestly, I don’t blame him. Mediterranean restaurant, burning through $200 daily, zero results. His accountant was probably having nightmares.
Turns out Marcus was doing everything wrong:
- Bidding on “food” and “restaurant” (competing with McDonald’s – brilliant strategy, right?)
- Never blocked job searches like “restaurant manager positions”
- Sent everyone to his boring homepage instead of the drool-worthy menu page
- Ignored mobile completely (hello, 60% of food searches happen on phones!)
- Had zero clue if ads brought paying customers or just random website clicks
After we fixed this trainwreck and set up proper restaurant marketing automation tools, Marcus cut spending in half and doubled actual results.
Sometimes you don’t need more money. You just need to stop doing dumb stuff.
Track Stuff That Actually Matters
Most restaurant owners get excited about meaningless numbers. “Look, 500 people clicked my ad!” Cool story – did any of them buy food?
What actually affects your bank account:
- Cost per new customer (not cost per click)
- Phone calls from your ads
- Actual orders and reservations
- Revenue per advertising dollar
- Do these people come back? (lifetime value)
Emma owns this sushi place and discovered something weird. Her lunch ads got fewer clicks than dinner ads, but lunch customers ordered way more food and became regulars. She shifted money toward lunch campaigns and made 180% more profit.
Sometimes the obvious choice isn’t the right choice.
Want tracking that actually works? These restaurant analytics best practices will save you from chasing pointless metrics.
The End of This Story
Remember Maria and her empty restaurant? Fast forward six months – I can’t even get a table without calling ahead. Same recipes, same staff, same location.
She just made sure hungry people could find her when they were ready to eat.
Google Ads for restaurants don’t magically make bad food taste better or rude servers friendly. But if you’re already doing things right, they help the right people discover you at exactly the right moment.
Whether you’re running a corner deli or have multiple locations, it’s simple: your next customer is googling something food-related right now. The question is whether they’ll find you or your competition.
Stop waiting for people to accidentally stumble into your restaurant. Get serious about location targeting, focus on hungry searchers, and measure things that impact your bottom line.
Those empty tables won’t fill themselves.
FAQs
Google Ads let restaurants show up right when hungry people are searching for places to eat or order food near them. By targeting specific local searches (like "pizza delivery open now" or "best burgers near me") and showing ads during peak meal times, restaurants attract ready-to-order customers instead of just random people browsing the web.
The biggest mistakes include targeting too broad an area (paying for clicks from people too far away), bidding on generic keywords (like "restaurant" or "food" instead of menu items and local terms), sending traffic to the wrong webpages (like a homepage instead of the menu or order page), and not tracking real results like calls, orders, or reservations.
Budgets depend on the location and competition, but even modest ad spend can bring in new customers when campaigns are set up correctly. What matters is tracking key metrics (like cost per new customer, actual orders, and reservations) rather than just clicks, to make sure you’re paying for real results and not just website traffic.
