Restaurant advertising / paid reach vs search
Restaurant advertising, compared honestly: where paid ads fit and where SEO compounds
We don't run ads for anyone, so we have no reason to talk you out of them. Here is each common way to advertise a restaurant: what it costs in money and time, how to tell if it worked, and where search fits.
The short answer
What's the best way to advertise a restaurant?
Match the channel to the guest. People hungry and searching right now are on Google Maps and in search results, where you can buy a spot with ads or earn one with SEO. People who don't know you yet are reached by paid social, app promotions, print and sponsorships. Ads stop the day you stop paying; search is slower to start and keeps working.
We sell only one of these, SEO, so weigh our view of it accordingly.
See what search already does for youEight ways to advertise a restaurant
Restaurant advertising options, side by side: cost, effort and proof
No prices from us: they vary by town and change often. Here is how each one charges you, what it asks of your week and how to tell it worked.
Skip to what SEO costs01Google Ads, Microsoft Ads
Paid search ads
- Cost
- Your budget, each click priced by auction, varying by town and search.
- Time
- Weekly checks of search terms and hours, or a fee to someone who does them.
- Proof
- Clicks, calls and direction requests in the account.
- Stops
- The day the budget runs out.
02Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
Social ads
- Cost
- Your budget, charged by views or clicks.
- Time
- Fresh photos or short videos, often.
- Proof
- Clicks in the ad manager, or an offer only that ad mentions.
- Stops
- With the budget. Followers you gained stay.
03Promoted spots, offers
Sponsored listings in delivery apps
- Cost
- Whatever the app's program charges, per your merchant terms.
- Time
- Low: a few settings in the dashboard.
- Proof
- Orders in the app's dashboard, against the commission each carries.
- Stops
- When you switch it off. Those guests keep ordering through the app.
04Papers, magazines, guides
Print
- Cost
- Rate card price per issue, plus design.
- Time
- Design once, then every deadline.
- Proof
- Only with a code or QR code used nowhere else.
- Stops
- With the issue. Guides last longer.
Weighing paid reach against search? Start with what Google already shows for you.
Get the free Maps audit05Postcards, take-home menus
Direct mail
- Cost
- Design, printing and postage for every piece.
- Time
- A list or routes, and an offer worth keeping.
- Proof
- Redeemed codes against pieces mailed.
- Stops
- In the recycling bin.
06Local stations, podcasts
Radio and audio
- Cost
- Per spot from the rate card, plus producing the spot.
- Time
- Writing, recording, booking the schedule.
- Proof
- A code word heard nowhere else.
- Stops
- When the spots stop.
07Teams, festivals, charities
Local sponsorships
- Cost
- A fee or a donation, sometimes food too.
- Time
- Showing up: a booth, a tasting.
- Proof
- Rarely in orders. A link from the event site helps search.
- Stops
- With the season. The link can stay.
08The one we sell
Organic search and the Map Pack
- Cost
- A fixed monthly fee (ours from $125).
- Time
- An hour or two a month from you: photos, replies, review requests.
- Proof
- Positions, profile calls, direction requests, direct orders.
- Stops
- Fades slowly after you stop.
Before you pay for reach, the free audit shows what you already have on Google Maps.
Get the free Maps auditPaid search, up close
Google Ads for restaurants: how it works and what to check
Google Ads is an auction: you pick the searches, the area and a daily budget, and pay per click. Click prices depend on local competition for each search, so anyone who quotes one figure without seeing your market is guessing.
Ads show above the regular results and can appear in Google Maps. The sensible uses for a restaurant are narrow: clear-intent searches you can serve this week, within the distance people travel to eat.
Check before the first dollar5 lines
- Location. A radius people really travel from, not the whole metro.
- Search terms. Exclude "jobs", "recipe" and dishes you don't serve.
- Landing page. Catering ads go to the catering page, never the home page.
- Your own name. Competitors can bid on it; test bidding on it yourself.
- Tracking. Calls, directions and orders set up as conversions.
Paid reach or organic search
When to pay for reach, and when to let search compound
Ads earn their keepShort bursts
- Opening week.No reviews or search history yet.
- A new location.The new address starts from zero on Google Maps.
- A catering push.Big tickets: a short campaign can pay if you count the orders.
- One date on the calendar.New Year's Eve, a holiday menu. The ads end when it does.
Search compoundsEvery month
- Steady demand.Your cuisine plus "near me", your dishes, your name.
- Each month adds up.Reviews, links and pages don't expire with an invoice.
- Regulars ordering direct.A top result for your name sends orders to your site with no fee per click. See online ordering for restaurants.
- A tight budget.A fixed fee, not a bid that rises when a rival bids more.
Running both is reasonable: ads for the push, search for the base. For the Map Pack side, see local SEO for restaurants.
Measuring restaurant advertising
Did the ad pay? Work it out with your own numbers
No benchmark from us: the answer is in your own account and sales. Fill this in for one campaign, then for SEO.
For app promotions, add the commission each order already carries; the app commission calculator does that with your own plan's figures.
Worksheet / one campaignYour figures
- A. Spend on the campaign$____
- B. Orders traced to it____
- C. Average check$____
- D. Food and labor share____%
Kept = B x C x (100% minus D), minus A
Example, made-up numbers
Say a catering push costs $600 in ads and brings 3 traced orders at $450, with food and labor at 60%. That's 3 x $450 x 40% = $540 kept: $60 short. If one office reorders monthly, the same ads look very different by spring.
Restaurant advertising ideas
Five cheap ideas that leave something behind for search
Check your review gap first- 1
Sponsor something with a website
A youth team, a 5K, a street festival. Ask for a link on the sponsor page; it outlasts the banner.
- 2
Post the sidewalk board online
Whatever you chalk outside goes up as a Business Profile post the same morning, with a photo of the dish.
- 3
Build the catering page before the catering ad
Every flyer needs a page to send people to, and that page can keep ranking after the flyers are gone.
- 4
Ask every guest for a review
A card with the check or a QR code at pickup, offered to everyone, with nothing given in return.
- 5
Print your own web address
Flyers, bags and receipts should point to your own order page, not to an app.
Asking only happy guests, or offering a discount for a review, breaks Google's policies. Restaurant reputation management covers asking the right way, and the review gap calculator shows how far behind the place above you are.
The free audit compares your profile, listings and reviews with the places that outrank you, so you know what to fix first.
Get the free Maps auditWhat we sell, and what we don't
A restaurant SEO company, not an ad agency
We don't run or resell Google Ads, social ads, app promotions, mail or radio. If someone else runs your ads, fine; we stay on the organic side of restaurant SEO: Business Profile, listings, review requests, menu and order page advice, and links every month.
A team doing SEO since 2009 does the work. The monthly report lists every link with its live URL, target page and anchor text, and your positions for the agreed searches. Month to month; cancel by email.
For social, email and the apps, see restaurant marketing agency; if the site is the weak link, restaurant website design.
Packages / month to month / cancel by email
What steady search costs: restaurant SEO packages
Unlike a click budget, these prices don't rise when a rival bids more. Every tier includes profile, listings and review work; higher tiers chase more searches with more links.
TKT 01 / Silver10-12 days
Silver package
$125a month
or $140 once, no subscription
One location in a town or a quiet neighborhood, with a short list of searches that matter.
In every package
- Google Business Profile tune-upCategories, hours, menu and order links, photos and attributes set and kept right.
- Citations built and cleanedName, address and hours made identical on the listings diners and Google check.
- Review-generation workA policy-safe way to ask real guests for reviews, plus reply templates.
Links and research
- 10 target keywordsThe searches we work toward and track for you.
- 10 guest posts, DA 20+Articles placed by outreach on other sites, each linking to yours.
- 10 Web 2.0 pages, DA 50+Pages we publish on big publishing platforms, pointing to you.
- 3,000 amplification linksSecond-tier links to those posts and pages, never to your site.
- Standard keyword researchKeywords chosen with you before any link goes out.
TKT 02 / Golden12-14 days
Golden package
$235a month
or $260 once, no subscription
One busy location in a city, with real competitors in the Map Pack for your cuisine.
In every package
- Google Business Profile tune-upCategories, hours, menu and order links, photos and attributes set and kept right.
- Citations built and cleanedName, address and hours made identical on the listings diners and Google check.
- Review-generation workA policy-safe way to ask real guests for reviews, plus reply templates.
Links and research
- 20 target keywordsThe searches we work toward and track for you.
- 20 guest posts, DA 20+Articles placed by outreach on other sites, each linking to yours.
- 20 Web 2.0 pages, DA 50+Pages we publish on big publishing platforms, pointing to you.
- 5,000 amplification linksSecond-tier links to those posts and pages, never to your site.
- In-depth keyword researchon-page audit, content gap analysis, premium indexing
TKT 03 / PlatinumBest value
Platinum package
$325a month
or $380 once, no subscription
Two or three locations, or a second site for catering or a sister concept, and you want to see what the top-ranked place nearby is doing.
In every package
- Google Business Profile tune-upCategories, hours, menu and order links, photos and attributes set and kept right.
- Citations built and cleanedName, address and hours made identical on the listings diners and Google check.
- Review-generation workA policy-safe way to ask real guests for reviews, plus reply templates.
Links and research
- 40 target keywordsThe searches we work toward and track for you.
- 30 guest posts, DA 20+Articles placed by outreach on other sites, each linking to yours.
- 30 Web 2.0 pages, DA 50+Pages we publish on big publishing platforms, pointing to you.
- 10,000 amplification linksSecond-tier links to those posts and pages, never to your site.
- In-depth keyword research, 2 domainson-page audit, content gap analysis, premium indexing, competitor research
TKT 04 / Titanium16-18 days
Titanium package
$575a month
or $620 once, no subscription
A group with several locations, a dense metro, or an old site whose link history needs a toxic link check.
In every package
- Google Business Profile tune-upCategories, hours, menu and order links, photos and attributes set and kept right.
- Citations built and cleanedName, address and hours made identical on the listings diners and Google check.
- Review-generation workA policy-safe way to ask real guests for reviews, plus reply templates.
Links and research
- 100 target keywordsThe searches we work toward and track for you.
- 50 guest posts, DA 20+Articles placed by outreach on other sites, each linking to yours.
- 50 Web 2.0 pages, DA 50+Pages we publish on big publishing platforms, pointing to you.
- 20,000 amplification linksSecond-tier links to those posts and pages, never to your site.
- In-depth keyword research, 4 domainson-page audit, content gap analysis, premium indexing, competitor research, toxic link check
Every month you get a report that lists each placed link with its live URL, the page it points to and its anchor text. No sample report, because every client's report is their own. Website work is quoted separately, from $400.
FAQ
Restaurant advertising questions
All prices, content plans and websites are on the pricing page. Rather talk it through? Reserve a call.
Are Google Ads worth it for a restaurant?
They can be, for clear-intent searches you can serve soon: catering, a holiday menu, a new location, delivery in your zone. Broad terms across a whole city are harder to make pay. Start with a small test budget and judge it on the calls and orders it brings, against what an order is worth to you.
How much should a restaurant spend on advertising?
There is no honest number we can give you, and we won't quote an industry average. Work out what a guest is worth to you over a year, decide what you can spend to win one, and test each channel with a budget you can afford to lose. Keep what you can measure and what pays.
Are sponsored listings in the delivery apps worth paying for?
They can bring more orders inside the app, and its dashboard shows how many. Those orders still carry the commission, and the guests keep ordering through the app. Add the promotion cost to the commission and compare it with what each order earns you; the app commission calculator handles the commission side with your figures.
Do you run Google Ads or social ads for restaurants?
No. We don't manage or resell Google Ads, Facebook or Instagram ads, app promotions, print, mail or radio. We do organic search: Business Profile, listings, review work, page advice and links. If someone already runs your ads, keep them; the two can run side by side.
Do you work with other restaurants near us?
We may. There are no exclusive territories, so another restaurant in your area could be a client too. One client's keywords, data, reports and plans are never shared with another, and we tell you this before you sign up rather than after.
Are the links you build safe for my site?
They go on real sites, and every one is listed for you to check. Guest posts are placed through outreach, Web 2.0 pages go on established publishing platforms, and amplification links point at those pages, never at your site. Each link is in your monthly report with its live URL. Titanium adds a toxic link check.
Order up / three ways to start
Before you buy another ad, see where you stand on the map
Send your website and email. The free audit shows who takes the Map Pack for your main searches, how your profile and reviews compare, and what to fix first.
Or tap "Ask us" at the bottom of the screen for the site assistant, or write to support@restaurantseo.company.
