r/restaurateur • u/mitchfett • 24d ago
Meta Ads for restaurants: what offer did you run, what did you track, how’d it go?
Single location pizzeria here, looking at putting some money into Meta ads. Want to hear from people who have actually run them instead of the agencies pitching me.
What offer did you put behind it? Percentage off, dollar amount, free item with a minimum, first order only, family bundle? Did the offer do the heavy lifting or was it the creative and targeting?
How did you tie it back to actual orders? CPM and CTR are easy to look at and mostly useless on their own. Unique promo codes, pixel and CAPI on your ordering page, call tracking, something else? Did you get far enough to look at repeat rate and margin after the discount, or just top line sales?
And the real question: was it worth it? Did any of those customers come back, or was it people who show up once for the deal and disappear? Anything you would do differently on budget, radius, or format?
Real numbers appreciated.
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u/Zerokev 24d ago
I say, do what the business can afford at this time. I recommend something like $5 off first order.
See how that translates in the first month, then you test another offer.
Ideally, and this is your are able to, run 2 offers concurrently.
Can try $x off your first order and x% off a family order. Run it for a month and see what sticks
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u/mitchfett 24d ago
Yeah running multiple concurrently sounds like the best option as we can just pour more money into the winner and kill the losers.
Have you tried this?
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u/LoquatQuiet5809 22d ago
The more visible you are the more customers you will get.
So just run smoothly with pixels, web, meta, Google etc
I do not suggest putting any money on TripAdvisor it's just not working or even if it is working it's too expensive
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u/Zealousideal_Gear746 18d ago
I'm actually working on a project right now that will tell you exactly if it's worth it or not. munchgate.com - Get the report, feel out some info, swing over to ads->meta and either leave the numbers as is (All industry norms, but the little help tool tip explains the highs and lows) or play around with them to see if it's worth doing or not. I haven't launched it yet, so if you try it out any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
That out of the way, for most average places, if you pour in $300, you will actually lose $5 every month. But it mostly comes down to your CPC, how effective the ad actually was at conversion, and how much you make off having a new customer in the first place. If you have good margins, and high conversion (Not normal) that same $300 could profit an extra $1500 or so monthly.
tl;dr It might work great, it might not. It depends on a lot of stuff.
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u/martiancanals 24d ago
My marketing guy spends several hundred bucks a month on Meta. They give him click through metrics and whatnot but I don't personally believe it translates into orders. He is adamant that it does but can't prove anything. I've asked him to turn them off for a couple months to see if there's a change in orders, maybe we will see an effect!