Google Ads for restaurants
New customers for $2-10 each. No delivery app commissions, no agency fees.
The challenge
3-9% margins mean zero room for wasted spend
Restaurant margins are brutal. Every dollar of wasted ad spend comes straight off the bottom line. You need campaigns that drive paying customers, not recipe browsers.
Timing is everything — literally
Bid 50% higher between 10-11am (pre-lunch) and 4-5pm (pre-dinner). These searchers are deciding where to eat RIGHT NOW. Running flat bids all day wastes money at 2pm and misses opportunities at 5pm.
DoorDash takes 30% of every order
Google Ads drives customers directly to you — no 30% commission to delivery apps. A $3 click that brings in a $50 dine-in table is a far better deal than giving DoorDash $15 on every delivery order.
"Restaurants near me" is too broad to bid on
Don't bid on generic terms. "Thai restaurant [city]" or "best Italian restaurant downtown" converts far better and costs less. Cuisine-specific keywords are where the ROI lives.
How Fullrun helps
Restaurant keywords are some of the cheapest in Google Ads. $1-3 per click means a $300/month budget can drive 100-300 clicks. That's a channel that most restaurants can afford to test without risk.
Fullrun targets cuisine-specific keywords in your area — “Thai restaurant downtown Austin,” not “restaurants near me.” The AI increases bids before lunch (10-11am) and dinner (4-5pm) when searchers are deciding where to eat, then pulls back during off-hours to save budget.
Every customer who finds you through Google Ads comes directly to you. No 30% DoorDash commission. No Uber Eats markup. Just a customer who chose your restaurant because your ad appeared when they were hungry.
Frequently asked questions
- How much should a restaurant spend on Google Ads?
- $300-1,500/mo for a single location. At $1-3/click, a $300/month budget gets you 100-300 clicks. Even at a modest 5% conversion rate, that's 5-15 new customers per month for $20-60 each. Scale up from there.
- What is the typical cost per new customer?
- $2-10 per new customer. Restaurant CPCs are among the lowest in Google Ads, and search volume is high. If a new dine-in customer spends $40-80 and returns 2-3 times, you're looking at $100-200+ in lifetime value from a $5 click.
- What keywords should a restaurant target?
- Cuisine + location beats generic every time. "Italian restaurant downtown Austin" or "best sushi near [neighborhood]" outperforms "restaurants near me." Target your cuisine type, dining style (brunch, fine dining, casual), and specific location.
- How long until I see results?
- Days, not weeks. Restaurant searches have high volume and low competition compared to industries like legal or dental. Most restaurants see increased calls and direction requests within the first 3-5 days of running ads.