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Google Ads for restaurants
Restaurant PPC That Follows Your Service Hours, Not a Generic Template
A restaurant is the one local business where the product expires every night. An empty table at seven on a Tuesday cannot be sold on Wednesday. Restaurant PPC works when the account is built around that fact: ads that run when the kitchen can take the guest, keywords that match what people type when they are hungry, and tracking that shows tables booked, orders placed and directions requested instead of vague clicks. This page lays out how a Google Ads account for a restaurant is organized, which campaign types do which job, and which wasted-spend themes to shut off before the first dollar goes out.
- DaypartsLunch, dinner, late night and weekend brunch each behave like a separate market
- Four actionsReserve, order, call and get directions are the results worth counting
- Radius firstMost diners decide inside a short drive, so geography is the main lever
- Menu and hoursAds that disagree with your listing waste the click and the trust
Campaign types
Which Campaign Types Earn a Place in the Account
Most restaurants need fewer pay per click campaigns than an agency template suggests. The table shows the pieces that earn a place in a restaurant account and the common way each one goes wrong.
| Campaign type | Job it does for a restaurant | Typical keywords or inputs | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search, intent terms | Catch people who are about to pick a place and type what they want | italian restaurant near me, brunch with a patio, steakhouse open late, gluten free dinner | Broad match pulling in recipes and chain names |
| Search, occasion terms | Win bigger tickets: birthdays, rehearsal dinners, team lunches, holiday parties | private dining room, restaurant for large groups, banquet space, catering for office lunch | Sending event buyers to a page that only shows the dinner menu |
| Search, brand terms | Protect your own name from delivery apps and review sites that bid on it | your restaurant name, your name plus menu, your name plus reservations | Paying for traffic that would have arrived anyway, so keep it cheap and tight |
| Performance Max with store goals | Reach people across Maps, Search, YouTube and Display using your Business Profile locations | Location feed, photos, a short list of audience signals, call and direction values | Thin location counts and weak photos; read Google current requirements for store goals |
| Call and direction assets | Make the phone number, address and hours part of every ad | Call asset, location asset, price asset, promotion asset | A phone number that rings at a closed host stand |
| Bing Ads and Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) | Add reach for older diners on Bing and visual offers on Meta once Google is steady | Imported search campaigns; photo and short video posts | Starting here before the Google account is tuned |
Why restaurants are different
Dayparts, Seats and the Problem of Selling a Perishable Hour
Home service companies can book a job next week. A restaurant sells hours that vanish. That changes how PPC for restaurants should be planned. The first question is not budget; it is which service periods need help. A place that is full every Friday and Saturday does not need ads on those nights, it needs them on the slow midweek lunch and the early dinner shift. A new restaurant needs awareness everywhere and can afford to be broader. A destination restaurant with a tasting menu is hunting different searches than a pizzeria that depends on delivery.
Ad schedules make this practical. Google Ads lets you raise or lower bids by day and hour, and you can switch campaigns off entirely when the kitchen is closed or the dining room is booked. Some owners worry that pausing ads loses momentum. In practice, a click at midnight to a restaurant that closed at ten sends a visitor to a page that says closed, and that is money spent for nothing. If you serve a late crowd, keep a separate campaign for it so you can see what it earns on its own.
Seats matter too. A forty-seat room with a six-top request is a different business from a hundred-seat room with a banquet hall. Large-party searches deserve their own ad group, copy that names your capacity and a landing page with a real form or phone number for events. Without that, large-party interest gets lumped into general dining traffic and is hard to measure.
Service style changes everything about the keyword list. Dine-in places live on "near me" and cuisine terms. Takeout and delivery places live on speed and convenience terms, and they usually compete with the big delivery marketplaces for the same searches. Catering is a separate account area altogether, with different people searching: office managers, event planners and families, usually days or weeks ahead. If you do all three, split them. Mixing dine-in, delivery and catering inside a single campaign gives Google one bucket of results to learn from, and the numbers become impossible to interpret.
Finally, remember that Google Ads is rarely the only place a diner meets you. They see your Google Business Profile, reviews, photos and menu before and after the ad. Ads that promise a patio when the profile photos show none leave a visitor confused. Treat the ad, the listing and the website as one message.
How the account is built
How We Set Up a Restaurant Google Ads Account From Scratch
Map the real service periods
Write down your hours by day, which shifts are slow, which are sold out, and what you can seat without a wait. That list becomes the ad schedule and the order in which campaigns get budget.
Confirm the ordering and reservation path
Decide where each guest should land: your reservation system, your own ordering page, a phone number or a catering form. Test every path on a phone and make sure the page loads quickly and shows hours and the address.
Set up tracking before any ad runs
Count calls from ads and from the website, clicks to reserve, completed online orders and requests for directions. Give each action its own conversion so the account can report them separately.
Build the keyword groups by intent
Start with cuisine plus near me, occasion terms, and your own name. Use exact and phrase match first, add a lean negative list on day one and let search term reports guide any broader tests.
Write ads that match the menu and the room
Use real dish names, the neighborhood, the atmosphere and one honest reason to choose you tonight. Add call, location, price and promotion assets so the ad shows hours and an offer where policy allows.
Set geography and schedule
Draw the radius around your door or doors, exclude areas that never visit, and match ad hours to service hours with a small allowance for people who plan the evening before.
Review weekly, change slowly
Read the search terms, remove the junk, check which actions were counted and adjust bids by daypart. Ads need days to start and a few weeks to settle, so avoid reacting to one slow Tuesday.
Negative keywords
Negative Keyword Themes to Add on Day One
A restaurant account is easy to spoil with loose matching. These are the first themes we exclude, then we let the real search terms show what else to cut.
Recipes and how-to
People looking for how to cook a dish, a copycat recipe or a menu ingredient list are not coming out tonight. Block recipe, how to make, ingredients and calories unless you sell packaged food.
Other businesses and brands
Chains, delivery apps and review sites create brand traffic that rarely converts for an independent. Exclude the names that keep appearing in your search term report; never bid on a trademark you do not own without checking Google policy.
Wholesale and supplies
Restaurant equipment, food service suppliers, franchise opportunities and menu design software are all searches from other owners. Add them as phrase or exact negatives.
Free and coupon seekers
Free meal, coupon, voucher and deal terms attract people who want a discount code, not a table. Keep them if your offer is built for them, block them if not.
Wrong city or state
Chain names with other cities, and city names you do not serve, appear when match types are loose. Check the locations report as well as the search terms.
Menu pdf and nutrition
Pure information searches such as calories, allergens and menu pdf may be useful on your site but rarely justify an ad click. Review them before excluding because some diners with allergies are real buyers.
Delivery from other kitchens
If you do not deliver, exclude delivery and takeout. If you do, keep them but send those clicks to an ordering link, not a reservation page.
Restaurant PPC questions
Questions Owners Ask About Google Ads for Restaurants
How does restaurant PPC differ from other local business advertising?
The inventory expires. A table unsold tonight is gone, so campaigns should follow service hours, and results should be measured as reservations, orders, calls and directions rather than raw clicks. Most home service accounts book work days ahead; a restaurant account lives on tonight, this weekend and the next event.
Should a restaurant run Performance Max or Search first?
Most small independents begin with Search because it shows the exact words diners type and gives clean control over keywords and negatives. Performance Max with store goals can add reach across Maps and other surfaces, but it has requirements around locations and conversion setup and gives less visibility. Add it after tracking is solid, and read Google current rules.
Can I run ads only while the restaurant is open?
Yes. Ad scheduling controls the days and hours ads can show, and you can adjust bids by time slot. Many owners also allow a little time before service, since people decide on a place before they leave. Review the results by hour and adjust.
What should count as a conversion for a restaurant?
Count what a hungry person does: clicking to reserve, completing an online order, calling from the ad or the site, and tapping for directions. Give each a separate conversion and, if you can, a value so you can see which actions matter. Foot traffic itself is hard to prove, so treat store visit data as an estimate from Google.
Do delivery apps make my own ads pointless?
Not necessarily. Delivery marketplaces charge fees that cut into margin, so many owners prefer a direct ordering page. Ads can push guests to your own link, while your listing and menu stay accurate on the apps too. Whether it pays is a margin question you can answer with your own numbers.
How much does restaurant Google Ads management cost with GetPhound?
Paid ads management starts at $895 a month for one platform, $1,595 for two and $2,295 for three. Your ad spend is separate and goes straight to Google or the other platform. We charge no setup fee and ask for no contract, which leaves the decision to keep going in your hands each month.
Should I advertise happy hour, specials or events?
Yes, as time-limited ad groups or promotion assets, as long as they are accurate and you can honor them. Keep them separate from evergreen campaigns so you can switch them off after the date. Alcohol advertising has its own Google policy and local rules, so check both before you write copy.
How long before I see whether it works?
Ads usually start serving within days of approval. Expect a few weeks of tuning before patterns show, and a longer wait for seasonal places. A first month is for finding the best searches and cutting waste, not for judging final returns. We will not promise a result in a set number of days.
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Get in Touch
Ready to Fill More Tables?
Tell us about your dining room, your ordering setup and your busiest and slowest services. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com and we will look at your account or sketch a new one with you.