Restaurant marketing aimed at the nights that do not sell themselves.
A restaurant does not need more Saturdays. Saturdays fill. What decides whether the year works is Tuesday, Wednesday and the first three weeks of January, and a table empty on a Tuesday is revenue that cannot be recovered on Saturday.
The second thing quietly costing money is commission. Every booking arriving through a platform carries a cut, and a booking the restaurant generated itself does not. Shifting even a portion of covers to direct is usually worth more than any increase in total bookings.
Everything, from the ad to the booked call.
Midweek campaigns
Offers and messaging aimed specifically at your quiet nights, rather than blanket discounting that subsidises the nights you would have filled anyway.
Direct booking campaigns
Driving reservations to your own system instead of a platform, so the cover arrives without a commission attached.
Google profile and photo work
For restaurants the profile is the shopfront. Photographs, menus and hours do more than any paid campaign.
Occasion campaigns
Valentine's, Mother's Day, Christmas parties and communions, planned well in advance rather than posted about the week before.
The weekly report
Bookings, cost per booking and which nights they landed on.
The form asks first, so your phone rings second.
Every campaign sends the click to a lead form that asks the qualifying questions before the enquiry reaches you. For restaurants & cafés, that means:
- 01Which night are you looking to book?
- 02How many people?
- 03Is it a special occasion?
- 04Have you dined with us before?
Then one number every Friday: spend, leads, cost per lead and what we are changing next week.
cost per lead on a live trades campaign
leads in the first month of a live trades campaign
Every figure comes from a client we can put you in touch with. We do not name clients in ads or on this page. See more on the results page.
Commission is the number nobody calculates
Platform bookings feel free because the cost is deducted rather than invoiced. Work out what a year of commission actually comes to and it is frequently a full-time wage.
You will not replace platforms entirely and should not try — they bring genuine discovery. But a campaign that moves a share of repeat customers to booking direct pays for itself several times over, and those customers were already yours.
Discount the gap, never the whole week
A twenty percent offer running all week is mostly taken up by people who would have paid full price at the weekend. You have discounted your best nights to fill your worst.
The same offer restricted to Tuesday and Wednesday reaches people with flexible plans and adds covers instead of removing margin.
€1,500 a month. Everything included.
Meta advertising fully managed, lead forms that qualify, social media fully run, all creative every month and the Friday report. Google Ads managed on top: €2,000 a month. No setup fee, no contract, month to month. Advertising spend is paid directly to the platforms and stays in your control.
Every county in Ireland.
Campaigns are built around the towns you actually cover, not a county name. Counties where we see the most demand for restaurants & cafés:
Straight answers.
Are the booking platforms worth it?
For discovery, yes. For repeat customers, no — every returning diner who books through a platform is costing you commission on a relationship you already own. The aim is to shift the repeats, not to leave entirely.
Should we advertise at the weekend?
Rarely. If Saturday fills without help, advertising it is spending money to move a booking you already had. The budget belongs on the quiet nights.
How important is the Google profile?
For a restaurant it is the single most valuable thing you own. Photographs, an up-to-date menu and correct hours decide more bookings than any campaign.
Is Instagram worth the effort?
For food, genuinely yes — it is one of the few sectors where organic content still earns real reach. It needs to be your own food, photographed properly, not stock.
What does it cost?
€1,500 a month with everything included, or €2,000 with Google Ads managed on top.
Find out what you're missing.
A free growth audit of your Google map results, reviews, website and the ads running in your county. Sent as a PDF within 24 hours. No call needed.