Google Ads for an Italian restaurant in New York City (USA): 43,060 clicks at $0.42 and 12,323 direction requests in six months

Illustration. Photo: Brands&People / Unsplash.

The task

People look for a restaurant in New York in one place — Google. Someone typing “italian restaurant near me” at seven on a Friday evening has already decided to go out for dinner. One question remains: where.

What hurt:

• Restaurant search is a daily auction. A place in the results is contested anew with every query, and most restaurants bid badly in it.
• Money goes to queries that do not bring guests. Generic phrases collect clicks from people who will never sit down at a table.
• The restaurant’s own name goes to aggregators. A person searches for the restaurant by name and lands on a delivery or reservation service that then takes a commission for the same guest.

The task was to be the first answer to high-intent queries every day without overpaying in one of the most competitive markets in the country.

What we did

• Local Performance Max with the right goal. The campaign was optimized for calls, direction requests and reservations, not clicks. A click is not yet a guest. A call or a route plotted to the door is almost a guest.
• Bet on queries with intent. The main one is “italian restaurant near me” and close variants. CTR on it is 9.3%, almost three times the account average: the ad answers exactly the question the person asked.
• Protected the restaurant’s name. On a branded query a person should reach the restaurant, not an intermediary. A branded click cost $0.49.
• Managed bids every day. The budget was $100 a day. Bids were reviewed daily, and we did not pay for queries that do not fill tables. Hence the average cost per click of $0.42.

Results

Over six months:

• Impressions — 1,148,522.
• Clicks — 43,060, at $0.42 on average.
• CTR on “italian restaurant near me” — 9.3%.
• Direction requests to the restaurant — 12,323.
• Calls placed directly from the ad — 131.

A target action — a call or a direction request — cost about $1.45.

Insights

• Demand does not need to be created. People are already looking for a place to have dinner. The work is to show up in front of them consistently every day.
• The campaign goal decides more than the bid. Optimizing for restaurant actions — a call, a route, a reservation — cuts off traffic that clicks and leaves.
• Refusal saves money, not a discount. The low cost per click came not from lowered bids but from refusing to pay for queries that will never fill a table.
• $100 a day is enough even in New York. Provided the budget is not spread over generic queries but concentrated on those who are already choosing a restaurant nearby.