Mill Restaurant
Full-day restaurant · Google Search Ads · Target CPA
Mill Restaurant is a full-day dining destination in the heart of Ubud, Bali — European and Asian cuisine, more than 130 menu items spanning breakfast, burgers, pizza, cocktails, and vegan options. Primary audience: tourists and expats actively searching for dining options via Google.
Campaign launched in mid-March 2026 from a blank account with no historical data. Budget: $15–20/day. The setup decision that mattered most was not keyword selection or bidding strategy — it was which conversion actions to track and which to set as primary. Get that wrong, and Target CPA optimizes toward the wrong user for months.
4 campaigns segmented by meal service and time-of-day intent. 21 narrowly-targeted ad groups within them, each covering a specific query cluster (brunch near me, vegan lunch, cocktail bar Ubud). 3,286 phrase-match keywords.
Dinner · Bar · Cocktails · Lunch · Burgers · Pizza · Vegan
Breakfast · Near Me · Brunch · Healthy · Coffee · Burgers · Vegan
Healthy Lunch · Bowls & Salads · Pizza · Near Me
Bar · Cocktails · Drinks in Ubud
Ubud has significant Indonesian-language local traffic with no tourist purchasing power. Without aggressive filtering, the algorithm trains on this audience and optimizes away from the actual target. 7 negative categories applied across 3 campaigns and account-level lists.
Ubud competitor restaurants by name
Non-tourist geo (Denpasar, Kuta, Seminyak)
Delivery aggregators (Gojek, Grab Food, Tokopedia)
Indonesian queries without Ubud geo signal
HR / job listings in hospitality
Fast food chains (KFC, McDonald's)
Budget signals: cheap, promo, voucher
All tracked conversions represent real guest actions through Google Business Profile or the website — not proxy engagement events. Combined, they give the algorithm richer signal than any single conversion type alone.
Route to restaurant via Google Maps
Google Business Profile interactions
Menu viewed through Google
Clicks to millresto.com
Order initiated through Google
Phone clicks from ad
Target CPA requires a minimum of ~50 conversions to exit the learning phase. March built the signal. April delivered the payoff.
Algorithm learning phase
Algorithm breakout — ×23 growth
CPA continues to drop
March delivered 20 conversions at $11.80 CPA. That looks bad. But Target CPA needs a minimum of ~50 conversions before it can exit the learning phase and reliably predict user behavior. March built that signal. April was the payoff: the algorithm already knew which users, devices, times, and queries convert — and it delivered 468 conversions at $1.63. The learning phase isn't a problem. Abandoning it is.
Ubud has significant Indonesian local traffic: 'tempat makan', 'makan near me', 'gado gado near me'. These users have no tourist purchasing power for a full-service European restaurant. Without aggressive negative keyword filtering across 7 categories (competitors, geos, aggregators, Indonesian queries, HR, fast food, budget signals), the algorithm would have trained on this traffic and optimized toward the wrong audience.
Tracking only 'directions' understates actual conversion volume. A user who views the menu on Google, visits the website, and then shows up is partially captured by each of 6 distinct conversion types. This multi-signal approach gives the bidding algorithm richer training data — and gives the client a complete picture of what the campaign is actually producing at each stage of intent.
At $15–20/day, precision matters more than reach. Each ad group targets a specific meal segment (brunch near me, vegan lunch Ubud, bar cocktails Ubud) with tailored copy. A broad 'restaurant Ubud' campaign would win impressions but lose conversion rate. Narrow groups mean the ad copy matches the search intent exactly — which is why CTR stays above 4% across all campaigns.
Full Google Search account built from zero in March 2026. Target CPA completed its learning phase and delivered a ×23 conversion increase in April — 468 conversions at $1.63 CPA. By May, CPA had dropped further to $1.13 with the trajectory continuing downward. 1,991 negative keywords protect budget from non-tourist local traffic. 6 conversion types give the algorithm a complete picture of guest intent at every stage.
Negative protection: 1,991 terms · 7 categories · Indonesian + competitor traffic
Result: −90% CPA · $1.13 current · 468 conv/month peak
Client name is real. Report ID is internal. Monthly data reflects actual account figures. CPA figures in USD at campaign-period exchange rates. Results vary by season and competition.