Restaurants, measured
at covers — not clicks.
Local Search and Maps as managed channels. Reservation-system attribution closed end-to-end. Google Business Profile run as part of the channel mix, not a side project. Direct account access where MCC breaks.
Where restaurant accounts go wrong.
- 01
PMax pulls junk traffic into a local-intent business
Restaurants run Performance Max because someone said it works. PMax interprets 'restaurant near X' as commerce intent and serves your ad to people in another country. Click cost goes up, reservations stay flat.
- 02
Reservation system silos the conversion
TheFork, OpenTable, SevenRooms, Quandoo — third-party reservation widgets that don't pass the gclid. GA4 sees session_end where the booking actually happens. Channel attribution evaporates.
- 03
Google Business Profile is treated as a side project
Posts irregular, photos outdated, opening hours wrong half the year. Maps and Local Pack signal degrades. Paid Search competes with itself instead of complementing organic local presence.
- 04
Multilingual menu, single-language ads
Tourist-heavy locations need targeted creative in resident-language and traveller-language. Most accounts run one set of ads and wonder why CPC differs across districts.
Eight pieces tuned to local intent.
- 01
Local Search architecture
Cuisine + neighbourhood + intent queries mapped properly. Branded vs generic split. tCPA targets per language variant. PMax kept off accounts where it would distract.
- 02Loop closed
Reservation system attribution
gclid passed into reservation widget URL params. Captured in CRM or reservation platform export. Daily reconciliation against actual covers — not against form_submit.
- 03
Google Business Profile as a managed channel
Weekly posts, photo refresh cycles, Q&A monitoring, review response cadence. GBP insights pulled into the same dashboard as Ads.
- 04
Map insights and competitor positioning
Local Search ranking tracked across cuisine-relevant queries. Competitor profile changes monitored. Promotion windows (lunch, brunch, prix-fixe) timed.
- 05Multilingual
Resident vs traveller targeting
Different creative, different language, different reservation flow. Geo-targeting tuned per district. Traveller intent during conference seasons separated cleanly.
- 06
Delivery channel coordination
If the restaurant runs delivery (Glovo, Deliveroo, Wolt), creative and budget split managed to avoid cannibalising direct reservations or dine-in.
- 07
Direct customer-level access
Where MCC access fails (we've seen this — Symposio, EVA Instruments), we operate via direct account access. No PERMISSION_DENIED surprises.
- 08
Reservation-by-channel dashboard
Daily covers by source. CAC per cover by channel. ROAS calculated against actual revenue per cover, not ticket value at reservation.
Foundation, search, operate.
- 01
Restaurant audit
Phase 01 · 5 working daysAds, GA4, GBP, reservation system. Map the channel mix, score gclid-to-reservation integrity, surface the GBP gaps.
- →Channel mix reality check (paid + organic + GBP)
- →Reservation gclid bridge integrity map
- →GBP completeness and competitor positioning
- →Resident vs traveller demand split
- 02
Foundation
Phase 02 · Weeks 1–2GBP brought to operational standard. Reservation attribution bridge wired. PMax retired or contained as appropriate.
- →GBP refresh: photos, posts, Q&A
- →Reservation attribution live end-to-end
- →PMax decision (contain / retire)
- →Channel group correcting Local vs Paid Search
- 03
Search architecture
Phase 03 · Weeks 2–5Search rebuilt by intent and language. Resident vs traveller separated. Delivery channels coordinated.
- →Search architecture by cuisine × neighbourhood × intent
- →Multilingual creative variants
- →Delivery vs dine-in budget split
- →Promotion calendar tied to demand windows
- 04
Operate
Phase 04 · OngoingWeekly GBP post cadence, monthly photo refresh, ongoing Search optimisation, seasonal promotion management.
- →Weekly GBP posts and review responses
- →Monthly photo and Q&A refresh
- →Ongoing Search and bidding optimisation
- →Seasonal promotion management
From our restaurant practice.
Common questions.
Probably yes for a neighbourhood restaurant doing well on word of mouth. The economics start working at 2+ locations, or for destination restaurants where tourist demand is meaningful. Below that, GBP optimisation alone is usually enough — we'll tell you that during the audit.
We don't manage the platform accounts directly — those are operational, not media buying. We coordinate budget and creative across dine-in paid ads and delivery so they don't cannibalise each other in reporting.
Most can, with one engineering ticket on their side. If yours genuinely can't, we work with what's available — UTM passing, server-side reinforcement, time-window correlation. Imperfect attribution beats no attribution.
If you mean Instagram-driven brands without paid spend, no — we're a performance marketing lab, not a social agency. If you mean restaurants where Instagram is part of the demand mix alongside paid, yes — we treat the organic signal as input to channel decisions.
We've solved this exact problem at Symposio. Where MCC write access throws PERMISSION_DENIED, we operate via direct account access with login_customer_id omitted. Documented in our practice, not improvised.
Send the account and the reservation system.
Read-only access. Five working days. Written diagnostic with channel mix and reservation-attribution health.
No long contracts · Free audit before any work