Hospitality marketing
Google Ads
for venues.
Ads make most sense for empty seats, not full ones. Use ad scheduling to run on the nights and hours that need help, track the actions that matter, like directions and calls, and keep the cost per booking under what a table actually makes. Performance Max for store goals can reach people on Maps, but can't run on Maps alone.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 2 November 2026.When ads
make sense.
If Friday and Saturday are full, ads just move people around. The case for ads is the Tuesday that's a third full, the new lunch service, the function room in winter. Work out where the empty seats are first.
Quiet night planner
Which nights are
worth advertising?
Put in your typical dinner covers for each night, your seats and spend. It shows where the empty seats are and what you can afford to pay for a booking.
Most you can pay per booking
Empty seats by night
Which
campaigns.
Search ads catch people looking now: 'dinner near me', 'Thai restaurant [suburb]', 'function room [suburb]'. Performance Max for store goals uses your Business Profile to optimise to store visits and local actions across Maps, Search, YouTube and more, though not on Maps alone.
Ad scheduling lets you run ads only on certain days and hours. Google still paces towards 30.4 times your average daily budget a month, but no single day spends more than twice the daily budget. If you only run two nights a week, set the daily budget for those nights.
Check the location option too. Google's default, Presence or interest, reaches people in or regularly in your area, plus people who've shown interest in it. For a venue in Terrigal or The Entrance, that's often what you want: the Sydney couple planning a weekend away searches before they leave home. For a suburban cafe that lives on locals, 'Presence' alone keeps the budget close to the door.
Track what
fills seats.
Google tracks local actions such as directions, calls, website visits, orders and menu views. Directions and calls are good signs of intent. Online bookings need their own tracking through your booking system.
Ask at the table now and then: 'How did you find us?' It's crude, but it catches what the platforms miss.
What to
say.
Lead with what makes the quiet night worth it: a set menu, a pasta night, live music, a kids-eat-free night. Give the hours and the booking link. Avoid discounting your busy nights by accident: schedule the ad to match the offer.
The searches
worth paying for.
Skip searches for jobs, recipes and 'cheap eats' lists unless that's your venue. Your own name usually doesn't need paying for unless competitors bid on it. Send function searches to a functions page, not the dinner menu. The function venue page covers what that page needs.
- Cuisine and place: 'Thai Terrigal', 'pizza Gosford'.
- Occasion: 'birthday dinner Central Coast', 'group dinner venue'.
- Functions: 'function room [suburb]', 'Christmas party venue'.
- Near me and open now, on the nights you need help.
What I see most often
What I see
most often.
- 1
Ads running all week
Spending the most on Friday and Saturday, when the venue is already full.
- 2
Clicks with no tracking
No idea whether the ads brought a single booking.
- 3
Brand searches paid for
Paying for people who already searched the venue's name, with no competitors bidding.
- 4
No offer for the quiet night
The same ad on Tuesday as on Saturday, with no reason to come on Tuesday.
The honest bit. If a night is quiet because of where you are or what you serve, ads won't fix it. Sometimes the right move is to close that night.
Questions
people ask.
Do Google Ads work for restaurants?
They can, for filling specific quiet services. Track bookings and directions, and keep the cost per booking below what a table makes.
What is Performance Max for store goals?
A campaign that uses your Business Profile to optimise to store visits and local actions across Google's channels.
Can I run ads only on quiet nights?
Yes. Ad scheduling limits ads to the days and hours you choose.
How do I track bookings from Google Ads?
Track local actions like calls and directions, and set up conversion tracking through your online booking system.
Related
Keep
going.
Get a free
Google Ads audit.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.