Running Google Ads for your restaurant sounds simple. You set a budget, write an ad, and wait for the bookings to roll in. But many restaurant owners spend hundreds of pounds each month and see plenty of clicks with very few actual reservations. The problem is rarely the platform. It is almost always the strategy.
This guide will show you how to run Google Ads that bring real bookings, not just curious visitors who bounce away and never return.
The most common mistake is treating Google Ads like a billboard. You pay for visibility, someone clicks, and you hope for the best. That approach wastes budget fast.
Restaurants that succeed with paid search think differently. They match every part of the campaign, from the keyword to the landing page, to one clear goal: a confirmed booking. When those pieces work together, results improve quickly.
Not every search is equal. Someone typing "best Italian food in London" is browsing. Someone typing "Italian restaurant Marylebone book a table" is ready to act. You want the second group.
Focus your budget on high-intent keywords. Good examples include:
Use exact match and phrase match to stay in control. Broad match can drain your budget on irrelevant searches quickly. Check your search terms report weekly, especially in the first month.
Negative keywords stop your ads showing for searches that will never convert. A restaurant in Soho does not want to pay for clicks from people searching for recipes or cooking courses.
Build your negative keyword list before you launch. Common negatives for restaurants include: "recipe", "homemade", "takeaway menu", "cheap delivery", "how to cook" and "catering jobs". Add to this list every week as you spot wasted spend in your search terms report.
Keep your campaigns tightly themed. One campaign might target date night diners, another could focus on corporate lunch bookings, and a third might promote a set menu or special event.
Each campaign should have its own ad group with tightly matched keywords, its own ad copy, and its own landing page. This structure improves your Quality Score, which lowers your cost per click and improves your ad position.
Your ad has about two seconds to earn a click. Speak directly to what the person wants right now.
A couple searching for a birthday dinner in Fitzrovia does not want a generic ad about your restaurant's heritage. They want to know you have availability, a special menu, and that booking is easy. Use your headlines to say exactly that. "Book Your Birthday Table Tonight", "Set Menu from £35 Per Person" and "Available This Weekend" are far more effective than "Award-Winning Dining in London".
Always include a call to action in every ad. "Reserve Your Table" and "Check Availability Now" outperform passive phrases every time.
This is where most restaurant campaigns fall apart. The ad does its job, the person clicks, and then they land on your homepage. They have to hunt for the menu, find the booking button, and work out if you even have availability. Many give up.
Every campaign needs a dedicated landing page. It should load in under three seconds, work perfectly on mobile, show your menu clearly, and have a booking button above the fold. If you use a reservation system like OpenTable or ResDiary, make sure it is embedded on the page or linked with minimal friction.
A restaurant in Notting Hill that moved from a homepage to a dedicated landing page saw its conversion rate double within six weeks. No extra ad spend was needed.
In London, expect to pay between £1.50 and £4.00 per click for restaurant-related keywords, depending on your area and how competitive it is. Central London locations like Covent Garden or Chelsea will sit at the higher end.
A starting budget of £500 to £800 per month gives you enough data to optimise properly. Below £400, the data comes in too slowly to make good decisions. Give any new campaign at least eight weeks before judging performance.
Track cost per booking, not just cost per click. If you spend £600 and generate 40 bookings, that is £15 per booking, which is excellent for a restaurant in London.
Ad extensions are free and they make your ad bigger and more useful. For restaurants, the most valuable extensions are:
Extensions improve click-through rates and give people more reasons to choose you over the competitor listed above or below you.
Clicks and impressions look good in reports. Bookings pay the bills. Set up conversion tracking for every meaningful action: completed booking form submissions, phone calls from your ads, and clicks on your reservation system button.
Google Tag Manager makes this straightforward to set up, or your web developer can handle it in an afternoon. Without proper tracking, you are flying blind. You will not know which keywords, ads or times of day are driving actual revenue.
Connect your Google Ads account to Google Analytics 4 as well. This lets you see what people do after they click, which helps you improve your landing pages over time.
Many people visit your site and do not book on the first visit. They get distracted, compare other restaurants, or just close the tab. Remarketing brings them back.
You can show targeted ads to people who visited your booking page but did not complete a reservation. These audiences already know your restaurant. They convert at a much higher rate than cold traffic and cost less per booking.
Keep remarketing budgets modest at first. Around £100 to £150 per month can make a meaningful difference, especially around busy periods like Valentine's Day, Christmas, or Mother's Day.
Google Ads rewards expertise. A generalist agency that works across every industry will not know the nuances of restaurant search behaviour in London. Look for a partner who understands hospitality and has run campaigns for food and drink businesses before.
If you want to understand the full scope of what a well-run paid search campaign involves, our guide to restaurant and hospitality pay-per-click advertising covers the key principles in detail.
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Most campaigns show clear trends within four to six weeks. You will see click and impression data almost immediately, but you need at least 30 to 50 conversions before the data becomes statistically useful. Plan for an eight-week optimisation period before making major decisions.
This depends on your average cover value. If your average spend per table is £80 to £100, then a cost per booking of £15 to £25 is very healthy. If you are running a quick lunch service with lower margins, you need that number closer to £8 to £12.
Yes, and the two work well together. SEO builds long-term organic visibility, but it takes months. Google Ads delivers traffic immediately and fills the gap while your organic rankings grow. Many London restaurants run both at the same time for consistent, layered visibility.
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Google Ads can be one of the most cost-effective ways to fill your restaurant, but only when every element points toward a booking. Get your keywords, your ad copy, your landing page and your tracking working together, and the results can be significant.
If you want a clear plan built around your restaurant's goals and location, get in touch with Byter for a free proposal and we will show you exactly what a well-run campaign could look like for your business.
Lewis Banks
Founder & Director, Byter Digital · 7+ years experience
Lewis is the Founder and Director of Byter Digital. He launched the agency in 2018 and has spent the years since building marketing programmes for London restaurants, members clubs, hotels, dental practices, and consumer brands. He writes about agency operations, hospitality marketing, and how SMEs should think about modern channels.
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