How to advertise a restaurant on Google. Step by step
Order matters more than budget here. Below is the exact sequence we use on every new venue. You can run it yourself.
Step 1. The Business Profile, before you spend anything
Ads lead to your Google Business Profile as often as to your website. Before launching: set the right primary category (not "restaurant" but "sushi restaurant", "steakhouse", "pizzeria"), hours including holidays, 20–30 fresh food and interior photos, a menu with current prices, a reservation link and attributes (terrace, cards, vegan options).
It is the cheapest traffic you will ever get and the only kind that keeps working after you switch the ads off.
Step 2. Set up tracking or you are flying blind
Minimum: GA4 on the site, Consent Mode v2 (required in the EU), and Google Ads conversions for phone number clicks, reservation form submissions and handoffs to your booking system. If you take online orders, add a purchase event with a value.
Step 3. Start with a local campaign on a tight radius
Not Performance Max, not Display. A Search campaign plus a local campaign on a 2–5 km radius. Set targeting to presence in the location, never "presence or interest". Otherwise you pay for people reading about Kraków from Berlin.
Step 4. Build keywords around three intents
- Near me / now: "restaurant near me", "open now", "where to eat".
- Cuisine: "sushi Kraków", "steak Kazimierz", "indian food Kraków".
- Occasion: "dinner for two", "birthday restaurant", "business lunch".
Add a brand campaign on your own name if booking portals bid on it.
Step 5. Negative keywords from day one
The standard hospitality list: "jobs", "recipe", "how to make", "ranking", "franchise", "for sale", plus competitor names nobody will convert on. In accounts we take over, this alone is usually 20–30% of recovered budget.
Step 6. Schedule ads around the decision window
People choose dinner between 3pm and 7pm, and lunch between 10:30 and 12:30. Raise bids inside those windows and drop them overnight unless you run a late venue. It is the simplest optimisation there is, and half of all accounts skip it.
Step 7. A separate English campaign if you are central
In Kraków's Old Town and Kazimierz, English-language demand can be half the total. Different phrasing ("best steak krakow", "restaurant near main square"), different copy, different hours. Keeping it in the same ad group as Polish terms weakens both.
Step 8. After 30 days: cut and shift
The first full month is data, not a verdict. After it: pause terms with no conversions, move budget to the groups with the lowest cost per action, add negatives from the search terms report, test a second set of headlines. Then repeat weekly.
What it costs
A sensible start for one venue is 800–1,500 PLN a month in media spend. There is more detail in our piece on how much Google Ads costs for a restaurant, and our management pricing is public.
Related
More on this: Google Business Profile for restaurants, Google Ads agency Kraków and our services.
Common questions
Can I run restaurant Google Ads myself?
Yes, especially with one venue and a small budget. The two hard parts are correct conversion tracking and discipline with negatives. An hour a week gets you a reasonable result.
Where do I start with only 500 PLN a month?
Business Profile plus one local campaign on a tight radius. At that budget a broad Search campaign spreads too thin across too many terms.
Is Performance Max good for restaurants?
It can be very good, but not at launch. It needs conversion data and proper photography. Without both it spends budget on cheap, badly matched traffic.
Want this run on your own account?
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