Restaurants face the endless challenge of enticing consumers to walk through the front doors. Word-of-mouth carries a lot of clout, and the restaurant industry has been transformed by the heavy influence of online reviews.
But neither of these channels offer any control to the restaurant — that's where target advertising comes into play. By using digital channels to expose your restaurant to nearby consumers looking for a bite to eat, you can control some of your online fate while leveraging influential technology to make a greater impact.
Display ads, including those in mobile apps, offer value in helping a restaurant reach its target audience. Advertising in mobile apps can use location-based targeting while display ads on desktop and mobile websites offer visually engaging options like interactive rich media that can highlight the visual appeal of a restaurant's menu to persuade potential customers to swing by for a meal.
Each channel is valuable on its own. But the best results come when web and mobile display tactics are used in conjunction with each other. Location and audience targeting allows restaurants to narrow each campaign's focus to the most valuable prospects.
Targeted Ads on Display and Mobile
Choosing to eat at a restaurant is often a decision influenced by proximity. Hungry consumers are unlikely to drive across a metropolitan area when there are dozens of options nearby. In addition, consumers may be highly motivated by happy-hour deals and other specials offering savings that can tip the favor in a restaurant's balance.
It's easy to target through each channel. Mobile app targeting can narrow the scope of an audience to the immediate surrounding area where walk-ins and other relevant traffic are likely to come from. If your restaurant is positioned near a shopping mall, you can target that location in the hope of drawing hungry shoppers.
Desktop and mobile website display ads can also be filtered by location and other demographic data that fit your restaurant's target audience. You might even consider timing your display advertising around peak eating hours, or when happy-hour specials are being offered.
A Two-Pronged Approach
While mobile app and website display advertising are separate campaigns, brands have discovered that combining the two can enhance performance rates and ROI for digital campaigns. According to internal CMG campaign data, mobile app campaigns saw a 3.6 percent increase in secondary action rates when combined with website display targeting. Meanwhile, targeted website display campaigns saw a 7.4 percent jump in click-through rates when combined with mobile app advertising.
The influence on secondary action rates is particularly important when it comes to mobile. SARs have shown to be more indicative of success than click-through rates. A consumer might not click on an ad, for example, but they might suggest to their friend that they eat at a certain restaurant. The ad will have achieved its goal, even if no digital action is taken.
As Smart Insights pointed out, click-through rates still have value, particularly for website display ads on desktop devices, and it can still reflect some measure of success for a mobile app campaign, as evidenced by its positive correlation with SARs when mobile app and website display are combined.
Each offers value on its own, but that value is amplified by bringing them together.
