In short: Digital marketing for restaurants is what happens between someone getting hungry and looking at their phone, and that same someone ending up at one of your tables: the Google listing, the website, the adverts, Instagram and the message to the people who've already been in. The order matters more than the budget: first the Google listing (free), then a website that lets people book, then the adverts, then social media and, last of all, the email or WhatsApp to your own list. Across 40 restaurants we manage, every action that came from an advert (asking for directions, calling, booking) cost a median of €0.48 in summer 2026, and our clients' average spend sits between €350 and €600 a month. Here's what each channel asks of you in time and money, what your own team can do and how to tell at 90 days whether it's working.
Everyone has an opinion on your restaurant's digital marketing: the nephew who ‘knows Instagram’, the sales rep who rings on Tuesdays at eleven (just as the fish is coming in) and the neighbour whose giveaway worked a treat. And there's you, with a half-full dining room on a Wednesday and the nagging feeling you ought to be doing something on the internet, without quite knowing what. Let's sort it out: there aren't twenty things, there are five, and they go in a particular order.
What counts as ‘digital marketing’ for a restaurant (and what's still analogue)
Digital marketing for restaurants is everything that makes a hungry person staring at their phone find you, pick you and book: the Google listing on the map, the website, the adverts on Google and on Meta, Instagram and the messages to your own list of customers. It also goes by online marketing for restaurants or, when people want to sound posh, digital food marketing: same thing, different aftershave.
What's still analogue, and weighs more than all of the above put together: what happens once people are through the door. Digital doesn't fix a menu nobody fancies or a waiter in a hurry; what it does is get people as far as the door on the days you need them. The full map is in our guide to restaurant marketing; this article is about something more specific: where to start and what each step costs.
The recommended order: Maps, a website that takes bookings, Ads, social media and email
Almost everyone starts at the end (social media) or with the expensive bit (the adverts) and skips the free part. We always go in this order:
1. The Google listing (Maps)
When someone searches ‘where to have dinner’ they see a map with three places on it. If you're not there with the right opening hours, your own photos and a booking button that works, nothing else matters. It's free and it's the floor everything else stands on: across our accounts, 87% of the actions that come from an advert are directions requests, and they all land on the listing. How to get it up to date, step by step, in SEO for restaurants.
2. A website that lets people book
It doesn't need to be big. It needs to load fast, keep the menu current and have a booking button that works on a phone, which is where people book from. If your website is a PDF from 2023 with the price of the vermouth crossed out, fix that before you spend a single euro on adverts: the advert sends people to that very website.
3. The adverts (Google first, Meta second)
The accelerator. It only makes sense once the two previous steps are done, because the advert doesn't sell: it sends people to your listing and your website. Google comes before Meta because that's where the people who've already decided to eat out are looking for somewhere to go; on Instagram you find the ones who don't know it yet. And the money has to go to the days that are hard to fill, not to Saturday, which fills itself.
4. Social media
Instagram decides a lot of bookings, but it rarely brings them in on its own: it's where people check ‘what it's like’ before they go, with the booking already half decided. That's why it comes after the adverts, however much it's the first thing your gut (and your nephew) asks for. If you want someone to run it for you, that's social media management for restaurants.
5. Email and WhatsApp to your list
The cheapest channel per table there is, and the one fewest restaurants use. One message a month to the people who've already been in, with something real to say (the new menu, Thursday's set menu, the mushrooms have arrived), fills more tables than any giveaway. It goes last because it needs a list, and the list is built with the four steps before it.
A realistic minimum budget per channel
Now for the numbers, which is what you came for. There's no universal budget: there's what each channel asks for, and it adds up depending on how many you switch on.
| Channel | Money | Time | When to move on to the next one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google listing | €0 | One afternoon to complete it and an hour a week for photos, posts and reviews | When everything the listing says is true and the reviews have been answered |
| Website that takes bookings | Once, then keep it up | Menu updated every time it changes | When you can book from a phone in two taps without swearing |
| Google Ads | Ad spend on top: our clients invest from €220 to €10,000 a month and the average sits between €350 and €600; management from €295 + VAT a month | A weekly review with the bookings calendar in front of you | When each action has a stable cost and you know which days you need it |
| Social media | In-house production (the phone) or a service | One post a week filmed during a real service, plus answering messages | When there's material of your own and someone to keep it going without the effort showing |
| Email and WhatsApp | Next to nothing: the tool is usually free to start with | One message a month, short and with something to say | There is no next one. This is where you arrive and stay |
The spend figures come from the restaurants we manage at BL Gastro (2026) and the cost per action from 40 of them over thirteen weeks of summer 2026. They're our own data, not an industry average.
One figure to calibrate by: across our Google Ads accounts, each action (someone asking for directions, calling or tapping ‘book’ after seeing the advert) cost a median of €0.48. If someone quotes you for a campaign and can't tell you what each of those actions costs, they're not quoting you for marketing: they're quoting you for hope.
What the restaurant team can do themselves and what's worth outsourcing
More than you think and less than you'd like. What the restaurant can do without help, with one free hour a week (yes, we know):
- The whole Google listing. Opening hours, bank holidays, category, phone photos taken during a real service, the menu as text and answering the reviews.
- Saving the contact details of the people who book (with their permission) and sending them one message a month. Whoever's cooking writes that message better than any agency.
- Filming what happens in the dining room. The plate leaving the pass, the griddle sizzling. A phone and no script.
What's worth outsourcing, because it needs set hours every week:
- The adverts. Scheduling them by day and hour, moving the budget when the calendar changes and reading the report without kidding yourself. Left ‘on automatic’, the money drifts off to Saturday.
- Posting on social media, if it doesn't happen by itself. You already have the content; what goes missing the moment August arrives is the calendar and the consistency.
- The website, if it doesn't take bookings. One day of work done properly saves months of adverts pointing at a page that doesn't convert.
If you're going to hire someone for this, read how to choose a restaurant marketing agency before you sign anything: six questions and what they should be showing you every month. And if you're doing it in-house, start with the restaurant marketing plan, which is a single sheet with your services on it, not a forty-page document.
The tools we use (no lists of forty)
There are articles with forty tools in them. We use six, and you already have two of them:
- Google Business Profile, for the listing, the posts and the reviews. Free.
- Google Ads, for the adverts on the map and in search, scheduled by day and hour.
- Google Analytics and Tag Manager, to know what people do on the website and where they came from.
- Instagram and the Meta platform, to post, reply and, when the time comes, advertise.
- A post-scheduling tool (we use Metricool), so the social media calendar actually exists.
- WhatsApp and your booking system, which you already have, for the customer list and the monthly message.
What we don't use: ‘all-in-one’ dashboards, follower packs and anything whose report talks about impressions rather than people.
How to tell whether it's working at 90 days
Three months is the minimum before you can judge anything in a restaurant: one month has bank holidays, another has rain and the third has a long weekend. This is how we look at it:
- Day 30: the listing tells the truth, every review has a reply and the website lets people book from a phone. Without this there's no day 60 worth talking about.
- Day 60: the campaign has a stable cost per action (across our accounts, around half a euro) and the budget is going to the days you chose, not to the weekend. Watch out: only one in seven ‘conversions’ on Google's dashboard is a person; count actions.
- Day 90: compare the month's bookings with the same month last year, not with the month before. And read it a week late: directions requests can still grow by 25% five days on.
If at 90 days there are more bookings in the services you chose and you know what each one cost, it's working. If the only thing that's gone up is your follower count, it isn't. The five strategies behind this order, with a real case, are in restaurant marketing strategies.
FAQ
Before you switch anything on
How much does a restaurant's digital marketing cost per month?
It depends on which channels you switch on. The Google listing and the customer list cost time, not money. Adverts need ad spend on top (our clients, between €350 and €600 a month on average) and, if someone manages them, a fee: at BL Gastro, from €295 + VAT a month.
Can I start with Instagram alone?
You can, but it's putting the roof on before the walls: Instagram decides bookings, but it rarely brings them in on its own. If you're only going to do one thing, make it the Google listing: it's free and it's where the people who've already decided to eat out are.
Google Ads or Meta Ads?
Google first: that's where people search for somewhere to eat today. Meta second, so the people who haven't decided yet get to know you, and for groups and celebrations. Both, only once the listing and the website are already in good shape.
How do I know whether an agency is doing a good job?
If every month they tell you how many people asked for directions, called or booked and what each one cost, it's going well. If they talk to you about impressions and followers, ask for a different report; and if they can't give you one, ask for a different agency.