For many restaurant owners and managers, digital marketing is a little bit of a mystery. It’s complex. It’s constantly changing. But more and more diners are turning to the internet when they want to find a new place to eat. It’s incredibly and increasingly important to make sure your restaurant gets in front of online searchers, which makes it necessary to have a digital marketing strategy in place.

Facebook is the most established social network on the internet, which makes it a great tool for reaching potential new guests. But for the average restaurant owner or manager, figuring out how to navigate Facebook ads just sounds like a time-consuming headache. And as anyone who works in the restaurant industry knows, one of our most valuable (and scarce) resources is time—so, how does one keep up with the constantly shifting landscape of digital marketing?

Don’t stress. This guide is here to help.

How Can Facebook Ads Help Your Restaurant?

First, some basics. Why should restaurants advertise on Facebook?

For starters, Facebook is a well-established and extremely popular social network. According to a Hootsuite study, 71 percent of U.S. adults are on Facebook, and 74 percent of users log into the site every day. 

With such a large audience available, advertising on Facebook gives restaurants incredible opportunity to reach new guest demographics. Facebook reports that its global advertising audience was 2.14 billion at the end of 2020, and is currently growing at a rate of over 2 percent (or 45 million new users) per quarter.

The average Facebook user clicks on 12 ads per month, or one about every 2.5 days. While that may not seem like a lot, it’s important to remember that a user doesn’t necessarily need to click an ad for it to be effective—especially if that ad features a dish from your restaurant that makes a potential guest’s mouth water as they’re scrolling.

Another reason Facebook is an excellent place for restaurants to advertise: It’s affordable. We know that most restaurants operate on slim profit margins, and the bottom line is everything. In Q3 of 2020, the average price for a Facebook ad decreased by 9 percent. That means that by advertising on Facebook, you’ll get more bang for your buck.

Facebook Ads vs. Facebook Boost

If you already have a Facebook business page for your restaurant, you’ve probably noticed that you can make a normal post and “boost” it so Facebook shows it to more users—like an ad. So how is that different from an actual Facebook ad for restaurants?

A boosted post is technically an ad. When you set it up, Facebook allows you to choose:

• A target audience of the type of people you want to see your post;
• A max budget for the entire campaign;
• How long your post will be boosted.
  

But if you’re going to spend money on Facebook, creating an ad through Ads Manager gives you far more flexibility and control. With a Facebook ad, you can:

• Choose different placements, like whether you want a newsfeed ad, an ad in users’ sidebars, and even whether you want your ad to appear for desktop users or mobile users. With ads, you can also run them on Facebook and Instagram concurrently.
• Specify your objective, or what you want your ad to accomplish. You can focus on traffic to your restaurant’s business page, click-throughs, or even conversions for a special offer in your ad.
• Customize your ad with complete creative control, meaning you can add carousels of photos, insert a special offer or promo, design a call-to-action button, and more to make your ad just right for accomplishing your specific goals.
• Be more specific with targeting, using Facebook’s audience demographic tools to show your ad to certain audiences based on their location, interests, age, gender, and more.
  

While boosted posts can certainly help get the word out about your restaurant, using Facebook ads just gives you more for your money.

How to Set Up Facebook Ads for Restaurants

Before you can set up Facebook ads for restaurants, you need to do a few things.

First, you need to have a Facebook business page for your restaurant. This will become a way for potential new guests to find and learn about your restaurant, so make sure to completely fill out your profile, including contact information, your location and hours, a menu, photos of your dishes, and a link to your website.

Then, you’ll need to set up Business Manager and Ad Manager. You can do this by visiting https://business.facebook.com. Facebook also provides an in-depth setup guide for less tech-savvy business owners.

Once everything is set up, you can head into Facebook Ad Manager and start setting up campaigns. There are many online guides for doing that. Or, you can set up Facebook ads for your restaurant the easy way.

Popmenu: The Easiest Way to Set Up Facebook Ads for Restaurants

Setting up ad campaigns is complex. But Popmenu makes it a little bit easier.

Popmenu is the all-in-one digital toolkit for modern restaurants, which means we can help you build and manage your website; create a dynamic and interactive, mobile-friendly online menu; coordinate online orders and local delivery; and set up automated digital marketing campaigns—all from one easy-to-use dashboard.

Popmenu makes Facebook ads easy because it allows you to set up your campaigns from a dashboard that already contains your restaurant’s web pages, menu, dish photos, promotions and specials, and more—ready to integrate with your ads.

All you have to do is head to the marketing section of your MyPop dashboard and connect your Facebook business account.

Give your ad campaign a name, and then start filling in details, like a dish photo to share and the message you want to post along with your ad on Facebook. As you fill in each field, an example ad will show you exactly what potential guests will see in their newsfeeds when they see your ad.

You can set the budget and schedule for your ad by entering the max amount you want to spend per week, the start date for your ad, and how many weeks you’d like the campaign to run.

Then, you can enter audience information and keywords to make sure your ad gets seen by the right Facebook users.

Once all your ad information is filled in, preview the ad on and hit “Publish” to start your Facebook campaign. Yes, it really is that easy to start advertising on Facebook with Popmenu.

If You Need Digital Restaurant Tools, You Need Popmenu

Popmenu may be the easiest way to set up Facebook ads for restaurants, but it’s so much more than just that.

Popmenu combines all the digital tools modern restaurants need into one simple, easy-to-use, and affordable platform.

With Popmenu, you no longer have to piece together different tools for website design, hosting, menu management, food delivery, and online orders. Popmenu does it all from one platform—all for one flat monthly fee that never goes up.

Ready to see how Popmenu can bring your restaurant into the digital age? Schedule a free demo today.