Facebook has become much more than the online water cooler or a quick way to see what your relatives are doing while on vacation. Today, it’s a lean, mean marketing machine–and one that restaurant owners need to look at as a way to increase sales.
It’s not typically profitable for most restaurants to invest in TV ads, billboards, or magazine spreads. If you aren’t using Facebook Offer ads to reach potential customers, not only are you missing out on one of the most targeted advertising channels, your competition may just snatch them right out from under you. And here’s why:
1. People Spend a Ridiculous Amount of Time Checking their Feeds
Facebook is too huge for you to ignore. And it’s not going away anytime soon.
While people are checking their feeds for at least an hour every single day to see what’s going on in the world, they’re also looking for new experiences, products, and places to visit. In a survey by Kleiner Perkins, it was found that 78% of American consumers say they’ve discovered products on Facebook.  Combine that with the research from ViSenze that showed one-third of purchases begin on social media each month, and it’s clear that your restaurant has a big opportunity to turn Facebook views into new customers.
2. You Can Reach Your Ideal Audience
Out of 2.39 billion Facebook accounts, you only need to target the small percentage that is most likely to visit your restaurant.
Facebook Offer ads allow you to do that in two main ways: location and demographic targeting.
With location targeting, you place a virtual pin on a map and Facebook will draw a radius around that pin to determine your audience. Then, when someone is located inside of that radius, and scrolling through their feed, they’ll see your ad. Demographics targets your audience based on information about who they are, such as age and gender.
For a local restaurant, it’s best to start targeting your audience by location, because the people who live closest are most likely to become customers. Then, you can narrow your audience using demographics. While you want to be careful to not narrow your audience too much, Facebook does give you the ability to target very specific groups of people using factors like:
- Relationship status
- Whether they have kids
- Their interests expressed on Facebook
- Other Facebook pages that they like
- Their online connections with other Facebook users
3. Facebook Offers Drive Action
Having a Facebook Business page alone is great for staying top-of-mind with your current customers, but it’s not enough to bring in new business.
By using Facebook ads in combination with your restaurant’s Facebook page you can reach users that might not have otherwise heard of you.
The key to successful Facebook advertising is to get your name in their face, but also to give potential customers a reason to get their butts in your restaurant’s seats. Facebook Offers formats your ad as a coupon, complete with promo codes, expiration dates, and terms and conditions. This unique format stands out in users’ feeds, gives them the ability to save it, be reminded of it through in-app notifications, and ultimately redeem it at your business.
Here are examples of Facebook ads for restaurants that work well to drive action.
   
4. Tracking the Important Stuff is a Breeze
Tracking things like impressions, clicks, and saves is important. It helps you understand what works for your restaurant (and what doesn’t), so that you can make improvements based on real data. The more you understand your performance, the better you’ll be at making informed decisions about future offers.
Because Facebook tracks these numbers automatically, it only takes a few minutes to answer questions such as:
- How many individual people have seen my ad?
- What percentage of those people saved it to their account?
- Which offer generated the most sales??
- Has my average ticket amount changed based on the  offer?
5. Get the True Measure of Advertising Success
At the end of the day, you need to answer the most important question: Did I generate a profit?
Because Facebook Offer ads are a form of digital marketing for restaurants with trackable results, you can easily determine the number of customers generated from your campaign, and ultimately, your return on investment.
Here’s a simple formula to determine profit from a coupon advertising campaign:
The Bottom Line on Facebook Offer Ads for Restaurants
Offering a discount or promotion is an excellent way to bring new customers into your restaurant. The Facebook platform gives you all the customization and flexibility that you need to create a targeted campaign, and the abundance of metrics ensures that you can keep your finger on the pulse at all times. Now it’s time to reach your customers where they spend their time, drive action, and increase your profits.
Finding the best ways to advertise in your local area is key to driving new customers through the door every single day. Learn more about some of the top restaurant marketing campaigns and how to apply them to your restaurant.
By Eric Shafer
By IndoorMedia Marketing
