How much should I spend on ads each month?

Depends on what a customer is worth to you and how many new ones you need. If your average ticket is $40 and people come back a few times, you can probably afford to spend $10-15 to acquire someone. Start with $500-750 a month, test Google and Facebook, see what converts. We'll tell you if we think you need more or if you're wasting money.

Do I need a new website before I start running ads?

If your site loads slow, doesn't show your menu, or looks broken on mobile, yeah, fix that first. Ads are expensive and sending people to a bad site is like paying to turn customers away. If your site is decent, we can work with it. If it's not, we'll tell you.

Can you guarantee a certain number of new customers?

No. Anyone who promises you exact numbers is lying. We can show you what's working, what's not, and how much you're paying per lead or call. But we don't control whether someone who clicks actually shows up or orders. We control the targeting, the ad, the landing page, and the tracking.

What's the difference between running ads myself and hiring you?

You can absolutely run your own ads. Google and Facebook make it pretty easy to set up a campaign. The difference is we know what to test, how to read the data, when to kill something, and how to connect the ad to the rest of your marketing. If you've got the time to learn and the budget to experiment, go for it. If you'd rather someone just handle it and report back, that's us.

How long before I see results?

Search ads can bring calls and orders within a week if the targeting and page are right. Facebook takes a little longer because we're interrupting people, not catching them when they're already hungry. Email depends on how big your list is. Give it 4-6 weeks to know if a channel is working. If nothing's moving by then, we change the approach.

Digital Marketing · Jacksonville, TX

Digital Marketing for Restaurants in Jacksonville That Actually Fills Tables

Name: East Texas Online
Address: Tyler, TX, 75701, US
Telephone: +1-903-400-5555
Price range: $$

A click for "restaurants near me" in Cherokee County can cost you $3-5 on Google Ads. And if someone lands on a slow site with no menu or weird hours listed, they're gone in seconds — and you just paid for nothing. Digital marketing for restaurants isn't about spending more, it's about spending smarter so those clicks turn into customers walking through your door.

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Why Most Restaurant Ad Spend Goes Nowhere

You tried running ads once, maybe through Facebook or Google. You set a budget, picked some targeting, watched the dashboard light up with impressions and clicks. Then you waited for the phone to ring or the orders to spike. Nothing happened. Or maybe something happened, but you couldn't tell if it was the ad or just a busy Saturday. So you turned it off and figured ads don't work for restaurants. But the problem wasn't ads — it was that nobody connected the ad to what happens after the click. If your Google Ad sends someone to a homepage with no menu, or your Facebook post links to a page that takes ten seconds to load on mobile, you're paying to frustrate people. And if you can't track whether someone who clicked actually called, ordered, or made a reservation, you're flying blind. Digital marketing works when the whole chain works — the ad, the landing page, the call tracking, the follow-up. Miss one link and you're just renting attention that goes nowhere.

What a Real Restaurant Marketing Plan Looks Like

1. Google Business Profile dialed in tight. Most folks searching for food in Jacksonville are on their phone, looking at Google Maps. If your hours are wrong, your photos are old, or your menu link is broken, they'll pick someone else before they even think about it. We make sure your profile actually works — updated hours, real photos of your food and space, categories that match what people search for, posts that show up when someone's deciding between you and the place down the road.

2. Search ads that target people ready to eat right now. We're not running brand awareness campaigns. We're going after searches like "lunch near Jacksonville College" or "bbq Cherokee County" or "takeout near me" — people who are hungry and looking. We write ads that speak to what they're craving, send them to a page with your menu and phone number big and obvious, and track whether they called or ordered.

3. Facebook and Instagram for the locals who aren't searching yet. Not everyone's on Google Maps at the exact moment they want food. Some folks are scrolling Instagram at 11 a.m. and see a photo of your brisket plate or daily special. If it looks good and the offer is clear, they remember you when lunch rolls around. We run targeted posts to people in Jacksonville, Rusk, and the rest of Cherokee County — locals who drive past your spot but haven't stopped in yet.

4. Email for the people who already came once. If someone ordered from you on DoorDash or UberEats, or ate in your dining room last month, they're warm. Way easier to get them back than to find someone new. We help you build a simple email list — maybe a signup on your site, maybe a tablet at the register — and send them specials, new menu items, event nights. One email to 200 people costs you nothing and can fill tables on a Tuesday.

We Only Spend Where It Actually Converts

A lot of agencies will tell you that you need to be everywhere — Google, Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, TikTok, display ads, retargeting. And sure, if you've got $5,000 a month to throw around, you can test everything. But most restaurants in Jacksonville don't. You've got a few hundred bucks a month, maybe a thousand, and it needs to work. So we don't spread it thin. We figure out where your customers actually are, test one or two channels hard, track what's bringing people in, and double down on what works. If search ads are converting and Facebook isn't, we shift the budget. If email is getting people back in the door and Instagram is just likes with no orders, we focus on email. We're not trying to win awards for creative campaigns. We're trying to fill your tables and make the math work. You tell us what a new customer is worth to you, we make sure we're not paying more than that to get them. And if something's not working after a fair test, we kill it and try something else. No six-month commitments to a strategy that's bleeding money. Just real reporting, real adjustments, and ads that pay for themselves.