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A neighbourhood restaurant or shop does not choose between Google, Instagram, or TikTok based on whichever platform is trending, but on what the local resident is doing right then: searching hungrily for a table, living three streets away, or watching a short clip. Running all three half-heartedly is not a plan.
Write to us. A quote with no obligation.
Carlota Fermín, content and marketing
Each advertising platform meets your guest at a completely different moment of their day, and splitting a modest budget across all three at once only makes it impossible to tell which one filled the tables. Google Ads is built to catch someone with their coat already on who is typing where to eat or book an appointment in your postcode; there, what matters is that your Google listing shows today’s true opening hours and a real photo fresh from the oven, the way we run Fame. When local search demand already exists for your trade, that is usually the first tap to turn on.
Meta Ads—on Instagram and Facebook—does the opposite job: it places a dish fresh off the pass at Barra Amelia or a recognisable table at Tropicalista in front of a resident who lives ten minutes away on foot but had not thought of you today. The key here is locking the radius to a handful of surrounding streets or your local town and sending the tap straight to WhatsApp or your booking link, rather than paying for impressions across the whole region.
To pick the right channel without splitting your budget across three half-finished tests, Carlota runs our Google, Meta, and TikTok advertising for hospitality venues; ask us for a no-commitment quote.
TikTok can work brilliantly to introduce a neighbourhood venue to people nearby who have never heard your name, but it comes with one non-negotiable requirement: it needs a vertical video filmed during a real service showing the movement at the pass, the cut of the dish, and the lived-in feel of the room. Switching on TikTok spend with static photos of your refurbishment or stock templates is a fast way to burn budget in the first second.
When Cristina steps in to film during a shift with the dining room set, we capture short, honest clips that show the exact place a guest will find at the door, finishing with the same booking contact shown on your Google listing. If you do not have a fresh kitchen clip ready that week, the TikTok ad account stays paused until the right footage is in the folder.
Carlota’s golden rule before touching a second platform is making sure the first one has actually put guests in seats. You pick one channel, one tight radius, and one clear creative piece, then count how many WhatsApp enquiries and confirmed bookings landed in the floor book after seven days. Launching Meta because you think Google is still learning, or throwing money at TikTok in the middle of the same week, muddies three tests inside one budget and hides what worked.
Just as importantly, hospitality ads must follow the rhythm of your dining room: if by Friday afternoon your Saturday night book is completely full, you pause the weekend campaign on the spot. Paying for clicks only to tell neighbours on WhatsApp that you have no tables left wastes money today and puts them off trying again next Tuesday.
And if you need fresh pass photography or live service video before launching, Cristina and Carlota shoot our food photography and video with a no-commitment quote.
Copy this worksheet into your notes to choose which platform to switch on first based on your local demand and available creative assets.
Venue name and neighbourhood or town: Main bottleneck this week (quiet midweek tables / new local awareness / lunchtime trade): Option 1 — Google Ads: do locals already search our trade + area, and is our listing accurate?: [yes / no] Option 2 — Meta Ads (IG): do we have a real pass/room photo and a tight local radius?: [yes / no] Option 3 — TikTok Ads: do we have a vertical video filmed during a real kitchen service?: [yes / no] SINGLE channel selected to run cleanly for the next 7 days: Floor team member responsible for answering the booking WhatsApp during service: Full-book rule: who flags on Friday afternoon to pause the ad if Saturday is fully booked?:
Send us your venue’s name on WhatsApp and we will look at which single advertising channel makes sense to switch on first.
Write to us. A quote with no obligation.Google Ads, Meta Ads and TikTok Ads are run together, with the same team as the photograph and the poster.
When people already search for the trade and the area, the search work stays in Google Ads.