Advertising In-House Promotions on Restaurant Websites

Gourmet Marketing has been recognized as a Top 30 Digital Advertising Agency in the United States in 2021 by DesignRush.

Driving deeper engagement with restaurant customers offers more sales conversions, better loyalty and a wider range of beneficial actions that customers might take. Publicizing a restaurant’s own offers in website advertising is one the simplest and most effective ways of driving deeper engagement.

Benefits of In-house Website Ads

The benefits or running in-house ads on a restaurant website are enormous. Administrators can gauge separate marketing initiatives without spending money on outside advertising. Driving deeper engagement among website visitors seldom depends on pricing and coupons but on creating value by enticing customers. Website ads on a site makes it easy to test strategies, offers, customer opinions and response rates without spending a fortune on advertising and consultants.

The benefits of strategic in-house ads on a restaurant website include:

• Testing placement theories and new revenue streams
• Linking to related media sites to strengthen a restaurant’s social presence and promote suppliers in mutually beneficial relationships
• Selling associated services that aren’t directly related to the restaurant
• Launching support services for marketing like mobile games, apps, loyalty programs and contests
• Preventing generic ads from dividing the audience’s attention
• Providing faster ways to publicize new campaigns because the restaurant controls all aspects of the effort
• Creating outlets for charitable campaigns, political ideas and local causes
• Retaining ownership and greater control of all products, services and marketing ideas
• Getting deeper insights about how customers respond to the website
• Enticing customers with repeated messages and conversion opportunities
• Avoiding third parties by marketing goods and services directly to customers

Mastering Google Analytics

One of the most important benefits of in-house website advertising comes from the stronger insights that these ads generate from Google Analytics. This information, which big companies spend millions to get, is not only free but also delivers other benefits when restaurateurs advertise on their own websites.

Powerful Google Analytics features reveal important things about how customers respond so that website managers can make design, copy or placement changes. These insights include:

• What Visitors Do On-Site
  Google’s data doesn’t just include page views but shows when customers find content useful based on how long people stay in each area of the site. Find out if customers stay on a page, bounce to another page or leave the site.
• Research the Typical Customer’s Web Browser
  Ideally, all sites are becoming more unified technologically, but many people still use older browsers and operating systems. Use Google Analytics to find browser-related data, screen resolution and other technical details about customers.
• Find Which Keywords Customers Are Using
  Find which keywords customers use before landing on each website page.
• Audience Locations
  Maybe a restaurant is getting lots of hits in China but few locally where it might do some good. Google allows restaurateurs to find out where their visitors originate. This information could prove invaluable in marketing plans.
• Long-term Statistics
  Google displays default results that include the last 30 days, but managers can extend the analysis to include longer periods. Long-term conversions and growth patterns provide the best intelligence about how a website is performing.

Getting the Most from Restaurant Web Design

The deeper a website’s playbook, the greater the opportunities for marketing will be. It doesn’t take rocket science to understand this basic idea—why promote other businesses with a restaurant’s resources? In-house ads strengthen complex, integrated marketing strategies, increase alternative advertising benefits and strengthen a company’s Web presence.

Simply including an offers tab or a single call-to-action on a restaurant website squanders a restaurant’s greatest resource. People who browse a website face an overwhelming barrage of material from advertisers trying to get their attention. Make sure that the ads on a restaurant’s website lead to deeper customer engagement instead of hijacking the customer’s attention. In-house ads keep people engaged with the website, provide deeper intelligence about customer behavior and increase conversions.