Meta Ads for Restaurants

Meta retired its Store traffic objective, which it designed for shops, restaurants, dealerships, gyms and salons. A restaurant now uses the Awareness or Sales objective plus store location features, which add local details such as address and opening hours. On Instagram, a separate Order food button points people to a delivery partner. Some of these tools are not open to every advertiser.

What happened to the Store traffic objective?

Meta’s page says the original 11 ad objectives were simplified into six. Campaigns that raise store visitors and in-store sales now use the Awareness objective, the Sales objective and store location features. Meta says you can edit or duplicate a campaign built on an original objective, such as Store traffic, and move it to a simplified one.

What you can do: duplicate any old Store traffic campaign onto a current objective instead of rebuilding it.

What do store location features add to a restaurant ad?

Meta says store location features let you customize ad creative with local information and choose an audience based on store locations or a geographical area. With them you can:

• show people the location of the nearest store
• share details such as a phone number or opening hours
• use a Get directions or Call now call to action

The default ad text uses a dynamic field that pulls the address of the nearest store. In a carousel ad you can add a store locator map card, but Meta says Get directions is not available if you filled the cards from a product set.

Meta also warns that the feature may not be available to you right now, and that store pages are only available to managed Facebook clients.

What you can do: look for the store locations toggle in Ads Manager before you plan around it. Meta says it is grayed out when the selected Page has no store locations.

How do you set up a store location campaign?

Meta’s setup page lists these steps:

1. Set up the store pages structure and add each store in Ads Manager, with business hours. Meta says you can’t show ads for stores that are permanently closed.
2. Optionally create a store set, a group of physical stores in one country. You need an advertiser role on the ad account and task access for ads and insights on the parent Page.
3. Create a campaign, choose Awareness, pick your Page and switch on store locations. Meta says delivery optimization is then set to daily unique reach.
4. In audience, choose a store set, or a geographical area by country, state or distance.
5. Pick your ad voice, either the main Page or a store Page, then choose Call now or Get directions.

Meta’s two pages differ on one point. The overview says Awareness or Sales, while the setup page says Awareness only. Follow what Ads Manager offers you.

What you can do: enter opening hours first, because the ad draws on them.

How do food orders work on Instagram?

Meta’s Instagram help says that when someone taps the Order food button on your profile, or the food orders sticker in your Story, they go to your partner’s website to order delivery or take-out.

You need an Instagram business or creator account, and you set up food orders with a partner using the partner’s instructions. Meta lists partners country by country, and says partners may not be available if your country is not listed. It also says the feature is being introduced gradually.

What you can do: check Meta’s partner list for your country before you tell customers they can order through Instagram.

What should you watch for?

If your restaurant is a bar or club, read Meta’s alcohol policy. It counts venues and events whose primary business model depends on alcohol sales as alcohol ads. Ads may not be targeted to people under 18, and some countries set a higher minimum, such as 21 in the United States.

What you can do: read the alcohol rules entry before you set the ad set’s minimum age.

What stays the same as for any business?

You still choose a Page, a budget, a schedule and placements, as Meta’s setup steps show. Advice, not a Meta rule: judge a restaurant campaign on the action you asked for, such as calls or directions, rather than on reach alone.

FAQ

Can I still run a Store traffic campaign?

Meta’s page says the original 11 objectives were simplified into six. It points restaurants to the Awareness or Sales objective plus store location features. It said existing Store traffic campaigns would keep running until mid-2024, tentatively, so check what your own account shows.

Do I need several locations to use store location features?

Meta’s pages give no minimum number of stores. They say store pages are only available to managed Facebook clients and that the feature may not be available to you. If the store locations toggle is grayed out, the selected Page has no store locations.

Which delivery partners work with Instagram food orders?

It depends on your country. Meta lists partners by country, such as DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats for the United States. If your country is not listed, partners may not be available. You set up the service using the partner’s own instructions.