Sector: restaurants, bars, hotels and venues
Google Ads for Birmingham restaurants and hospitality
Bookings and functions, a tight radius, and a budget that knows the fixture list
Hospitality clicks are cheap and hospitality bookings are worth a lot, which is why the sector is run differently from every other one here. The goal is a booking or a function enquiry, never a menu view; the radius is a mile or two for a neighbourhood restaurant and the whole conurbation for a city-centre venue; and the budget moves every week with the events that put people on the street: matchdays, the Test, the NEC, the Christmas market. From £249 a month on the Starter tier, and we will say plainly when ads are the wrong tool for a Tuesday table.
When ads work, and when they do not
The honest split before the first pound
The same restaurant can have one campaign that pays for itself ten times over and another that never should have run. The difference is what the searcher is looking for.
| The search | What the searcher wants | Ads are | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| "restaurants near me" on a Tuesday | A table in twenty minutes, decided from the map | Usually the wrong tool | The map pack and the review score decide; a paid click competes with your own listing |
| "private dining Birmingham", "Christmas party venue" | A room for twenty to two hundred, decided over a week | The right tool | Specific, high value, and the enquiry form is the whole campaign |
| "hotel near NEC", "hotel Birmingham airport" | A room on a date, decided tonight | The right tool | The booking engine tracks the value; the booking sites are already bidding, so you must too |
| Your own restaurant's name | Your booking page | Only if someone else is bidding on it | Booking platforms and delivery apps often are; a low brand bid takes the click back |
| "bottomless brunch", "Sunday roast Moseley" | A specific thing on a specific day | Worth testing | Cheap clicks, and a booking is easy to track; judged on bookings after a month |
The Birmingham calendar
Events that change what a hospitality campaign should bid on that week
None of these is news to anyone who runs a venue in the city. What is unusual is a Google Ads account that is adjusted for them by a person the week before, rather than left on a flat budget.
| Event | Where the searchers are | What changes in the account |
|---|---|---|
| Home matchdays at Villa Park and St Andrew's | Aston, Witton and Small Heath before the game; the city centre after | Pre-match food and pubs near the ground bid up from late morning; city-centre bars from full time |
| International cricket at Edgbaston | Edgbaston, Cannon Hill and the city centre for five days | Restaurants and hotels within a mile of the ground get a dated campaign for the run of the match |
| Shows at the NEC, the Utilita Arena and Resorts World Arena | Solihull, the airport hotels and the Broad Street bars | Hotel and restaurant ads scheduled around doors-open and show-end times |
| The Frankfurt Christmas Market, November to Christmas Eve | Victoria Square and New Street, every evening, for six weeks | City-centre venues bid up for the whole run; function and party campaigns start in September |
| University term starts and graduations | Selly Oak, Edgbaston and the city centre | Graduation lunches and family hotel stays around the dates; student searches excluded from function campaigns |
| Ramadan and Eid, Diwali, Chinese New Year | Sparkbrook, Small Heath, the Chinese Quarter and across the city | Iftar and celebration bookings for the restaurants that serve them; scheduled from the dates, not discovered afterwards |
The radius
A mile in Kings Heath, the conurbation on Broad Street
A neighbourhood restaurant lives on people within walking distance and on searches that contain the suburb's name. The campaign is a mile or two wide, the ads name the street, and searches from the other side of the city are excluded because they do not become bookings. A city-centre venue is the opposite: diners come from the whole of the West Midlands and from hotels, and the search terms contain “Birmingham” rather than a suburb.
Both are set from your own bookings. If the function enquiries come from Solihull and Sutton Coldfield, that is where the function campaign is targeted, whatever the map suggests.
The conversion
A booking, a function enquiry or a room, never a menu view
Table bookings are tracked through the booking system's confirmation page, function enquiries through a short form or a tracked call over a minute, room bookings through the booking engine with the room value attached. The report shows bookings by campaign and the cost of each; directions requests and menu views are shown too, but the bidding is told to buy bookings.
At month end we ask which enquiries became functions and what they were worth. A Christmas party for sixty pays for a year of the fee; the report does that sum.
The booking sites and the apps
Who is bidding on your name, and what it costs you
Search your own restaurant's name on a phone. If the first result is a booking platform or a delivery app rather than your website, someone is paying for your name and taking a commission on the booking. A brand campaign at a low bid, sending the click to your own booking page, usually costs pence per click and the report shows the commission it saved. If nobody is bidding on your name, we do not either; bidding on a search you already win is a waste that a percentage-of-spend agency has no reason to point out.
Keep reading
Next door to this page
Landing pages
The function page with the enquiry form, separate from the menu.
Property and lettings
Another sector where the calendar decides the budget.
Pricing
Most venues sit on Starter; the tiers are on one page.
Get a quote
Send the venue and what a function is worth; the reply says which campaigns are worth running.
Questions from Birmingham venues
Is Google Ads worth it for a Birmingham restaurant?
For functions, private hire, Christmas parties and hotel rooms, usually yes, because one booking is worth hundreds and the search is specific. For a Tuesday table, usually no, because the searcher already has the map open and the booking sites bidding on your own name outrank you. We say which applies to you before taking the fee.
What does it cost?
Management is £249 a month on Starter for ad spend up to £1,000, which covers most single-site restaurants and bars; a hotel or a venue with several campaigns sits on Growth at £399. Restaurant clicks are among the cheapest on Google, so the spend goes further than in most sectors.
Should we bid on our own restaurant's name?
Only if a booking platform or a delivery app is already bidding on it and taking the click, which is common in Birmingham. Then a brand campaign at a low bid sends the click to your own booking page instead of theirs, and the report shows exactly what it cost. If nobody is bidding on your name, we do not.
How tight is the radius for a restaurant?
Tight. For a Kings Heath or Moseley restaurant most bookings come from within a couple of miles and from people who searched the suburb's name; the city centre is different, because diners come from the whole conurbation and from hotels. Radius, postcode districts and place names in the search terms are set from your own bookings, not from a map.
Can you move the budget for matchdays and events?
Yes, and it is the point of running hospitality ads by hand. A home game at Villa Park or St Andrew's, a Test at Edgbaston, a show at the NEC or the Utilita Arena, and the Frankfurt Christmas Market from November all change who is searching and where they are standing. Bids and budgets are scheduled the week before, campaign by campaign.
What counts as the conversion?
A booking or a function enquiry, not a click on the menu. Table bookings are tracked through your booking system's confirmation, function enquiries through a short form or a tracked call over a minute, room bookings through the booking engine. Menu views and directions requests are reported, but the bidding is never told to buy more of them.
Can you run ads for a hotel near the NEC or the airport?
Yes. Airport and NEC hotels have a searcher with a date and an event, which is the best kind. Campaigns by event and by date window, the booking engine tracked with the room value, brand protection against the booking sites, and the ad schedule following the flight and show times.
We do deliveries through the apps. Does that change anything?
It means the apps are bidding on food searches in your area, sometimes on your name, and taking a commission on every order they win. Ads for collection and direct ordering, landing on your own ordering page, are the usual answer where the margin on the app orders is thin; the report shows the commission saved against the click cost.
Tell us the venue and what a full function room is worth. The reply says which searches are worth paying for, and which are not.
One venue per kind in each part of the city on the monthly plans. If ads are already running, add the customer ID and the free check reads whether they are buying bookings or menu views.