Google Ads for restaurants and takeaways

Google Ads for restaurants puts a paid listing in front of people searching for food near you, on Google Search, Maps and other Google surfaces. On Search you pay for clicks, and Google sets the actual cost per click in an auction against other advertisers. Ads do not change your unpaid map ranking. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Whether Google Ads work for your restaurant comes down to three numbers. What a first order contributes after VAT, food, packaging and card fees. The share of clicks that become completed orders. And what clicks cost for your cuisine, in your area, at the hours you advertise. You can work out the first today. The second needs tracking. The third you only learn by running a campaign.

The rest is set-up. A campaign type that matches how you sell. A radius that matches where you deliver. An ad schedule that matches when the kitchen is open. A budget based on what you can afford to test for a month, with the VAT or UK Digital Services Tax fee added. Unpaid local search, from Business Profile to citations, is covered in the restaurant SEO guide.

Google Ads auction and cost per click

Each time someone searches, Google runs an auction among the advertisers whose ads are eligible. Google’s help page on actual CPC says you pay only what is minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the advertiser immediately below you. With no advertiser below you, you pay the reserve price.

Ad Rank is more than your bid. Google lists auction-time ad quality, including expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, alongside your maximum bid, Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search, and the expected impact of your ad assets. Your actual cost per click is usually lower than your maximum bid, although Google says it can be higher when bid adjustments apply.

Two effects for a restaurant:

• Relevance lowers cost. An ad for pizza delivery in Salthill that lands on a pizza ordering page does better on ad relevance and landing page experience than a general ad landing on a home page.
• Clicks are not orders. A click from someone who orders costs the same as a click from someone looking for a pizza dough recipe.

Campaign types in Google Ads for restaurants

Google’s campaign types page lists Performance Max, Search, Display, Video, App and Shopping. Shopping is built for retailers’ product inventory and App for app installs, so neither usually fits a restaurant. The main options compare like this, based on Google’s help pages checked in September 2026:

Search campaigns

Search campaigns show text ads on Google results to people searching for what you sell. You choose the keywords, write the ads, and set location, schedule and bids. They fit delivery and collection best, because the search already says what the customer wants: an Indian takeaway in Douglas, a Chinese delivery near me, a chipper open now.

Search gives the most control and needs the most attention. Plan to read the search terms report weekly for the first month and add negative keywords for anything irrelevant.

Performance Max for restaurants

Google’s Performance Max help page describes a goal-based campaign that reaches all Google Ads inventory, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from one campaign. You set conversion goals and can add a target cost per action. Google’s Smart Bidding sets bids in each auction. You supply asset groups of images, headlines, descriptions, videos and logos, and Google mixes them into ads for each placement. Audience signals, such as your customer list, guide where Google starts looking. Reports show performance by asset, asset group and channel, plus placement reports.

Two points matter for a restaurant:

• The goal is everything. If the conversion is a tap on an “Order now” button, the campaign learns to find people who tap buttons. Count completed, paid orders.
• Search takes priority on exact matches. Google says Search campaigns with an exact match keyword are prioritised over Performance Max when a search matches that keyword exactly. Running your restaurant name as an exact match Search keyword keeps those searches out of Performance Max reporting.

Performance Max for store goals

Google’s help page on Performance Max for store goals says the campaign needs store locations, a budget and ad assets. You add locations by linking your Business Profile. The campaign aims at store visits, store sales and local actions such as call clicks and direction clicks. Google lists these placements:

• Google Maps: promoted pins, map search ads, map suggest ads and placesheet ads;
• Waze: branded pins, in select markets;
• the Search Network, YouTube, the Display Network, Business Profiles and Gmail.

Targeting uses a radius around your Business Profile locations. Google says you can set the radius, or it is determined automatically based on factors including your vertical, population density and competitors. Google’s systems set bids, placements and combinations of your assets.

This is the closest thing to “Google Maps ads for restaurants” in one campaign. It fits dine-in and collection, where a call or a direction request is a sensible signal. It does not measure delivery orders placed on your website.

Smart campaigns

Google’s Smart campaigns page describes a simplified campaign for small businesses. You pick a goal (calls, visits to your location, or actions on your website), choose keyword themes instead of individual keywords, and set a location and budget. Google creates ad variations from your business information and website and shows them on Search, Maps, YouTube, partner websites and the Display Network.

Campaign type by restaurant

Local search ads on Google Maps

Local search ads for a restaurant rest on three pieces: your Business Profile, location assets and call assets.

Location assets. Google’s location assets page says ads can show your address, a map to your location or the approximate distance. The usual data source is your Business Profile, which you link from your Google Ads account with access to the profile. Location assets can show on the Search Network, the Display Network, YouTube and Google Maps, and on mobile the ad can offer a call button.

Call assets. Google’s call assets page says you can add a phone number to ads and set it to show only when you can take calls. Call reporting uses Google forwarding numbers to report on calls, and you can count calls as conversions. Google disapproves numbers that are not written strictly in E.164 format, such as +353 with no spaces, and the number must be visible in your website’s source code or your domain verified in Google Search Console.

Call reporting in Ireland and the UK. Google’s call reporting page lists both countries as supporting local and toll-free forwarding numbers. Reports include call duration, start time, whether the call connected, and the caller’s number for calls over 15 seconds.

Set a minimum call length to count as a conversion, so a 10-second “are you open” call does not count as an order.

People who see you on Maps, paid or unpaid, can open your Business Profile and read your reviews before they order. The review routine in the guide to Google reviews for restaurants affects what those clicks turn into.

Radius targeting and location options

Google’s location targeting guide sets the rules for a radius:

• Choose Radius in the campaign’s location settings, enter your address, set the distance and unit, and save.
• A radius must be at least 1 km around any location.
• Google warns that a small radius can mean ads show intermittently or not at all, because small targets may not meet its targeting criteria.
• You can exclude locations, and add up to 1,000 location targets at once in bulk.

Google works out where people are from signals including IP address, device location and locations people have shown interest in. Its location targeting overview says that because these signals vary, 100% accuracy is not guaranteed. Expect some clicks from just outside your area.

Presence and interest settings

Google’s advanced location options page describes two settings for Search, Display and Demand Gen campaigns:

• Presence or interest is the default and the one Google recommends. It reaches people who are, or are regularly, in your area, plus people who have shown interest in it.
• Presence reaches only people who are likely to be, or regularly are, in your area.

Google says switching from the default to Presence usually reduces impressions. For delivery that is often the point: someone in Dublin searching for a pizza in Galway for later in the week rarely becomes a delivery order tonight.

Ad schedule and opening hours

Google’s ad scheduling page says campaigns run all day by default. You can set days and hours for ads, and bid adjustments to raise or lower bids at set times. App campaigns do not support ad scheduling.

The budget detail catches people out. Google says campaigns pace towards a monthly spend of 30.4 times the average daily budget, regardless of how many days the campaign is active in a month. Run ads only Thursday to Sunday and the month’s spend is concentrated into those four days.

A schedule that fits a takeaway:

1. Start ads 30 minutes before the kitchen opens, when people plan dinner.
2. Stop ads 30 minutes before last orders, so nobody orders into a closed kitchen.
3. Leave out any day you are closed.
4. Add a positive bid adjustment for your busiest ordering hours only once conversion data shows they convert better.
5. Pause campaigns when the kitchen cannot take more orders, such as a staff shortage or equipment failure.

Google Ads budget for a restaurant

Budget limits

Google’s average daily budget page sets two limits for most campaigns: a daily spending limit of twice the average daily budget, and a monthly charging limit of 30.4 times the average daily budget. You can change the budget at any time, and one budget can be shared across several campaigns.

Plan the month on the monthly charging limit. Daily spend moves around, because Google spends more on days it predicts more clicks and conversions.

How Google Ads compares with email, SMS and push notifications on cost per order is covered in the restaurant marketing software guide.

VAT and the UK DST fee

• Ireland. Google’s taxes page says Irish accounts are served by Google Ireland Ltd and that all Google Ads accounts in Ireland are subject to VAT at the Irish rate. The Irish standard rate is 23%, according to Revenue’s current VAT rates. Check the rate on your invoice, and ask your accountant what you can reclaim if you are VAT registered.
• UK. Google’s jurisdiction surcharges page says a 2% UK DST fee has been added to invoices for ads served in the United Kingdom since 1 November 2020, and that taxes such as VAT are charged in addition to surcharges. Northern Ireland is part of the UK for this fee.

Payment options with Google

Google’s payment settings page lists automatic payments, manual payments and monthly invoicing. Monthly invoicing has entry requirements, including being a registered business for at least a year, an account in good standing for at least six months, and spending at least $5,000 a month or the local equivalent in any three of the last 12 months.

Published cost benchmarks

Google does not publish average restaurant click prices for Ireland or the UK on the help pages checked for this guide. The nearest published figures come from LocaliQ’s search advertising benchmarks for 2026, which list these averages for Restaurants and Food:

The figures are in US dollars, the page does not state the geography of the data, and a lead is not the same as a paid order. Use them as a sign that restaurant clicks are not always cheap, not as a price for Galway or Leeds. Your own account’s first month of data is the only reliable number.

Worked example: bid and budget maths

Example only. Harbour Pizza in Galway and Smash and Co in Leeds are fictional. Food, packaging, delivery costs, click-to-order rates and repeat rates are assumptions to show the method. VAT rates come from Revenue’s second reduced rate page, which lists catering, restaurant supplies and hot takeaway food at 9% from 1 July 2026 (excluding alcohol, soft drinks and bottled water), and HMRC’s VAT Notice 709/1, which treats hot takeaway food as standard-rated at 20%. Card fees use Stripe’s Irish pricing of 1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards and Stripe’s UK pricing of 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, checked September 2026.

Step 1: contribution per first order.

Step 2: the most you will pay for a first order. At break-even, Harbour Pizza can pay €18.26 and Smash and Co £15.35. An owner who wants to keep half the contribution from the first order sets the ceiling at €9.13 or £7.68. This is a decision for you, not a Google setting.

Step 3: the most you can pay per click. Maximum cost per click = cost per order ceiling × click-to-order rate. In the UK, divide by 1.02 for the DST fee.

Step 4: the monthly invoice.

• Ireland: a €20 average daily budget has a monthly charging limit of 30.4 × €20 = €608.00. If VAT is charged at the 23% standard rate, the invoice total is €608.00 × 1.23 = €747.84.
• UK: a £16 average daily budget has a monthly charging limit of 30.4 × £16 = £486.40. The 2% DST fee adds £9.73, for £496.13 before any VAT.

Step 5: orders needed to break even on first orders.

• Ireland: €608.00 ÷ €18.26 = 33.3, so 34 first orders a month. At a 4% click-to-order rate that needs about 833 clicks at no more than €0.73 each.
• UK: £496.13 ÷ £15.35 = 32.3, so 33 first orders a month. At 4% that needs about 808 clicks at no more than £0.60 each.

Step 6: repeat orders. Suppose 30% of new customers order twice more within six months (example, check your own repeat rate first). Each new customer is then worth 1 + (0.30 × 2) = 1.6 orders.

• Ireland: €18.26 × 1.6 = €29.22 per new customer, and a break-even click at 4% of €1.17.
• UK: £15.35 × 1.6 = £24.56 per new customer, and a break-even click at 4% of £0.96.

That money arrives over months, not on the day you pay for the click. Only count it once your reports show new customers from ads really return. Turning first orders into second and third orders is the job of a restaurant loyalty programme.

Step 7: a first-order discount. A 10% first-order code (example) changes the numbers.

• Ireland: the customer pays €29.43, which is €27.00 excluding VAT. Stripe takes 1.5% × €29.43 + €0.25 = €0.69. Contribution: €27.00 − €0.69 − €11.00 = €15.31. The break-even click at 4% falls to €0.61.
• UK: the customer pays £27.00, which is £22.50 excluding VAT. Stripe takes 1.5% × £27.00 + 20p = £0.61. Contribution: £22.50 − £0.61 − £9.00 = £12.89. The break-even click at 4%, after the DST fee, falls to £0.51.

A discount paid for with ad money comes off the same margin twice. Raising order value moves every number in these tables the other way, and the tactics are in the guide to increasing average order value.

Order tracking and conversions

Google’s conversion tracking page lists the conversion types:

• Website actions, such as purchases on your site after an ad click.
• Phone calls, from call assets, forwarding numbers on your website, or clicks on a number on your mobile site.
• Offline conversions uploaded from a file or API, which need the Google click ID and must relate to a click within 90 days.
• Local actions, which Google records automatically with no tracking code.

For website purchases, Google offers the Google tag, or importing conversions from Google Analytics. The Google tag supports features such as enhanced conversions.

A restaurant’s primary conversion should be a completed, paid order on your own ordering site, with the order value passed through. If an ad sends people to a marketplace listing instead, the order happens on the marketplace’s pages, where your tag cannot record it, and you pay commission on top of the click. Before choosing an online ordering system, check how it supports conversion tracking on the order confirmation step.

Consent for tracking in Ireland and the UK

• Ireland. The Data Protection Commission’s cookie consent FAQ says only two narrow uses are exempt from consent, strictly necessary cookies and cookies used only to transmit a communication. It names cookies for targeted advertising and conversion tracking as not exempt. Withdrawing consent must be as easy as giving it.
• UK. Regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, as substituted by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 from 5 February 2026, bans storing or accessing information on a user’s device unless an exception in Schedule A1 applies. The exceptions include consent, strictly necessary purposes, and statistics collected to improve a service or website with clear information and a simple way to object. None covers advertising, so treat Google Ads conversion tags as needing consent.

Google’s consent mode page describes how tags respond to a visitor’s choice. In basic consent mode, Google tags do not load until the visitor interacts with the consent banner. In advanced consent mode, tags load with consent set to denied by default for visitors in the EEA and UK, and send cookieless pings that Google uses to model conversions. Either way, fewer conversions will be observed than orders taken. Compare Google Ads conversions with your own order reports each week.

Once customers order directly, the rules on marketing to them are separate, and they are set out in the restaurant CRM guide.

Tracking set-up steps

1. Pick the primary conversion: a completed, paid order on your ordering site, with the order value.
2. Pick secondary conversions: calls from ads over a minimum length you choose, and direction requests for dine-in.
3. Install a consent banner that blocks advertising tags until the visitor agrees, and set up consent mode.
4. Add the Google tag and a purchase conversion to the order confirmation page, or import the purchase event from Google Analytics.
5. Place a test order on a phone, pay, and check the conversion is recorded once, with the right value.
6. Turn on call reporting, with your number in E.164 format and visible on your website.
7. Link your Business Profile so location assets and local actions work.
8. Wait for data before target bidding. Google’s Target CPA page says you can start without conversion history, that some conversions will cost more than the target and some less, and that the recommended target is the average cost per conversion over the last 30 days, adjusted for conversion delays. Set any target near the break-even figure from your own maths.

Campaign numbers to watch

Comparing ad orders with other channels, and new customers with returning ones, is covered in the guide to restaurant analytics software.

Keywords and negative keywords

Google’s keyword match types page describes three match types:

• Broad match can show ads on searches related to your keyword, including searches without its words. Google says to use Smart Bidding with broad match.
• Phrase match, written in quotation marks, can show ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword, including more specific searches.
• Exact match, written in square brackets, can show ads on searches with the same meaning or intent. It gives the most control and reaches the fewest searches.

For a first campaign, phrase and exact match keep spend close to what you sell. Broad match makes more sense once completed orders are tracked and Smart Bidding has data to work with.

Negative keywords

Google’s negative keywords page says negative keywords exclude search terms, come in broad, phrase and exact forms, and do not match close variants or other expansions. A negative for “recipe” does not block “recipes”, so add both.

A starting negative list for most restaurants and takeaways:

• recipe, recipes, how to make, homemade
• jobs, job, hiring, careers, vacancies
• calories, nutrition, frozen, supermarket
• course, courses, training, franchise, wholesale
• town names outside your delivery area

Add to it every week from the search terms report.

Your own restaurant name

Bidding on your own name costs money for people already looking for you. It can be worth it if other ads appear above your listing when someone searches your name. Search your restaurant’s name on a phone at 6pm on a Friday, in your area, before deciding.

Leave other restaurants’ names out of a first campaign. People searching for a named restaurant usually want that restaurant.

Restaurant Google Ads examples

Google’s responsive search ads page allows up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions per ad, with at least 3 headlines and 2 descriptions. Headlines take up to 30 characters and descriptions up to 90. Google combines them, and says pinning a headline to one position is not recommended for most advertisers and can affect ad strength.

The examples use fictional restaurants. Every detail in an ad must be true for your restaurant on the day it runs.

Harbour Pizza, Galway: delivery and collection

Bombay Lane, Cork: Indian takeaway

The Corner Café, Belfast: brunch and bookings

Each set names the cuisine and area, says how to get the food, and gives one concrete detail such as a street, a dish or an opening time. None uses a superlative such as “best in Cork” that cannot be proved.

Ad claims and prices

The CCPC’s guide to misleading advertising says an advertisement is misleading if it contains false or deceptive information or leaves out important information. In the UK, the CMA’s announcement of its new consumer enforcement regime on 7 April 2025 lists drip pricing, where fees are revealed late in the purchase, among the practices it targets.

For ads, that means:

• A price in an ad matches the price at checkout, and any delivery or service charge is shown early.
• “Ready in 20 minutes” is true on a Friday night, or it comes out of the ad.
• “Gluten-free” and “vegan” claims match your allergen records.
• Offers in ads have an end date you honour.

Keeping one set of prices and allergen details across the POS, website and apps is covered in the guide to menu prices on every channel.

Drinks offers carry extra rules. Google’s alcohol ads policy allows ads promoting the sale of alcohol only if they do not target minors and only target approved locations. Check the country requirements before advertising a drinks promotion.

Managed and do-it-yourself Google Ads for restaurants

The biggest difference is ownership. An account in your name keeps its conversion history, keyword data and asset performance if you change who manages it. An account held by someone else does not come with you when you leave.

Questions to ask before you pay for management

• Whose name is the Google Ads account in, and what access do I get?
• Is the fee fixed, a percentage of spend, or a margin added to spend? Can I have it in writing?
• What counts as a conversion in your reports: a completed paid order, a call over a set length, or a click?
• Which campaign types will you run, and why for my restaurant?
• How is spend capped each day and each month, and what happens if the cap is reached?
• Who writes the ads, and who checks prices and claims against my menu?
• What is the minimum term and the notice period?
• What happens to campaigns, assets and data if I leave?

Common Google Ads mistakes for restaurants

• No conversion tracking, or tracking a button tap instead of a completed order.
• Sending clicks to a marketplace listing. You pay for the click and then the commission. Current rates are set out in the guide to Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats commission.
• Sending clicks to a home page that makes customers hunt for the menu. A page built for ordering is covered in the restaurant website builder guide.
• Presence or interest for delivery, paying for clicks from people who cannot receive an order tonight.
• A radius wider than the delivery area, or no exclusions for areas you cannot reach.
• Ads running while the kitchen is closed.
• Judging on clicks, clickthrough rate or impressions instead of cost per order.
• Prices or times in ads that do not match the checkout.
• Budgets set without VAT in Ireland or the DST fee in the UK.
• Handing over the account without knowing what you keep if you leave.
• Tags that fire before consent.
• Paying for new customers and never asking them back.

Google Ads launch checklist

• Contribution per order worked out, with VAT, card fees, food, packaging and delivery.
• Cost per order ceiling set, and the maximum cost per click at 4% and 8% click-to-order rates.
• Monthly budget set from the monthly charging limit, plus VAT or the UK DST fee.
• Business Profile verified, accurate and linked.
• Ordering site that loads fast on a phone and takes payment without a marketplace in between.
• Consent banner and consent mode working before any tag fires.
• Purchase conversion recording once per completed order, with value, tested with a real order.
• Call reporting on, with a minimum call length and a correctly formatted number.
• Campaign type chosen for how you sell: Search for delivery and collection, store goals for dine-in.
• Radius matched to where you serve, with Presence for delivery and exclusions added.
• Ad schedule matched to kitchen hours.
• At least 10 headlines and 3 descriptions, every claim checked against the menu.
• Weekly check in the diary: search terms, cost per order, orders in your own reports.

Eclyde Google Ads and ad credits

Eclyde is the restaurant growth platform for independent restaurants in Ireland and the UK. Google Ads campaigns are run from Eclyde using ad credits.

How the ad credit model works:

1. Campaigns. Eclyde creates and runs Google Ads campaigns for the restaurant in a Google Ads account Eclyde manages.
2. Targeting. Campaigns can target a radius around the restaurant, cuisines and active hours.
3. Balance. The restaurant pays from a prepaid ad credit balance, topped up by card.
4. Daily debit. Each day, Eclyde debits the previous day’s Google spend plus Eclyde’s management margin from the balance, and records it in a ledger.
5. Automatic top-up. Optional, with a monthly cap the owner sets.
6. Safety floor. If the balance drops to a safety floor, campaigns pause automatically.

Ask for the management margin in writing before your first top-up, and compare it with the time you would spend running your own account or an agency’s fee. If owning the Google Ads account and its history matters to you, run your own account, or use an agency that works inside it.

Paid clicks are one part of growing direct orders. The rest of the plan, while keeping marketplaces for discovery, is in the guide to getting more direct orders. Eclyde pricing is €499 to launch, which covers menu build, website and ordering set-up, POS and printer configuration, customer import, staff onboarding, testing and go-live support. It is refunded in full within 30 days if Eclyde is not right for the restaurant. After that it is €99 a month for the whole platform, with no Eclyde commission on direct orders and no limits on orders or customers. Details are on the pricing page.

Your Google Ads numbers

Before spending on ads, write down three numbers: your average direct order including VAT, what food, packaging and delivery cost on that order, and how many direct orders you took last month. Work out the contribution per order and the most you can pay for a first order, using the worked example above. If that figure is lower than the clicks will cost, fix order value and your ordering page first. Then run the free Eclyde restaurant audit to see how your Google profile, website and ordering look to someone who clicks.