This is the fifth post in a comprehensive series on How to advertise your restaurant on Facebook.
For Chains with Hundreds of Locations to Single Unit restaurants – This series will change the way you advertise.
Part 1: How to advertise on Facebook – Building Your Custom Audiences
Part 2: How to advertise on Facebook – Audience Insights – Understanding Who Are Your Ideal Customers
Part 3: How to advertise on Facebook – Lookalike Audiences – Targeting Similar Customers
Part 4: How to advertise on Facebook – Custom Audiences – Targeting Specific Interest
Part 5: How to advertise on Facebook – Custom Audiences – Remarketing
Part 6: How to advertise on Facebook – Addressing Your Biggest Digital Advertising Challenges

Getting great advertising results boils down to targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time.

In Part 1: How to advertise on Facebook – Building Your Custom Audiences we detailed how to build your custom audiences in Facebook to understand who are your customers and who are the people that are interested in eating at your restaurant but have not visited yet.

In Part 2 We looked at how to use Facebook Audience Insights to analyze your current customers and interested prospects to identify who are your ideal customers and develop buyer personas.

In Part 3: How to advertise on Facebook – Lookalike Audiences – Targeting Similar Customers we looked at how to use lookalike audiences to target new customers with Facebook Ads.

In Part 4: How to advertise on Facebook – Custom Audiences – Targeting Specific Interest we we looked at how to segment your current customers even further to create targeted Facebook Ads to smaller audiences with specific interests.

In Part 5: How to advertise on Facebook- Custom Audiences – Remarketing we will look at how to use the advertising technique named Retargeting which is commonly used in retail.

What is Remarketing?

Website retargeting — also known as remarketing — is the process of running ads that target people who have previously visited your website or page where your Facebook Ad pixel is installed.

Below is an image of typical online restaurant websites or venues where you can target people that visit specific pages on these sites with the Facebook Ad pixel installed.

How Retail Uses Remarketing?

The best way to understand remarketing is by way of example. Suppose you are shopping online for a particular item like sunglasses, pair of shoes, or a service and navigated to the company’s website to look at the product or service.

The next day when you are browsing the web for another reason and then you see an ad for that same product or service on your screen that you were looking at yesterday. That is remarketing!

How Remarketing Works?

Here’s how remarketing works. When you visit the company’s website to review the product, they have installed tracking code on the page you are visiting which in turn has “cookied” your machine. For Facebook, that is the Ad tracking pixel.

The company can then create an ad and target you with the ad. The next time you are online the targeted ad will appear when you are browsing the web or accessing Facebook.

How to Remarket With Facebook Ads?

The Facebook Ad pixel must be installed on the webpage that you want to track to see if a customer has visited that page.
You need to setup a custom audience in Facebook. When you create the custom audience for the specific page being visited you will be given the option to specify the number of days to keep the pixel active. Most of the time you will keep it to 30 days.
You will then create an ad targeted to this custom audience. Be sure to exclude audiences like current customers.

Anytime a person visits the page with the ad pixel installed they will automatically be remarketed to with the ad you just created for this custom audience. They will see the ad for up to 30 days and then no longer see it.

(For more information on creating Custom Audiences from Website Visits go to this Facebook help page: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1474662202748341?helpref=faq_content)

Examples of How Restaurants Use Remarketing

Here are some examples of remarketing applicable to restaurants.

Grand Opening

There are a few scenarios with grand openings. Such as:

A known brand with a new location in a new market.
An unknown brand with a new location in a new market.
A new location with existing location(s) in the market.

Your scenario will determine the content on the landing page and how much you need to “sell” the customer on visiting your new location once it is open.

Below is just one process for a grand opening.

Run a Facebook ad announcing the grand opening of your new location that lands the customer on your more info landing page. Tease the customer with a special grand opening offer.
On the landing page have a brief signup form where the customer can have the special grand opening offer emailed to them. Use your email marketing system to set up an autoresponder that will send the “Save the Date” email with the single use smartphone redeemable coupon enclosed. Encourage sharing of the coupon with friends.
For people that visit the grand opening landing page but don’t request the grand opening coupon, create a remarketing ad reminding people about the grand opening special offer.
A few days prior to the grand opening send a reminder email and a link to the grand opening coupon in their name.
At the start of the grand opening customers create a third Facebook ad reminding people that have not stopped in to redeem the coupon that there are only a few days left to take advantage of your grand opening offer.

Using the Facebook Ad pixel you can track:

Everyone that looked at the grand opening landing page
Everyone that viewed the grand opening coupon
Everyone that redeemed the grand opening coupon

In your Facebook advertising you can exclude audiences that have already:

Viewed your grand opening landing page
Looked at the coupon
Redeemed the coupon

If grand openings are a regular occurrence create a documented procedure in order to quickly duplicate the grand opening process.

Reinvigorate Flat or Declining Sales

As you know all brands at some point will see same store sales flatten or even start declining. Typically brands look at:

Launching a whole new menu category like breakfast.
Introducing new menu items.
Changing the brand image with a new menu focus or service offerings.

The incorporation of the ad process below is only one part of a larger rebranding campaign. The described process will allow you to maintain several touch points over time by getting initial interest by customers and then over time supporting that message with advertising and email marketing to get customers back in the door. .

Below is just one process for reinvigorating sales.

Run a Facebook ad announcing your new menu or service offering that lands the customer on your more info landing page. Tease the customer with a special offer to try the new menu item or service.
On the landing page have a brief signup form where the customer has the special offer emailed to them. Use your email marketing system to set up an autoresponder that will send the special offer email with the single use smartphone redeemable coupon enclosed. Encourage sharing of the coupon with friends.
Run a second Facebook ad targeted at customers that have not stopped in to redeem the coupon reminding people about the special offer is about to expire.
Be sure to get feedback from customers that have stopped in to use the coupon by following up with a survey about the new menu or service offering.

Using the Facebook Ad pixel you can track:

Everyone that looked at the new announcement landing page
Everyone that viewed the special offer coupon
Everyone that redeemed the special offer coupon

In your Facebook advertising you can exclude audiences that have:

Viewed your announcement landing page
Looked at the coupon
Redeemed the coupon

Exclusion avoids annoying customers that have already taken the requested action.

Catering Seasons

For many restaurants graduations and the holidays are big catering times. The challenge is targeting the small subset of your customers or local prospects that are interested in catering in order to promote your catering capabilities.

If you have a catering page on your website you can capture when a customer has visited the catering page. Here is what you could do.

Be sure to promote your catering with your email marketing during graduation and holiday times with a link to your catering page on your website.
During holiday and graduation times run a Facebook ad touting your catering capabilities. Target the ad to the most likely buyers of your catering. The ad should link to your catering website page. You may consider creating a custom landing page targeted specifically to graduation or holiday catering. Make sure the Facebook ad pixel in installed on this page.
Many times customers will visit your catering page to gather information about your offerings and pricing. Your goal is to remind them about your catering while they are still in the deciding. Create a second Facebook ad targeted to the people that have visited your catering website page. In this ad drop the customer on a landing page that includes customer testimonials about your catering. On this landing page you can also have a link to a catering discount coupon.

When to Use Remarketing?

Consider using remarketing anytime you have a promotion process that you will consistently repeat and the process can benefit from reminding the customer about your product or service.

In part 4 of the series we spoke about the mathematics of advertising. The mathematics haven’t changed for 100 years. It’s the same math no matter what the advertising medium. Here’s the formula:

$advertising math 1$

Remarketing is focused on the people that have shown an interest in your product and service. By keeping your offer in front of the customer you can influence the percentage of people that will choose to use the offer.

In sales many times it is the last person that gets to speak with the customer that wins. Remarketing helps get you the last word.

You can download all six parts of the 41-page Restaurant Facebook Advertising Guide by Clicking Here

Coming Up in the Next Post

In Part 6: How to advertise on Facebook – Addressing Your Biggest Digital Advertising Challenges we will look at how Facebook Advertising with website tracking allows you address restaurant marketing’s biggest challenges.

How to advertise on Facebook – Custom Audiences – Remarketing