This guide walks through the setup in order: the goal, the audience, the creative, the budget and the measurement. It is written for an owner who wants orders, not likes.
Before you open Ads Manager
Three things must be ready first. A Meta business account connected to your Facebook page and Instagram profile. A destination that works well on a phone, ideally your direct ordering page, where a guest can finish an order without creating a long account. And a way to measure what happens after the click.
For measurement, install Meta's pixel on your website and ordering pages, or use the server-side connection your ordering platform offers, so Meta can see who visited, started a checkout and bought. Meta changes its interface and policies from time to time, so confirm current options inside Ads Manager as of October 2026.
Pick one objective per campaign
Meta organizes campaigns by objective, such as awareness, traffic, engagement, leads and sales. For a restaurant with a working ordering page and the pixel in place, a sales or conversion objective is usually the right default, because it tells Meta to find people likely to complete an order. Use traffic only when you cannot track purchases, and awareness for a new opening.
Keep each campaign to a single goal. First-time guests and catering get separate campaigns.
Target a tight radius around the restaurant
Restaurants are local businesses, so location is your strongest targeting lever. Choose a radius around the restaurant that matches how far guests actually travel or how far you deliver. In a dense area that may be one to three miles, wider in the suburbs. Check your order data to see where regulars live.
Leave age and interest settings broad at first. Meta's delivery system works better with enough room to find buyers, and food is relevant to almost everyone. Narrow later only if the data shows a pattern.
Use your guest list as a custom audience
Your guest list is the most valuable audience you own. You can upload emails and phone numbers of past customers to create a custom audience, then use it two ways. First, exclude them from new-guest campaigns so you do not pay to advertise to people already ordering. Second, build a lookalike audience, which asks Meta to find nearby people with similar traits to your best guests.
You may only upload contacts you have the right to use, and Meta requires you to confirm that. Collect consent at checkout and keep the records. Never upload a purchased list. For reminders to existing guests, email and text messages are usually cheaper than ads, so use ads mainly to reach people who are not yet on your list. Our SMS marketing post covers that side.
Retarget people who visited but did not order
A retargeting audience is made from people who visited your website or ordering page, or engaged with your Instagram profile, without buying. They know your name and looked at the menu, so a simple reminder or small first order offer often costs less per order than a cold campaign.
Keep the window short, such as the last seven to thirty days, and cap how often the same person sees the ad so it does not feel like stalking. Exclude people who already ordered.
Creative that gets noticed and stays honest
The image or video does most of the work. Show one dish clearly, in natural light, filling the frame, with little text. Use vertical 9:16 video or images (1080 by 1920 pixels) for stories and reels placements, and square or 4:5 (1080 by 1080 or 1080 by 1350) for the feed. A short clip of cheese pulling, a pour or a steaming bowl usually beats a stock photo. Put your name and offer in the first seconds, because many people watch with sound off.
Write the copy plainly: what the dish is, why it is worth ordering, the offer and how to order. One clear button, such as Order Now, pointing to your direct ordering page. Rotate in fresh creative every few weeks. Servestack Studio can make ads, dish photos and reels from your brand and menu. The food shown must match the food served, and an offer must state its terms.
Budgets you can justify
Work backward from the value of a guest rather than guessing. Decide the most you could pay to acquire one new guest and still be better off after their repeat orders. Then divide a test budget by that figure to see how many guests it needs to bring to pay off. If you will pay up to a set amount per new guest and want ten new guests a month, the test budget is ten times that amount.
In practice many restaurants start with a modest daily spend, roughly in the range of ten to twenty dollars a day per campaign, enough to let Meta gather data without risking much. Run it for at least one to two weeks before changing anything, because early results are noisy. Increase spend gradually, about twenty percent at a time, only when cost per acquired guest holds. If a fair test fails, change the creative or offer, not just the budget.
Measure with direct ordering
Direct ordering makes measurement clean because the order happens on a page you control. Track orders from the ad, cost per order, and the share of those guests who order again within thirty to sixty days. Trust your ordering platform's real count over Meta's attributed purchases.
The number that matters is cost per acquired guest, not cost per click. Review weekly and pause what is not working.
| Setup choice | Starting recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Sales or conversions if tracking works | Finds people likely to order |
| Location | One to three miles around the restaurant | Matches how far guests travel |
| Audience | Broad age and interests, exclude past guests | Gives the system room to find buyers |
| Placements | Automatic, check the feed and stories previews | Lets Meta find the cheapest results |
| Creative | Two to four fresh images or clips per ad set | Prevents ad fatigue |
| Test length | At least one to two weeks | Avoids reacting to noisy early data |