The ASTRALCOM Promise: Effective Digital Marketing Strategies That Outperform Restaurant Industry Standards
We’ve said it time and time again – the restaurant industry can be extremely tough. In an industry that is notoriously challenging due to high competition, thin profit margins, and shifting consumer preferences, restaurants need to balance food costs, labor expenses, and overhead while ensuring consistent quality and customer satisfaction. With the rise of digital platforms and third-party delivery services, restaurants also face pressure to maintain a strong online presence and invest in marketing to stand out in a crowded market.
As a restaurant marketer, your focus on return on investment is crucial for sustained success. When it comes to individual campaign metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), how do you know if your campaign elements are performing well?
Why Restaurants Need Solid Benchmarks
Understanding the performance of your digital campaigns is crucial for restaurant marketers. Benchmarking against industry standards allows you to maximize your return on investment and make data-driven adjustments to your strategies. This knowledge empowers you to refine your messaging, targeting, and ad spending so that you can know with confidence that your digital marketing strategies are relevant and aligned with the latest standards.
Benchmarking also helps restaurants stay competitive by refining their messaging, targeting, and ad spending to stand out in a crowded market. Structuring your plans against solid benchmarks will help you set realistic budgets, allowing you to identify underperforming channels and shift resources to the most effective platforms: Google Ads, social media, or local listings. Finally, tracking key metrics such as click-through and conversion rates enables you to craft compelling ad content, ultimately driving higher engagement, more reservations, and increased online orders.
When creating a digital strategy, we think exploring several key benchmarks is helpful. These benchmarks, such as engagement rate, session duration, and conversion rate, provide valuable insights into how well a restaurant’s website attracts and retains visitors. Read on for a comprehensive list of the benchmarks restaurant marketers should investigate and their significance in optimizing digital strategies.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Website Performance
An excellent, optimized website is essential for making a restaurant business shine. Your site is your way of welcoming people – it attracts, engages, and converts visitors into loyal customers. Benchmarking website performance is a great place to start for restaurant marketers aiming to optimize their digital presence. Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement rate, session duration, and conversion rate provide valuable insights into how well a restaurant’s website attracts and retains visitors. By comparing these metrics against industry standards, you can identify strengths, address weaknesses, and refine your digital strategies to drive more reservations or online orders.
Are you curious to see how your website stacks up? You can track your website performance using a variety of analytics tools that provide insights into key metrics such as engagement rate, session duration, bounce rate, and conversion rates. Google Analytics is perhaps the most comprehensive platform, as it allows marketers to monitor real-time traffic, analyze user behavior, and set up conversion goals. Google Search Console offers additional insights by tracking keyword performance and identifying technical issues that may affect search visibility.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Google Ads
There are three key benchmarks restaurant marketers should look to around digital ads in a search engine such as Google Cost Per Click (CPC), Click-Through Rate (CTR), and Conversion Rate. Analysis of these three allows you to gauge how well your ads are performing compared to industry standards.
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click is a cornerstone metric in digital advertising that tells you how much you pay for each click on your paid ads, such as Google Ads or display advertising. A lower CPC signals a more optimized ad campaign. ASTRALCOM’s Google Ads results for restaurant clients demonstrate just how much impact an optimized campaign can have. While the restaurant industry standard for CPC is $2.69, ASTRALCOM achieves an incredibly low $0.23, proving that strategic bidding and ad targeting can significantly reduce costs.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR measures the effectiveness of your ads in enticing users to click. A higher CTR tells you that an ad is more relevant and engaging to your target audience. The average restaurant industry CTR sits at just 1.43%, yet ASTRALCOM delivers an impressive 14.23%, showcasing the power of well-crafted ad copy and audience segmentation.
- Conversion Per Conversion
Cost-per-conversion is the figure that tells you how much it costs to convert a user who clicked on your ad into a customer or lead. Restaurants typically pay between $35.00 and $50.00 per conversion, but ASTRALCOM achieves a staggeringly low $0.66.
These numbers raise an important question: how do your Google Ads results stack up? To find out marketers can access their performance data within Google Ads Analytics by reviewing key reports on CPC, CTR, and conversion data under the “Campaigns” or “Performance” tabs. By benchmarking against both industry standards and top-performing campaigns like ASTRALCOM’s, restaurant marketers can set new goals, refine ad targeting, and optimize bidding strategies to improve results. The key to success is ongoing evaluation—regularly tracking these KPIs ensures that your digital ad spend drives value.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Display Ads
Display ads are powerful for restaurant marketers looking to increase brand awareness and drive customer engagement. These visually stimulating ads appear across a wide range of websites, mobile apps, and social platforms, capturing potential diners’ attention as they browse online. Unlike search ads, which target users actively looking for restaurants, display ads introduce brands to new audiences, reinforcing brand recall and enticing users to visit a restaurant’s website or take action, such as placing an online order or making a reservation. When optimized correctly, display ads can be a cost-effective way to keep a restaurant top-of-mind for potential customers.
Benchmarking performance is essential to ensure display ads are delivering maximum value. ASTRALCOM’s results highlight the effectiveness of a well-optimized strategy. While the restaurant industry’s average cost-per-click for display ads sits at $0.63, ASTRALCOM achieves an impressive $0.11, proving that precise targeting can dramatically lower ad costs.
Click-through rates for display ads are typically low, averaging just 0.47%, but ASTRALCOM outperforms significantly with a 4.30% CTR. Cost-per-conversion is another critical metric, with the industry average at $65.80, while ASTRALCOM delivers a more efficient $34.82. With the industry’s average conversion rate at just 0.59%, these numbers raise a key question: how well are your display ads working for you? Marketers can find their performance data within Google Ads’ Display Network reports. With effective benchmarks, restaurant marketers can set new goals, refine their audience targeting, and optimize creative assets to improve results. Regular performance tracking can help you ensure that display ad budgets are being spent wisely and effectively, driving hungry people to your site.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for YouTube Ads
Video ads are useful for food and dining because they create an immersive, sensory-driven experience that static images or text alone cannot achieve. Restaurants rely heavily on visual appeal, and video allows them to showcase the textures, colors, and freshness of their dishes in a way that instantly grabs attention and sparks cravings. A well-crafted video can also highlight a restaurant’s ambiance, service quality, and unique offerings, helping potential customers envision themselves dining there.
Beyond aesthetics, video ads are highly engaging and effective at driving action. However, to ensure these campaigns drive real results, benchmarking performance against industry standards is essential. In 2025, the average cost-per-view or cost-per-click for YouTube ads in the restaurant space falls between $0.10 and $0.50, while the click-through rate remains relatively low at 0.04%. The view rate, which measures how many viewers watch an ad rather than skipping, averages 29.7%. These benchmarks set a baseline for evaluating ad performance, but how do yours compare? By reviewing campaign data within YouTube Ads Manager, you can assess key metrics, refine audience targeting, and optimize video content to drive higher engagement. With regular tracking and optimizations, restaurant marketers can turn YouTube into a high-performing channel that attracts and cultivates future customers. And with ASTRALCOM as your marketing partner, you’ll have seasoned experts enhancing ROI for your restaurant brand.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Google Performance Max
Performance Max is a comprehensive Google Ads campaign type that automatically optimizes ad delivery across all Google properties, including YouTube, Search, Display, and Discovery, to help businesses reach their goals more effectively. For restaurants, it streamlines ad management, using machine learning to target the right audience with the right creative at the right time, across multiple platforms. Benchmarking your Performance Max data is a key way to ensure you are making the most of this powerful tool.
Restaurant industry standards show that the cost-per-click typically ranges from $0.68 to $0.85, with an average click-through rate of 1.21% and a conversion rate of 5.84%. Meanwhile, cost-per-conversion falls between $8.65 and $20.92, depending on factors like campaign targeting and budget. At ASTRALCOM, we’re delivering a cost-per-conversion of a mere $0.90. These benchmarks offer a baseline to measure your ad performance—so how are yours doing? To assess your Performance Max data, restaurant marketers can access campaign insights directly within Google Ads Analytics under “Campaigns.” By reviewing key metrics such as CPC, CTR, conversion rate, and cost-per-conversion, you can fine-tune your targeting, adjust budgets, and optimize creative assets to set new, more ambitious goals for your next campaign. If your performance falls behind industry benchmarks, you can start by refining your audience targeting, testing new creative variations, and adjusting bidding strategies. Better yet, contact ASTRALCOM and tell us how your data compares to the benchmarks – we’d love to help you exceed the competition’s standards.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Social Media
Eating is often a very social experience. Social media marketing offers restaurants an invaluable opportunity to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to websites or physical locations. Which platforms are the best ones for your restaurant? Benchmarking performance data is essential for understanding how well a restaurant’s social media efforts are resonating with users across the different platforms at marketers’ disposal.
In 2025, the Facebook industry benchmark for engagement rate is 0.9%, while ASTRALCOM achieves a robust 5.7%. The cost-per-link click on Facebook is $0.72, but ASTRALCOM’s KPI comes in at a significantly lower $0.12. On Instagram, engagement rates range from 1% to 3.5%, and cost-per-link click is between $0.50 and $1.00. LinkedIn’s average engagement rate is 1.25%, with a cost-per-click of $5.58. X has a low engagement rate of 0.15%, with cost-per-click between $0.26 and $0.50. On TikTok, the engagement rate averages 2.5%, with a cost-per-click ranging from $0.20 to $2.00. Pinterest follows suit with engagement rates between 1% and 3.5% and cost-per-click ranging from $0.10 to $1.50.
We want to know how your social media performance compares. To find this data, marketers can access detailed analytics within a platform’s ad manager (e.g., Facebook Insights, Instagram Analytics, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, etc.). By reviewing key metrics such as engagement rate and cost-per-click, restaurant marketers can set new, more ambitious goals, adjust targeting, and optimize content for better results across each platform. If your numbers fall short, you’ll know it’s time to change your creative, your messaging, and/or your timing. The team at ASTRALCOM can help you find the perfect blend of campaigns to shine on social.
2025 Restaurant Benchmarking Data for Email Marketing
Email marketing remains one of the most effective and cost-efficient channels for restaurants to engage customers, drive orders, and increase repeat visits. Unlike social media, where platform algorithms limit organic reach, email allows restaurants to communicate directly with their audience, delivering personalized promotions, event announcements, and exclusive offers straight to their inboxes. Industry benchmarks for restaurant email performance in 2025 show an open rate of 18.5% to 20.2%, a click-through rate of 2%, and a click-to-open rate of 10.5%. These metrics highlight the potential of well-crafted email campaigns to capture attention and drive action—so how do yours perform? To maximize email marketing success, restaurants should focus on strong subject lines, compelling visuals, and clear calls to action while segmenting their lists to deliver more relevant content. By tracking performance within email platforms, you can benchmark your results, optimize future campaigns, and turn email subscribers into loyal customers.
Why Restaurant Marketers Need a Refined Strategy
The restaurant industry is one of the most competitive and unpredictable markets. With tight margins and high customer expectations, restaurants can’t afford to rely on guesswork when making marketing decisions. A data-driven strategy allows restaurant owners and marketers to track performance, identify trends, and optimize everything from digital advertising to menu pricing. By leveraging real-time insights, restaurants can make smarter, more informed decisions that drive traffic and boost profitability in an ever-changing industry.
At ASTRALCOM, our results speak for themselves. By outperforming industry averages across key metrics, we can assure you of our success in delivering unparalleled impact for restaurant marketing. As you plan your digital marketing strategies for 2025 and beyond, remember that the power of a refined, data-driven strategy cannot be overstated.
Benchmark metrics compiled from data supplied by Google during March and April 2025.
