Google Ads for UAE restaurants: a practical guide for owners and managers

Booking, call and WhatsApp conversions to track first

Pick the guest actions you will count before you launch a single ad. Google Ads calls these conversions, and Google uses them to set your bids under Smart Bidding.

Choose actions that put a guest at a table or an order in a bag. A page view or a click on your menu tells you little about covers.

Actions worth counting

• A completed table booking on your website or booking widget.
• A tap on the call button in your ad or on your site.
• A tap on your WhatsApp link, if your team takes bookings on WhatsApp Business.
• A tap for directions on a location asset or on the map on your website.
• A click through to your page on Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem or Noon Food.

Check the tracking before you trust it

Make a test booking and a test WhatsApp tap yourself. Then confirm both show up in Google Ads and in Google Analytics 4.

Compare the conversions Google reports with the bookings your host stand or booking system recorded that week. If the two numbers drift apart, fix the tracking before you touch the bids.

A click to a delivery app shows intent. The order itself sits inside the app, so read each app's partner reports next to your Google figures.

Location targeting by emirate, and English or Arabic ads

Set targeting by where your guests live and work. A shawarma counter in Al Barsha and a hotel restaurant on Yas Island draw guests from different parts of the country.

Google Ads lets you target a radius around your address, named areas, a whole emirate or the whole UAE.

• Draw a radius for walk-in and delivery trade, and widen it where your bookings show demand.
• Add named neighbourhoods or cities for destination dining, for example Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina, Al Reem Island or Al Majaz.
• Run a separate campaign for each emirate where you have a branch, so each branch gets its own budget.
• Exclude areas you cannot serve, such as places outside your delivery zone.

Residents, visitors and the location setting

In the campaign settings, you choose between people who are in your area and people who are in it or show interest in it. Google calls these Presence and Presence or interest.

A neighbourhood cafe in JLT wants people who are there today. A hotel outlet near the beach may want visitors who search for Dubai restaurants before they fly in.

English and Arabic

Set the campaign languages to English and Arabic if you serve both audiences. Write Arabic ads for Arabic keywords, and keep English ads for English searches.

Ask a native Arabic speaker to write or check the ads and the dish names on your landing page. A literal translation of a menu item can confuse the guest you want to reach.

Build keyword groups the way diners search

Group your keywords by the reason someone searches. Give each group its own ad group, ads and landing page, so the ad answers the search in front of it.

Five groups to start with

• Brand: your venue name, its common misspellings and the branch area.
• Cuisine and area: Lebanese restaurant Jumeirah, sushi Dubai Marina, karak tea Sharjah.
• Dish: the plates people search for by name, such as biryani, shawarma or brunch.
• Occasion: iftar buffet, birthday dinner, business lunch, private dining.
• Near me: restaurant near me, cafe near me, and the Arabic versions of both.

Match types and negative keywords

Phrase and exact match keep your ads close to the words you chose. Broad match reaches further, so it needs a tight negative list and working conversion tracking.

Add negative keywords on day one for searches that cannot turn into a guest:

• Recipes and how to cook a dish at home
• Jobs, careers, vacancies and salaries
• Franchise, wholesale and supplier searches
• Cuisines and dishes you do not serve
• Areas outside your delivery zone

Read the search terms report each week and add new negatives as they appear. For more on keyword choice and ad copy, read 7 Ways to Optimise Your Dubai Restaurant's Google Ads for More Covers.

Responsive search ads, assets and the landing page

Responsive search ads take several headlines and descriptions, and Google tests combinations of them. Write lines a diner can act on: the cuisine, the area, the hours and how to book.

Lines worth writing

• The cuisine and the area in the first headline
• Booking options: online, by phone or on WhatsApp
• Opening hours, late-night service or breakfast times
• Parking, family seating, a terrace or private dining, where each one is true for your venue
• A current offer, with its end date

Assets to add

Assets add extra lines, links and buttons to your ads. Add these in the first week:

• Sitelinks to the menu, booking page, delivery page and private dining page
• A call asset with the number your team answers during service
• Location assets, through a linked Google Business Profile
• Image assets of your own dishes and dining room
• Promotion assets for Ramadan, Eid or a seasonal menu

The landing page

Send each ad group to the page that matches it. A brunch search should land on the brunch menu and booking button, and a delivery search on your delivery links.

Load the page on your own phone with Wi-Fi off. If the menu takes long to load or the booking button sits below the fold, fix that before you raise the budget.

If your venue serves alcohol, read Google's alcohol advertising policy for the UAE before any ad mentions drinks.

Ad schedules for Ramadan, Eid, weekends and summer

UAE diners change when and how they eat out during Ramadan, on Eid and through the summer. Plan each change a few weeks ahead so your ads, menus and pages are ready on day one.

Ramadan

Build the Ramadan campaign months ahead, using the expected start date.

• Move ad schedules toward the hours before iftar and the late evening, and test suhoor searches if you open late.
• Build an iftar ad group with its own keywords, ads, menu page and booking route.
• Pause or rewrite daytime lunch ads that no longer fit the month.
• Check that your ad images and wording respect the month.

Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha

The UAE confirms Eid holiday dates close to the day, after the moon sighting. Write your Eid ads in advance and switch them on when the government announces the dates.

If you take group bookings, feature group menus and show a booking route that handles large parties.

Weekends

Pull a day and hour report before you set an ad schedule. Use the schedule to drop hours that bring no bookings, and check that weekend campaigns keep budget into the evening.

Seasons and visitors

Swap images and copy with the season: terraces and outdoor seating in the cooler months, indoor dining and delivery in summer.

Daily budget, bid strategy and Performance Max

Choose a monthly amount you can keep up for a full month. Divide it by the days in the month to set the daily budget.

Google can spend more than the daily budget on a busy day and balances spend across the month. Read spend by the month, and judge results by the week.

Bid strategies

• Maximise clicks: a starting point for a new account with no conversion history. Move to a conversion strategy once bookings come through.
• Maximise conversions: Google sets each bid to win as many conversions as it can within your budget. Use it once your tracking works.
• Target cost per action: you set the cost you will pay for a booking, and Google bids toward it. Use it after the account records conversions each week.

Performance Max

With Performance Max, Google runs one campaign across its channels, including Search, Maps and YouTube. Give it your own photos, short videos and clear conversion goals.

Keep a separate Search campaign for your venue name, so you can see what brand searches cost on their own.

A weekly Google Ads review list

Pick one slot in the week, open the account with this list and write down each change you make.

• Search terms: add negatives for searches that cannot become guests, and add good terms as keywords.
• Conversions: compare what Google reports with the bookings in your own system.
• Cost per guest: divide spend by the guests you can trace to the ads, and compare it with last week.
• Ads and assets: remove lines that draw clicks without bookings, and write one new line to test.
• Policy: check for disapproved ads or assets and fix the cause.
• Landing pages: open each one on a phone and test the booking button.
• Google Business Profile: confirm the hours, phone number and menu link match your ads, using the field list in our Google Maps guide.
• Calendar: check what changes in the coming weeks, from Ramadan hours to a public holiday.

Change one or two things at a time and note them, so next week you can tell which change moved the numbers.

For a list of common errors and how to fix them, read The Top 5 Mistakes Killing Your Restaurant's Google Ads Campaign.

Boost My Business runs Search and Performance Max for restaurants

Through our Google and Meta ads service we run Search, Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ campaigns and review them each week against bookings.

The team works only with restaurants, cafes, cloud kitchens and hotel outlets, in all seven emirates. A free 30-minute growth call settles what we take on, and the work runs month to month.

Google Ads guides on our blog

Each guide below covers one part of running Google Ads for a restaurant.

• 10 Tactics Top UAE Restaurants Use to Win on Google Ads
• 7 Ways to Increase Restaurant Covers with Google Ads
• 7 Ways to Optimise Your Dubai Restaurant's Google Ads for More Covers
• 10 Tactics Top UAE Restaurants Use to Optimize Their Google Ads
• 7 Ways to Optimise Your Dubai Restaurant's Menu for Google Ads
• Maximise Your Dubai Restaurant's Online Visibility with Google Ads
• Maximise Your Dubai Restaurant's Online Visibility with Google and Meta Ads
• 5 Mistakes Killing Your Dubai Restaurant's Google Ads ROI
• The Top 5 Mistakes Killing Your Restaurant's Google Ads Campaign

See every Google Ads guide on the blog