How to ace food delivery advertising on Google: guidelines & copy examples

If you’ve ever wondered, “How can I promote my food delivery service?”, know that restaurant Google ads are an excellent place to start.

Formerly known as Google AdWords, Google Ads is a platform that you can use to reach more customers and skyrocket your click-through-rate.

In the article below, we reveal how to write restaurant ad copy that will help you sell more food online with minimal costs and what to do to ensure your ads will be seen by as many people as possible.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Food delivery ads guidelines

A good ad is one that makes the user click. Simple as that.

So how do you get users to click?

Make your delivery advertisement relevant

The first thing someone notices about an ad is the headline. If the headline matches the searched term, Bingo - you have the user’s attention.

But there’s a catch here. Notice that we’ve used the phrase “search term,” not “keyword.”

That’s because of how Google Ads works:

1. The platform asks for a list of keywords for which you want them to show your ads;
2. You select a keyword like “restaurant delivery Montreal” for your Indian delivery restaurant in Montreal;
3. Someone searches for “sandwich delivery Montreal” and your ad pops up because it broadly matches with “restaurant delivery Montreal”;
4. The user won’t click on your ad because it’s not what they’re looking for;
5. So, while the ad might be optimized for the keyword, it’s not relevant for the search term.

The lesson here is to use the right keyword match types to target the most relevant keywords for your restaurant.

Help your delivery service advertisement stand out

Once the headline got people’s attention, what can you add to your food delivery advertising copy to make users click?

Highlight what makes you special. Throw in your best arguments for why they should choose you over your competition. For example: 30-minute delivery guarantee, free delivery, vegetarian options, local ingredients, etc.
Mention your special offers. If you are running promotions, let them know in the ad. For example: fixed-price lunch menu, combos, special price for a new dish… whatever exciting promo you’re cooking up. Don’t wait until they get to the website because they might not get there if you don’t hook them with something early on.

Checklist for successful Google ads for restaurants

The best food delivery ads copy contains the following:

1. The keyword you’re targeting in the headline;
2. A special offer (if you have one that’s relevant for the keyword);
3. A call-to-action at the end of the description;
4. None of the ad space wasted (make use of those characters!);
5. Title case for your headline and major keywords in the description too (Title Case Makes Your Text Stand Out More).
6. More than one ad per ad group so you can figure out which one works better and how you can improve. Keep in mind that an ad that works wonders for one ad group might not produce the same results for a different ad group (given you still match the rest of the items on this checklist).

Restaurant Google Ads examples

Here are some written restaurant advertisement examples that pop up for the following Google searches:

1. greek takeout brooklyn ny

2. mexican food delivery brooklyn ny

3. italian takeaway brooklyn ny

How can I increase my food delivery ad conversions with assets?

Formerly called extensions, Google Ads assets help you expand your ad to more than just a few lines of text.

While text only ads may not convince users to click, you can use more real estate using assets such as:

Sitelink assets;
Callout assets;
Location assets;

Let’s take a look at these three types of assets to see how you can use them for your food delivery campaigns.

Sitelink assets

Hands-down the most important asset for a restaurant looking to promote their food delivery service.

Why? Because this allows you to send users to different pages on your website by linking them under the ad text, like this:

Here are some links you can add:

Menu - this is definitely the most interesting content for hungry customers, so it deserves a direct link;
Special Offers - if you are running promotions, it’s another great opportunity to make the visitors aware and curious;
Food Delivery - great way to show your customer that you offer this service;
Table Reservations - for those who want to dine-in.

If you want, you can also add a description to each link. This will make your ad bigger, which will, in turn, increase its visibility in search engines.

If you don’t have a website that features all of these separate pages you can send the user to, you can generate one in minutes using our restaurant website builder.

The website will be delivered to you already optimized for search engines and designed to help you sell more.

Follow these steps to get your own show-stopping restaurant website now:

Callout assets

When you write your ad, you’ll very quickly reach the conclusion that 180 characters is not enough to talk about your cuisine, unique selling points, and add relevant keywords.

That’s where callouts come in. They give you additional space where you can highlight specific benefits you offer, such as Free Delivery or 30-Minute Delivery Guarantee using up to 25 characters.

Location assets

When someone is interested in food delivery, they might not care where your restaurant is located as long as you can delivery the food to their location in a timely manner.

But a lot of people look for food delivery using terms such as “nearby” or “near me.” In some of these cases, they might want to visit your restaurant directly.

Location assets allow you to display a link with your address and a map marker below the ad. On mobile, the location is clickable so users can navigate quickly and easily.

Adding your location means you will be more discoverable in searches that include “nearby” or “near me,” and you will also increase dine-in visits with targeted food delivery advertising.

How different types of food delivery ads & assets are displayed on Google

1. Callouts and sitelinks with description:

2. Callouts and sitelinks without description:

What else you need to know about food delivery advertising on Google

Google is the ultimate judge of how your ad gets displayed. So don’t be surprised if you see only 2 out of 4 sitelinks on the results page. Same goes for callouts or any other assets.

According to Google, they select which assets to show based on each individual search. This means the process is out of your control. While this may be frustrating at times, assets are worth the time invested in setting them up.

They add more content to your ad, give it greater visibility in search results, and increase the number of clicks. Ultimately, you get more value from the ad.

How to test your Google food delivery ads

Google offers an ad preview and diagnosis tool that you can use to test your campaigns and see how your ads look in search results.

You can find it here.

It’s advisable to use this tool to check your ads instead of searching them directly on Google because this might affect your performance stats by adding impressions every time you search for the ad.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for new ways to promote your food delivery service, give Google Ads a chance.