The Restaurant Owner's Guide to Digital Plumbing (or How to Wire Your Marketing So It Actually Works)
One of the biggest advantages of marketing your restaurant online is that you can connect data from all kinds of places and make platforms like Meta and Google learn what you want them to learn.
That's the heart of what I call digital plumbing — a term I borrowed from Dennis Yu. Sometimes I call it digital electricity. When we onboard a new restaurant, I usually tell them, "We're just electricians on the internet."
Our job is to make sure the data flows properly — from your website to your ad platforms to your CRM — so that everything can get smarter over time.
Let's walk through how I think about this, step by step.
Your Website Is the Hub
Your website is the central nervous system of your restaurant's digital world.
It's your knowledge base — the place that holds everything about your business:
- Your menu
- Your story
- Your hours, directions, and contact info
- Maybe even your team bios and behind-the-scenes content
Think of it as a live encyclopedia for your restaurant. As AI and voice search evolve, this becomes even more important. The more structured, accurate, and up-to-date your site is, the easier it is for search engines — and even voice assistants — to understand what you offer.
This is foundational. Everything else builds on top of this.
Set Up Conversion Tracking (Your Control Panel)
Once your website is in good shape, the next step is conversion tracking — the system that tells you (and your ad platforms) what matters.
The main tool here is Google Tag Manager. It's like a central hub for all your tracking scripts:
- Google Analytics
- Meta Pixel
- Google Ads tags
- Anything else you want to measure
Inside Tag Manager, you set up conversion events for things like:
- Online reservations (e.g. OpenTable)
- Private event inquiries
- Online orders
- Newsletter signups
When these are connected, you can send that data back to Meta and Google Ads. That feedback loop is what allows their algorithms to learn what a valuable action looks like — not just clicks or views.
Without this, you're flying blind. With it, your campaigns actually get smarter.
Separate Ad Accounts by Brand
If you're running multiple restaurant brands, never use one ad account for all of them.
Each brand should have its own ad account — for both Meta and Google.
Why? Because when data from multiple brands mixes together, you confuse the algorithms. You also make your own reporting and automation (especially through platforms like HighLevel) way harder to manage.
For Meta, make sure your ad account lives inside Business Manager — not just an Instagram profile. Business Manager is where your:
- Facebook Page
- Instagram account
- Ad accounts
- Pixels
- Audiences
…all live and connect. Without that structure, you'll constantly run into walls when you try to integrate or optimize.
I see this mistake all the time. One account running ads for three different concepts. The data gets muddy. The targeting gets confused. Don't do it.
The Meta Pixel and Conversions API (Why Both Matter)
After iOS 14 rolled out, browser-based tracking (the Pixel) lost a ton of reliability.
That's why Meta introduced the Conversions API, which tracks events directly from your server — not just the browser.
You want both set up.
The Pixel still catches some data from browser activity, while the Conversions API ensures that data keeps flowing even if users opt out of tracking. Together, they create a clearer, more complete picture.
Google Ads has a similar setup, but the key idea is the same: track events as directly as possible.
This is where a lot of restaurants get stuck. They have the Pixel installed, but not the Conversions API. Or they have conversion tracking set up, but it's only counting page views, not actual reservations.
Get both sides working, and your ad performance will improve without you even changing the creative.
Build and Use Audiences
This is the part that most restaurant marketers overlook.
Ad platforms aren't just for finding new people — they're for reconnecting with your best ones.
You can build audiences like:
- People who made a reservation or online order
- People who visited your website
- People who watched your videos (e.g. at least 15 seconds)
From there, you can:
- Retarget them with offers, events, or loyalty campaigns
- Create lookalike audiences so Meta finds people who behave like your best guests
For example, you could upload a list of past reservations and tell Meta to find more people like them. That's free leverage most restaurants don't even realize they have.
I've seen campaigns where we just retarget people who watched a video, offering them a reason to come in. The cost per reservation drops dramatically because you're not starting from scratch — you're building on existing interest.
Local SEO + Rankings (The Ground Game)
The last piece of digital plumbing is making sure your restaurant shows up when people search for it.
We use tools like:
- SEMrush to track keyword rankings on Google
- Local Falcon to track how your Google Business Profile performs in your area
The goal is to improve visibility for high-intent searches like "best sushi near me" or "private dining Vaughan." These are the searches that turn into real reservations — not just casual clicks.
This is the unglamorous work. But it compounds. Every month you're visible for those terms is a month you're capturing demand you would have otherwise missed.
The Point of All This
Good marketing isn't just about creative campaigns or catchy posts.
It's about building the infrastructure that allows everything else to work better.
Digital plumbing ensures your data flows correctly — from your website to your ads to your CRM — so that over time, your marketing doesn't just spend money… it learns.
And that's how you go from running ads to running a real growth system.
If You're A Restaurant Owner Reading This
Look, I know most of you aren't marketing tech nerds. And that's probably a good thing.
But if you're spending money on ads right now — whether it's Meta, Google, or whatever — and you don't have this infrastructure in place, you're leaving a lot on the table.
You don't have to do it all at once. Start with conversion tracking. Get Tag Manager set up. Make sure your Pixel and Conversions API are firing correctly.
Then build out your audiences. Then start optimizing your local SEO.
It's not sexy work. But it's the work that makes everything else actually function.
And once it's set up, it just keeps working for you in the background.
Need help setting up your digital plumbing? That's exactly what we do. We make sure all your data flows correctly so your marketing actually gets smarter over time. Let's talk →