2017 Facebook Marketing for Restaurants Report Card

Oscar Wilde Facebook

The team at Marketing4Restaurants works with Restaurants around the world on finding more customers and turning them into repeat customers and one of the issues they have is Restaurant Facebook Marketing.  We audited 100 Restaurants in Australia to see how many have a Facebook page, how many likes they have, how often they post and how effective it is.

How many Restaurants have a Facebook Page?

We thought this result would be around 95%, but sadly the results were a lot lower.

  • 70% have their own Facebook page
  • 12% Don’t have a Facebook page
  • 18% have an unofficial Facebook page

Unofficial Facebook Pages are generally set up automatically by Facebook.  This is a big problem for the 18% of Restaurants surveyed, because they will not be monitoring any of the feedback and Facebook users can send feedback that the Restaurant is permantly closed.  We have seen this multiple times with new customers and have had to take control of the Facebook page and then set the page to Open.  How many customers are these Restaurants losing on a weekly basis when people see that they are Permantly Closed?

How Recently has each Restaurant Posted?

Average days since last Restaurant Facebook post

This graph represents the number of days since the last post (lower is better) for all of the restaurants who had posted in the last 12 months.

Posting regularly helps build your Facebook community and reassures people that your Restaurant is still open.  One thing that many Restaurant owners don’t think of is that an active Facebook page can help your recruit staff and more importantly, the right kind of staff.  They see your Facebook page, like what they see and apply for a job.

  • Only 22% had posted in the last 10 days.
  • Only 17% had posted within the last week.
  • Only 9% had posted within the last 36 hours.
  • 12% had not posted within the last 12 months!

What is the average Restaurant Facebook Page Likes, Followers and Visits?

Restaurant Facebook Likes, followers and visits

There is a large difference in Restaurant Facebook Page Likes, Followers and Visits.

The median Facebook Restaurant page has just 114 likes and only 89 people have visited the Restaurant.   Compare that with the highest value of 6,336 likes.  There was a couple of high scoring results that pushed the average right up which is why we used a median value.

Restaurant Facebook Page Talking About vs Likes Statistics

Restaurant Facebook Talking About vs Likes

Restaurant Facebook Talking About vs Likes

31% had either had No one talking about them.

Talking about this is a key metric of engagement on your Restaurant Facebook page.  A high % is either the sign of highly viral material (sometimes difficult to do), or much more likely a paid campaign.  Notice the logarithmic scale on the graph – there was really only 1 stand out Restaurant with a decent engagement rate, suggest just 1% of Restaurants where run paid campaigns.

Oscar Wilde Facebook

We paraphrase loosely Oscar Wilde, but it is a serious matter that so many Restaurants are missing out of Facebook.

What is Talking About on a Facebook Page?

Talking about is the sum of interactions that people have had on your page in the last week.  These are called stories by Facebook and they incude:

  • Liking your page
  • Sharing, liking or commenting on a post
  • Answering a question
  • Responding to an event
  • Mentions your page
  • Tags your page in a photo
  • Checks into or recommends your page
  • Claims an offer

 

How often are Restaurants posting on Facebook?

The number of Posts to a Restaurant Facebook page in the last 10 days

The number of Posts to a Restaurant Facebook page in the last 10 days

76% of Restaurants had not posted on Facebook in the last 10 days and only 3% had posted more than 5 times.

 

 

How many Restaurants are running Facebook Marketing campaigns?

 

Based on our research, it looks like less than 1% of Restaurants are running Facebook ads campaigns.  This is an amazingly low figure given the decreased organic reach of posts now.  Many Restaurants are missing out on one of the largest opportunities to build awareness, attract customers and turn new customers into repeat customers.

 

Why are so few Restaurants using Facebook?

There are 3 reasons that Restaurants aren’t doing enough Facebook marketing.

  1. They don’t care:  Restaurant owners, especially older restaurant owners, don’t see the point of Facebook.  They don’t use it and don’t think it will help their Restaurant.
  2. They don’t have time:  Restaurant owners think that Facebook takes up a lot of time.
  3. They don’t have the money:  Too many Restaurants look to employ someone 1 day a week to manage their Facebook account, but don’t give them any budget.
  4. They don’t have the knowledge:  It can be daunting to operate a Facebook page and even more so to run campaigns to it.

The fact that so few Restaurants are doing Facebook marketing creates a massive opportunity for them to differentiate themselves against their competition.  The fact that most of the chain restaurants are strong on social media makes it all that more important.

4 things that Restaurants can to be better Facebook Marketers

  1. Start learning about Facebook Marketing.  Here are 4 podcasts that you can listen to on your phone for free to help you understand how Facebook works.

    Basic Facebook Marketing for your Restaurant

    Emergency Facebook Marketing for your Restaurant

    Advanced Facebook Marketing campaigns Part I – Segmenting

    Advanced Facebook Marketing Part II – Remarketing and Retargetting for Restaurants

    If you haven’t listened to a podcast before, these episodes have been listened to by Restaurant owners in over 102 countries.  Download on your iPhone or Android and listen in the car on the way to the Restaurant, while you are doing prep or taking the dog for a walk.

  2. Check out or create your Restaurants Facebook page.
  3. Download Facebook Pages Manager and Ads Manager so you can manage Facebook from your phone.
  4. Post something!  Anything!  The first post is the hardest.
  5. Run a campaign

How was the Restaurant Facebook Marketing Research Conducted?

 

Marketing4Restaurants specialises in helping Mom and Pop Restaurants with their marketing.  Many of our customers do Take Out, so we audited a selection of customers found in Menulog.  Suburbs were selected at random and all Restaurants in that suburb where audited until we reached 100 restaurants.  We believe that this is representative of the ‘average’ Australian Restaurant.  The results should be significantly higher for Fine Dining and Chain Restaurants.


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