Digital Marketing for Restaurants in Nigeria: A Comprehensive Guide

The restaurant business has always been fiercely competitive, with success historically depending on factors like location, word-of-mouth reputation, and print advertising. A good location, a sizable local clientele, and intensive print marketing with flyers or newspaper ads may have been sufficient for success in the past. However, due to the prevalence of digital technology and shifting consumer behavior, traditional marketing techniques alone are no longer adequate. Digital marketing is now essential for restaurants in Nigeria today.

Research shows that nearly 70% of diners look up information online before choosing a restaurant. They check social media, read reviews on websites like Google, and even visit the restaurant’s website to view the menu before deciding whether to visit. This new way customers choose restaurants is the primary reason digital marketing has become crucial for restaurants in Nigeria.

Restaurants in Nigeria with an active and optimized digital presence—such as a website, social media accounts, and online reviews—will outperform those without. Recognizing the increasing significance of digital marketing for restaurants in Nigeria, this guide provides restaurant owners with fundamental strategies to improve their online visibility, attract more customers, and retain them.

Do Restaurants Need Digital Marketing?

Some restaurant owners or management team members, believing that food quality, excellent customer service, the sensory dining experience, a welcoming atmosphere, or walk-in traffic drive their business, often ask, “Is digital marketing necessary for a restaurant?” The answer is yes, for the following reasons:

• Online Dining Trend: In today’s smartphone-driven world, the decision about which restaurant to eat at is heavily influenced by social media presence, pictures, search engine results, and online reviews. The rise of food ordering services and apps like Chowdeck and Glovo is also a testament to this digital dining culture. After researching online, most customers still want food delivered to their doorstep. A restaurant without a strong online presence will lose a large chunk of its potential customers.

• Shifting Habits: Most people, especially Millennials and Gen Z, now spend most of their time on their phones. As a result, traditional marketing methods like street signs and flyers are no longer as effective as they once were—chances are your target demographic won’t even see them because they’re busy on their phones. A golden rule of marketing is to meet your target audience where they are. Digital marketing helps your restaurant meet its customers where they are—online.

Benefits Of Digital Marketing For Restaurants in Nigeria

Beyond the primary reasons why restaurants need digital marketing, online marketing also offers several benefits that contribute to the success of restaurants in Nigeria, such as:

1. Reputation Building: Whether a restaurant wants to be known as the fun new spot in Lagos or a small, intimate place in Abuja, digital marketing helps define and promote its reputation. Restaurants can share photos and videos that communicate their brand online and appeal to their target audience.

2. Boost Reservations and Orders: With digital marketing, restaurants can create campaigns targeting specific locations, demographics, and times of day, boosting in-person reservations or online orders. For example, a restaurant near offices in Ikeja, Lagos, can create a “lunch-break” campaign between 12 PM and 2 PM, offering a unique discount code or free delivery for office workers on break.

3. Humanizing Brands: Restaurants can use digital marketing to tell their story, establish an emotional connection with customers, and cultivate a devoted customer base. Posts like behind-the-scenes content, team stories, chef spotlights, or cuisine origins show the people behind the scenes, building a personal connection with your audience.

4. Attracting Tourists or Visitors: Beyond regular customers, digital marketing helps restaurants attract tourists or visitors to the area. For example, a tourist visiting Calabar for the Calabar Festival might search “top 10 places to eat in Calabar” on a search engine or social media. Keeping an updated Google Business Profile and optimizing for local SEO significantly increases the chances of your restaurant being found or mentioned.

5. Standing Out in a Competitive Market: With an abundance of dining options, it’s easy for your restaurant to get lost in the crowded market and become “just another restaurant.” Digital marketing ensures your restaurant stands out online as a distinctive brand with a unique identity.

6. Recruiting Top Talent: Digital marketing not only attracts more customers but also helps recruit the right people to ensure a good customer experience, leading to positive reviews and repeat visits. Top talent prefers to work for a well-known brand as it enhances their CV and resume. When choosing between a restaurant with a strong online presence and one without, they’ll most likely choose the former.

Key Principles For Digital Marketing For Restaurants

Having examined the benefits of digital marketing for restaurants, you might be considering launching a digital marketing campaign for your restaurant. However, like other forms of marketing, when done correctly, digital marketing results in an impressive ROI, but when executed poorly, it leads to a rapid waste of resources. Digital marketing for restaurants in Nigeria differs from other sectors, and there are key principles that make it effective:

• Pinpoint Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): An effective restaurant digital marketing strategy starts with knowing your customer. You should answer: Who is your ideal customer? Where do they spend time online? What do they want? Why would they choose one restaurant over another? How best can you connect with them? Understanding your target customers’ preferences allows you to tailor your online marketing appropriately. For example, digital marketing for a 5-star restaurant targeting C-level executives and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) in Ikoyi will differ from marketing for an Amala joint in Surulere or a fast-food drive-in in Festac. Accurate ICPs ensure all digital marketing elements—language, placement, promos, etc.—align with customer expectations.

• Hyper-Local Targeting and Personalization: One of the most significant benefits of digital marketing for restaurants is the ability to reach hyper-local audiences. Restaurants should prioritize geographical proximity, culinary preferences, and specific meal times to be most relevant. For example, a restaurant specializing in spicy cuisine can target spice enthusiasts in its neighborhood during peak dinner hours, improving engagement and conversion rates.

• Prioritize Engaging Followers: While having a sizable social media following is impressive, priority should be given to follower quality over quantity. A thousand active followers who like, comment, and share are more valuable than a more extensive, disengaged audience. Instead of buying followers or exchanging gifts like data for follows, have staff ask customers to leave a review and follow the restaurant on social media when they visit.

• Leverage Real-Time Insights: Digital marketing allows you to access real-time data insights previously unavailable with traditional marketing. Set up tools to collect data on key metrics like clicks, views, engagement rate, and bounce rate. This ensures you can make data-driven, informed decisions. For example, if a particular meal is popular online or viewed more on your website, promoting it further through targeted ads or limited-time offers can capitalize on its success.

• Blend Platforms Seamlessly: A consistent and integrated digital experience is critical. Your website, social media, and delivery apps (e.g., Glovo, Chowdeck) should seamlessly integrate for a smooth user journey. For example, Instagram promos could link directly to the restaurant’s website or delivery service, providing a simple, hassle-free experience.

• Encourage Repeat Visits: Focus on long-term customer retention rather than transient viral trends. Benefits like membership perks, loyalty discounts, or unique email coupons encourage repeat buyers and foster customer loyalty.

The 5 Best Digital Marketing Channels For Restaurants in Nigeria

Now that we’ve established some essential principles of digital marketing in Nigeria let’s explore the five marketing channels that yield the highest ROI for restaurants:

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Local SEO is crucial for restaurants since they primarily serve customers within a specific local community. Even with the rise of food delivery apps, there’s still a defined radius a restaurant can serve. For example, a restaurant in Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos, would likely not deliver to a customer in Lakowe, Ajah, or Topo, Badagry. 

Therefore, the restaurant would prioritize ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) for searches made by someone close to Maryland rather than Badagry. Local SEO increases the chances of your restaurant appearing for relevant local searches, such as “Amala place around Ikeja” or “Chinese restaurant in Gwarinpa, Abuja.” 

Local SEO should be a core element of your overall restaurant marketing strategy. It includes ensuring consistency in NAP (Name, Address, Phone), registering on relevant directories, and optimizing your Google Business Profile with all pertinent information.

Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click)
While local SEO typically takes time to yield results, Google Ads delivers faster outcomes. Google Ads and/or Bing Ads should be included in the overall digital marketing strategy for restaurants in Nigeria. 

With Google Ads, you can pay for your site to appear when people search for relevant phrases. For example, when a potential customer searches “Chinese restaurant in Abuja,” your site can appear alongside local results on the map or SERP page. You only pay when your ad is clicked, which is why it’s called Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. You can also set ads to target searchers within specific areas, like Maryland, Shomolu, and environs. 

This channel is efficient for local service-based businesses like restaurants because it targets people actively looking for dining options.

Geo-Targeted Push Notifications
When the budget allows, the marketing mix should include geo-targeted push notifications. They are an extremely effective way to reach potential customers in real-time. For example, restaurants can broadcast promotional offers like lunch discounts to nearby office workers during lunch breaks or special deals during local festivals. 

These ads can also be used during slow periods to increase foot traffic, during weather changes (e.g., notifying customers of delivery options during heavy rainfall), or to create a sense of urgency when meeting sales targets.

Influencer Collaboration
Partnering with brand-fit food influencers can significantly increase brand exposure. Influencers already have a large, loyal audience, and associating with your restaurant can endear your brand to their followers. While prominent influencers might be pricey, consider engaging micro-influencers that fit comfortably within your marketing budget.

How To Launch Digital Marketing For Restaurants

Having reviewed the strategies and benefits of digital marketing for restaurants in Nigeria, as a restaurant owner, C-level executive, or manager, you might be wondering how to start. There are two options: hiring an in-house team or outsourcing to an agency. Each comes with its pros and cons, explored below:

Internal Marketing Team

An in-house team would require creating a marketing department and hiring team members such as digital marketers, video content creators, copywriters, graphic designers, and SEO & paid ad specialists.

Pros of an In-House Marketing Team

• In-Depth Company Knowledge: An in-house team is more likely to know the menu, specials, sales targets, slow and busy days, and other company details, enabling them to create campaigns aligned with your restaurant’s needs.
• Easy Content Creation: Since an in-house team works on-site, it’s easier to create content and capture special moments like birthdays, proposals, or behind-the-scenes shots compared to an external agency that would need to visit the location.
• Implementation & Execution Speed: In-house teams typically create campaigns and make changes faster since they focus solely on your restaurant, unlike an agency managing multiple clients. For example, an in-house team can quickly create a “rainy-day” campaign when it starts raining.

Cons of an In-House Marketing Team

• Recruiting Cost & Time: Setting up an in-house team requires posting ads on job boards, screening applicants, conducting interviews, and negotiating terms. After recruiting, you’ll need to establish performance measures and rewards. This time could be spent focusing on other business aspects while marketing is outsourced.

• Limited Skill and Experience: Unlike agencies, in-house team members may have limited skills and experience since they work with just one brand. Agencies working with multiple brands have tested more strategies and are more familiar with what works.

Digital Marketing Agencies

Engaging a digital marketing agency in Nigeria is often the preferred choice. With agencies, you outsource the entire marketing process, set KPIs, and leave execution to the agency while receiving regular reports (usually monthly).

Pros of Engaging a Digital Marketing Agency

• Skill & Experience: Unlike an in-house team, an agency has team members with more remarkable skills and experience. It’s not uncommon for an agency to have specialists in different marketing areas like SEO, SEM, and social media, while an in-house team tends to consist of generalists.

• Quality Delivery: Agencies generally produce higher-quality work due to available software. Since they work with multiple clients, they can afford professional tools like Adobe Suite, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and optimizers, which an in-house team might not have access to.

• Hands-Off Service: With an agency, you get a more hands-off experience, allowing you to focus on other business aspects. Unlike an in-house team, you don’t need to worry about recruitment, employee motivation, compensation, performance evaluations, or purchasing equipment like cameras, mics, and lights.

Cons of Engaging a Digital Marketing Agency

• Higher Costs: Compared to an in-house team, engaging an agency might cost more initially, though the cost can be justified by the time saved and the quality of work and experience provided. In some cases, costs level out over time. If you want the tools and expertise an agency offers, an in-house team might eventually become more expensive.

• Execution Lag: With an agency, there’s usually a lag between initiation and execution due to strategy meetings and collaboration among professionals, leading to greater scrutiny of ideas. The agency may also need time to learn about your industry vertical before starting the campaign.

Are you considering starting digital marketing for your restaurant? Contact us—Kestrel Digital is the digital marketing agency for ambitious brands. Our team of experts will work with you to reach your business goals.

How Much Should A Restaurant In Nigeria Invest In Digital Marketing?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for a restaurant’s digital marketing investment. The optimal budget depends on the restaurant’s size, target demographic, competition, and overall business objectives.

Unlike fixed operational costs, marketing spending varies based on the quantity and speed of expected results. More investment typically yields faster results. With a large budget, you can include paid advertising, influencer collaborations, and digital PR to increase reach, engagement, and sales. Conversely, with a smaller budget, you’ll rely more on organic techniques like consistent social media posting and customer referrals, which take longer to produce results.

Although there are no strict restaurant-specific numbers, here are general estimates:

• Established Restaurants: Typically spend between 3% and 6% of their total sales revenue on marketing.
• New Restaurants: Often allocate a higher percentage, typically between 6% and 10% of projected revenue, to establish brand awareness and attract initial customers.
• Highly Competitive Areas: Restaurants in densely populated cities like Lagos Island, Ikeja, Port Harcourt, and Abuja might spend closer to 10% of their revenue on marketing to stand out.

Top Marketing Mistakes Restaurants Should Avoid

As discussed in this article, digital marketing can be a game-changer in the fast-paced restaurant industry if done correctly. However, there are common mistakes restaurants and businesses often make with digital marketing, including:

1. Expecting Results Overnight: Digital marketing requires patience. While some campaigns may yield immediate results, others take time. Ensure you give digital marketing time to take hold and deliver results—don’t cut it off too quickly. Paid campaigns generally bring results faster than organic ones. Still, even they require time, especially with AI integration in marketing, which needs to learn how to serve ads for maximum impact.

2. Ignoring the Data: A key advantage of digital marketing is the available data. As much as possible, make data-driven decisions rather than relying solely on gut feelings. For example, don’t target only women because you feel they’re the ideal customers when data shows men convert more. Always ask, “What’s the data telling us?”

3. Obsessing Over Little Details: Particularly with content creation, consistency and authenticity often matter more to your audience than perfection. Don’t insist all videos or pictures be professionally edited before posting, which could delay content for weeks or months. Sometimes, a raw video or photo with a watermark logo resonates more with your target audience. Be open to experimentation to determine what works best.

4. Not Building a Brand: A popular saying is, “First, you work to build a brand, then the brand starts to work for you.” A common mistake is focusing solely on revenue and failing to invest in brand-building activities. Ensure every aspect of your campaign—messaging, visuals, delivery platform—aligns with your brand. Dedicate a percentage of your marketing budget solely to brand building.

5. Ignoring Negative Reviews: Some restaurants think ignoring negative reviews will make them disappear. Negative reviews are inevitable, especially in a customer-facing business like a restaurant. Have a pre-planned strategy to manage them. A properly handled negative review can yield positive results, showing authenticity and that your restaurant cares about customer feedback.

6. Low-Quality Visuals: Poor-quality pictures or videos can make even the best food appear unappealing. Investing in high-quality food photos and videos is critical for restaurants—your visuals should trigger hunger pangs in viewers. Unlike other businesses that can manage with low- or mid-quality visuals, restaurants must prioritize high-quality visuals for digital marketing to be effective and yield maximum results.

Conclusion

In this guide, we’ve established the importance of digital marketing for restaurants in Nigeria today. We’ve outlined the benefits, how to implement digital marketing, the options available, how much it should cost, and common mistakes to avoid.

Ready to get started with digital marketing for your restaurant, café, or eatery? Reach out to our team of seasoned digital marketing experts at Kestrel Digital. When you partner with Kestrel Digital, you’re enlisting the sharpest minds in digital marketing in Nigeria to enhance your brand’s online presence and drive real business results.