Lower Cost Per Reservation for a Multi-Outlet Restaurant Brand

The Challenge

A casual dining brand with three outlets across Dubai was running Meta ads in-house with broad interest-based targeting and no retargeting layer. Every lead was treated the same regardless of how close they were to booking, so the budget was going toward cold audiences who were not ready to reserve a table. Cost per reservation kept rising month over month and the team had no clear view of which creative or audience was actually driving bookings.

The Approach

We rebuilt the account structure around the customer journey instead of running one flat campaign. Top-of-funnel reels introduced the brand to lookalike audiences. A mid-funnel retargeting campaign re-engaged website visitors and 50%+ video viewers. WhatsApp click-to-message ads handled the bottom of funnel — UAE diners convert faster through WhatsApp than a contact form. Ad scheduling focused on lunch and dinner planning hours, and creative shifted from studio photography to short, casual customer-style video.