2025 Restaurants Google Ads

Rocco Steakhouse Google Ads Case Study

How a NYC steakhouse captured high-intent dining searches with Google Ads built around local intent, reservations and private events.

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+89%

Reservation Actions

from paid search

-33%

Cost per Action

after optimization

Top 3

Search Impression Share

core dining terms

https://www.roccosteakhouse.com/

Overview

Rocco Steakhouse competes in one of the most contested dining markets in the country. Half Code built a Google Ads program that puts the restaurant in front of diners at the exact moment they're choosing where to book.

The challenge

High-intent searches like 'best steakhouse near me' were going to competitors and aggregator sites, the restaurant had no structured paid search presence, and there was no visibility into which marketing produced reservations.

The strategy

Capture local dining intent with tightly structured search campaigns — prioritizing reservation-driving keywords and private-event searches — landing on a fast site experience built around menus and booking, with every action tracked.

The execution

Built search campaigns around high-intent local dining keywords
Separated private-event and group-dining demand into dedicated campaigns
Aggressively managed negatives to protect budget from low-intent queries
Aligned landing experiences around menus and reservations
Implemented reservation, call and direction tracking

The results

The restaurant earned consistent top-of-page presence on its core dining searches, reservation actions from paid search nearly doubled, and improved tracking and campaign visibility let budget concentrate on the searches that actually fill tables.

Key services used

Google Ads Custom Web Development Conversion Rate Optimization

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