Chef Eyad: restaurant digital marketing

The full story

The restaurant and the question we started with

Chef Eyad is a smoked meat restaurant. The meat smokes for 8 to 16 hours before it reaches the table. In Riyadh it has two branches, Tahlia and Al Khaleej, and it opened a third on Olaya Street.

The restaurant sells at the table, through orders and for events. The question that mattered to management was simple: which riyal of ads brings a guest who sits down and orders, and which one only brings views?

What my team and I did

1. Five platforms, a calendar for each branch

My team ran five social media platforms with a four-week content calendar for each branch. We wrote the scripts in Arabic first, filmed the dishes and the smoking, and brought content creators to film at the counter.

2. Ads on four platforms, judged by what happens next

I ran the ads on Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google. Each campaign was judged by what it led to: a menu view, a message, a call or a request for directions to the branch.

3. The website and table booking

I built and developed the restaurant’s website: the menu, the offers, catering for events, and a table booking form beside WhatsApp. Then I kept improving it page by page, for speed and for the words people search for.

4. Google Maps as a sales channel

Diners look up a restaurant on Google Maps before they drive to it. I kept the Google Business Profile of each branch complete, with the menu and current details. In November 2025 the Tahlia profile alone had 69,516 views, 2,002 calls and 11,187 requests for directions.

5. Offers online and in the restaurant

I built offers that give people a reason to come on a given day: a lunch deal at SAR 79, a burger offer where the third one is free, and sharing platters. For the Olaya opening, a three-day offer cut the kilo of smoked meat from SAR 395 to SAR 295.

6. Email and WhatsApp

I sent the Olaya opening email to the restaurant’s list: the opening offer, the menu with prices, the location, and buttons to book, call or message on WhatsApp. It also invited guests to the restaurant’s World Cup 2026 prediction game. On WhatsApp, a chatbot took orders and bookings, and every contact went into the CRM.

What the numbers showed, and what I changed

From September to November 2025 the ad budget almost doubled, from SAR 26,512 to SAR 50,471. Riyadh sales rose 14% over the same months, from SAR 1.05M to SAR 1.20M. Sales grew, but each extra riyal of ads brought back less than the one before.

The November report showed where the visits came from: Google Ads and Google Maps. TikTok and Snapchat brought many views and fewer visits.

So I rebuilt the December budget on that reading. I stopped Snapchat, cut TikTok and Meta, and raised Google Ads from SAR 3,620 to SAR 8,643. Total spend fell to SAR 23,475.

With less than half of November’s budget, December sales in the two Riyadh branches came in 2.7% below November, according to the branch sales report before VAT.

What to take from it

Do not judge restaurant ads by views. Judge them by what follows: a call, a request for directions, a booking. Once you know where your tables come from, you can spend less without losing sales.

If your restaurant spends on four platforms and cannot tell which one fills the tables, send me your last two monthly reports. I will tell you where I would start.