- Client
- The Athens Yacht Club Christchurch
- Sector
- Hospitality Restaurant
- Disciplines
- Digital marketing Google Ads · Meta Ads · GA4
- Engagement
- 2024–2025 Past client
The challenge
The restaurant's natural market was bigger than the searches it was showing up for.
The Athens Yacht Club is where Christchurch locals go for birthdays, anniversaries and evenings that matter, with strong word of mouth and excellent Google reviews. Its search ads centred on Greek food, but many of those searches were for souvlaki and kebabs, not a refined sit-down dinner.
The bigger opportunity was people planning a special night out who hadn’t settled on a cuisine at all. Connecting bookings to analytics was the other step, so we could see which channel brought in each reservation.
The question wasn't who wants Greek food. It was who's planning a night worth remembering.
What we did
We bid on the occasion, not just the cuisine, and connected bookings to analytics.
- Bookings connected to analytics (September 2024). We connected the booking platform to GA4, so every online reservation is counted by source.
- Google Search ads for the occasion, not just the cuisine. We broadened from cuisine terms to dining-occasion searches like “best restaurants Christchurch” and “Christchurch dinner restaurant”.
- Performance Max on Google Maps. We added Performance Max to put the restaurant on Google Maps, where its reviews do the selling. The Google budget stayed steady throughout.
- Facebook and Instagram ads around special occasions. Visual ads showed the food, room and service to Christchurch locals, timed around special occasions and weekends, to keep the restaurant front of mind for the next celebration.
GOOGLE ADS
28%
of online bookings came from Google Ads
2025, all online bookings
Online bookings by source, 2025
ONLINE BOOKINGS
+14%
Oct–Dec 2025 vs Oct–Dec 2024
All online bookings
Online bookings by month, Oct–Dec, 2024 vs 2025
The results
More of the right visitors, and more of them booking.
28%
Of online bookings came from Google Ads, 2025
Including diners already searching for the restaurant by name.
14%
More online bookings, October–December 2025 vs the same period in 2024
Total online bookings across all sources.
9%
Of Google Ads visitors booked a table, 2025
Close to the 10% of people who found the restaurant through Google search, most of them already searching for it by name.
Let us know how we can assist your business today.
Start a conversationSource and period go here — e.g. Google Analytics, twelve months post-launch vs the twelve prior. Unsourced numbers invite doubt from exactly the buyer you're trying to convince.
[Client quote. The best ones name the problem and the specific thing that fixed it — not "great to work with".]
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