24 Apr Tokyo Cowboy 3 Month Yelp Advertising Case Study
In our previous blog, we’ve talked about Yelp advertising & the benefits received when working with a Yelp Agency Partner. Here, we are going to take a closer look at the power of Yelp advertising through an assessment of our client, Tokyo Cowboy, from the period of January – March of 2024.
About Tokyo Cowboy
The latest eatery concept from local architect Chris Hill, Tokyo Cowboy sits atop Hill’s other endeavors The Esquire Tavern, and Hugman’s Oasis overlooking the iconic San Antonio Riverwalk. Conceived as an elevated fusion diner & whisky bar, Tokyo Cowboy delights guests with Asian-inspired eats & show stopping cocktails.
Tokyo Cowboy
135 East Commerce Street
San Antonio, TX
(210) 305-7075
www.tokyocowboytx.com
Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok
Project
Opening to great success in April of 2023, the owner of Tokyo Cowboy wanted to further expand their reach in the highly competitive tourism sector of the Riverwalk. Due to their location, the eatery was perfectly poised to become a premier destination for out of town guests to enjoy a touch of Tokyo in Texas. In addition to our continued management of their social media, website, & public relations, it was determined the best course of action was to enhance their marketing efforts with advertising through Yelp with implementation in December of 2023. This was in addition to advertising already present on social media that was aimed at overall brand awareness & continued growth of social media accounts.
The focus on Yelp was to attract both locals & visitors as well as capitalize on the large amount of foot traffic in the area for those unfamiliar with the brand. For this assessment, we will focus on the following aspects: ROI for ad spend, time to action for consumers, & new visitors.
Yelp Advertising ROI
One of the biggest concerns our clients have with online advertising is how to measure exactly how their ad dollars are translating into foot traffic. One of the features of Yelp advertising is the ability to track consumers after their initial ad exposure or brand interaction, called Yelp Store Fronts. This data offers a unique opportunity to see how many people came to dine with the establishment after interacting with the brand through the Yelp platform.
For Tokyo Cowboy with a budget of $575 per month, the overall ROI from January 2024 through March of 2024 was nearly $40,000. This number was determined by the number of store visits & the average ticket price of the establishment. Knowing that most diners do not eat alone, we can safely assume that this is a conservative estimate of the impact of the advertising efforts. The breakdown for the 3 month span can be seen in the below graph.
Catching Consumers at the Right Time
For restaurants, capturing hungry customers at just the right moment can influence their purchasing decisions. This is especially true when an eatery is in a high tourism area as many visitors will be looking for guidance on the best places to dine out. A nice feature about Yelp advertising is the ability to measure the time between a user looking at your profile & when they visited the establishment.
For this client, the 1st quarter data expressed that once exposed to the ad, a user visited the restaurant an average of 50% of the time. Meaning that half of users were influencing their dining decision based on the ad they saw & most likely proximity to the location. From this, we can surmise that the majority of these users were looking for something to eat for their next meal. The ability to capture those who were actively looking for their next meal is a powerful tool for restaurants. In this case, the ads were effective in enticing visitors who may have otherwise overlooked the quaint diner amongst the hundreds of other options available to them in the downtown San Antonio area.
Additionally, this allowed Tokyo Cowboy to capture a market that would have otherwise been overlooked with social media advertising & marketing efforts as tourists may not be inclined to follow social accounts that are not in their area.
Attracting New Customers
Tying into the above, the ultimate goal of any advertising campaign is to attract new customers. With the data provided, we can track how many diners had never been to the restaurant before, visited within the past 30 days, or within the past 90 days.
In this instance, Tokyo Cowboy saw an average of 72% in new diner visits over the 3 month span. Additionally, we saw repeat business almost double from January to March to which we can infer means locals are continuing to frequent the restaurant at least once a month. In the below chart, we can see the effectiveness the addition of the Yelp advertising had on attracting & retaining customers.
Conclusion
The addition of Yelp advertising skyrocketed the general public’s awareness of this unique fusion concept for the Tokyo Cowboy team resulting in a trackable ROI of nearly $40,000 as well as a slew of new business. In addition to the other marketing efforts made by the Embark Marketing partnership, Tokyo Cowboy is now poised to be a top attraction for diners when visiting the San Antonio Riverwalk within a year of opening.
To get further insight into the benefits of advertising on Yelp through an agency partnership & what it can do for your restaurant or bar, please visit our previous blog here. You can see an additional example of how Yelp advertising can benefit your business in our case study for The Hayden here. You may also reach out to us with any questions regarding Yelp advertising or any of our other services provided at the button below.