Social ads are the channel where hospitality demand is created rather than captured, which means the creative and the craving do the heavy lifting, not the bid.
Search catches people who already know they want a hotel or a meal. Social reaches them earlier, at the dreaming stage, before they’ve picked a property or a place to eat. For hospitality that earlier window is where most of the decision happens: 82% of leisure travelers are undecided on the accommodation they will book when they start planning, and 94% of diners now discover new restaurants through online resources like Google, social, and media sites. If you only show up in search, you’re fighting over the people who already made up their mind somewhere else.
That is why generic “run some Facebook ads” advice underperforms here. The lever in hospitality social isn’t spend; it’s appetite. The food has to look good enough to override distance and price, the short-form video has to earn a visit and not a poor-content penalty, and the warm audience you build has to be retargeted and converted before the craving passes. We build around those exact moments, and every number on this page traces to a real source listed at the bottom.
The case for doing this differently is not our opinion. It is what the data says, every figure sourced below.
For the diners you want most, social is the new search bar.
Discovery has moved onto the feed. SevenRooms found that 94% of diners use online resources like Google, social, and media sites to find new restaurants, and 69% of Gen Z rely on social media specifically for that discovery. Sprout Social’s 2025 research adds the broader shift: 35% of consumers now turn to social first to find local restaurants and activities, and among Gen Z, social has passed search as the first place they look for anything, with 41% going to social first versus 32% to a traditional search engine.
For a hospitality brand, that reorders the marketing map. The first impression of your restaurant, bar, or hotel is increasingly a post in a feed, not a blue link on a results page. Paid social is how you make sure that first impression is yours and not a competitor’s, placed in front of the exact audience (location, age, interests, lookalikes of past guests) most likely to walk in or book. Showing up in the feed is the new entry ticket.
41% of Gen Z reach for social before a search engine. The feed is the front door now.
Social has passed search for younger consumers
And 35% of all consumers now turn to social first to find local restaurants and activities.
Source: Sprout Social 2025 Consumer ResearchSocial content doesn’t just get seen. It gets people to buy.
The feed converts. In Sprout Social’s 2025 study, 76% of consumers say social content has influenced a purchase in the past six months, and among Gen Z that climbs to 90%. This isn’t passive brand awareness; it’s spending behavior, concentrated in the exact demographic hospitality brands are trying hardest to win.
A restaurant’s own posts pull that lever directly. An MGH national survey found 45% of US diners have tried a restaurant for the first time because of a social media post by the establishment itself. That is the core mechanic a paid social program scales: take the content that already earns first visits and put media behind it, aimed at the people most likely to act. The same study is the warning label, though, with 21% saying poor-quality or over-frequent posting put them off, so creative quality is the campaign, not a nice-to-have.
The feed is a purchase driver, not a billboard
And 45% of US diners have tried a restaurant for the first time because of the restaurant’s own social post.
Source: Sprout Social 2025 Consumer ResearchA good food video is a reservation you haven’t taken yet.
Short-form video moves bodies, not just views. An MGH survey of US TikTok users found 38% across all generations, and 53% of Millennial users, have visited or ordered from a restaurant after seeing it on TikTok, equating to roughly 51.8 million US restaurant-goers. That is real foot traffic and real orders traced back to a single video.
What triggers the visit is appetite, and it overrides the usual friction. In the same study, 72% cited appetizing-looking food as the reason they acted, 30% traveled farther than usual to get there, and 28% paid more than they normally would after seeing a restaurant on TikTok. For a paid social program that is the whole strategy in one finding: lead with craving, and distance and price stop being objections. We build creative around the dish, the pour, the room at golden hour, then put spend behind the cuts that earn visits.
72% act on appetite. 30% drive farther and 28% pay more once the craving hits.
Short-form video turns into real visits
Among Millennial TikTok users in the US, that figure is 53%.
Source: MGH Survey, 2022 (n=1,139 US TikTok users)Every follower is a retargeting list you already earned.
Social ads aren’t only about reaching strangers; the audience you build is an asset that keeps paying out. MGH found that among diners who actively follow and engage with restaurants on social, 74% say they’re more likely to visit or order from them. A follower isn’t a vanity number; it’s a warm, high-intent prospect who has raised a hand.
That changes how we spend. Instead of buying the same cold reach over and over, we use prospecting to grow the engaged audience, then retarget the people who watched the video, visited the page, or started a booking but didn’t finish. It’s the cheapest demand you’ll ever convert, because you already paid to earn the attention once. The discipline is in the structure: a prospecting layer to fill the top, a retargeting layer to close the people appetite already warmed up.
Your followers are your warmest demand
Pick the platform your guests live on, not the one in the headlines.
The right platform follows your audience. Pew Research’s 2025 data shows where the people are: 80% of US adults aged 18 to 29 use Instagram and 63% use TikTok, while Facebook still reaches 71% of all US adults and remains the broadest base. That spread is the planning map. A boutique hotel chasing younger leisure travelers leans Instagram and TikTok; a family restaurant or event venue with a wider age range keeps Facebook in the core mix.
We don’t spread budget thin across every app for the sake of presence. We anchor on Meta (Instagram and Facebook) for its targeting, lookalikes, and retargeting, then add TikTok where the audience and the food video earn it. The point is concentration: put the appetite creative where your specific guests already scroll, and let the retargeting layer do the closing.
Where your guests already are
The ad earns the inquiry. The first five minutes earn the booking.
For everything beyond a walk-in (event bookings, group blocks, catering, large reservations) the campaign’s job ends at the inquiry, and the next five minutes decide the revenue. The MIT and InsideSales lead-response study of more than 15,000 leads found you’re 21 times more likely to qualify a prospect when you respond within five minutes versus thirty. Demand you paid to create can go cold faster than the lead does.
So we don’t hand off a form fill and walk away. We pair the social demand we generate with a fast, tracked intake path, autoresponders, routing, and a clear owner, so the inquiry your ad earned doesn’t sit in an inbox while a competitor calls first. The cheapest booking you’ll ever land is the one you already paid to attract; speed is what keeps it from leaking out the bottom of the funnel.
TikTok truly is a restaurant marketer’s dream-come-true. There aren’t many other tools we have left in our marketing toolbox that can drive the sort of impact promised by TikTok.
Ryan Goff, EVP, MGH, on the agency’s national TikTok and restaurants survey
Largely driven by Gen Z, social is becoming the new search engine. This shift is transformative, not just for social media, but for commerce and business overall.
Scott Morris, Chief Marketing Officer, Sprout Social
Ready to turn appetite into covers and bookings?
Your guests are already deciding where to eat and stay inside the feed, and for the diners you most want, that decision now starts on social before it ever reaches a search engine. We build hospitality social ad programs that lead with craving, grow and retarget the warm audience you’ve earned, and pair the demand with a fast intake path so inquiries become bookings. If you want a channel that creates demand instead of just capturing it, let’s talk.
Frequently asked
Are social ads better than Google Ads for a restaurant or hotel?
Which platform should my hospitality business advertise on?
How much do social ads cost for a restaurant or hotel?
Does social media really get people through the door, or just likes?
Why does video matter so much for hospitality social ads?
What happens after someone clicks our social ad?
Every figure on this page comes from a primary platform, an independent study, or a named industry source. No competing-agency stats, no made-up numbers.
- Sprout Social 2025 Consumer Research
- SevenRooms 2025 US Restaurant Trends Report (PR Newswire)
- MGH Survey, TikTok and restaurants, 2022 (PR Newswire)
- MGH Survey, restaurant social posts, 2019 (PR Newswire)
- Pew Research Center, Social Media Fact Sheet, 2025
- Lead Response Management study, MIT/InsideSales (Oldroyd)
- Think with Google, Travelers’ Road to Decision (via Hospitality Net)
