Optimizing Click & Collect in the restaurant industry

The food market is growing exponentially, the restaurant industry is going digital, and that’s not even counting the explosion in home delivery since the lockdowns. 🚀 It’s a hyper-competitive sector with over 175,000 establishments in France, emerging trends, and new consumer expectations. In short, communication channels in the food space are a gold mine—you just need to know where to dig.

We’ll tell you more about how to convert this target audience, for whom food is becoming an increasingly important interest. 🍔

📱 Digitalized habits and hyper-competition

The digitalization of society has led to many shifts in the habits of the French. And significant ones at that, given the explosion of click-and-collect and home delivery.

The internet has become the primary driver for choosing a restaurant (80% of French people make decisions based on information found online), ordering takeout (which has increased by 51% in just one year), and delivery (84% of 18-25 year olds have already used it)… 📈

This evolution is certainly linked to the massive rise of digital, but it also stems from the fact that consumers no longer have time to spare. The new motto: eat fast, but eat well! Indeed, while time is of the essence, the concern for healthy and responsible eating is a top priority for consumers. Organic, local, vegetarian, and vegan options are all criteria that are surfacing in consumer demands. The awakening of an ecological conscience and a generation concerned about the world they live in is creating new challenges. 🌱

📍 Restaurant communication

If consumer habits are going digital, the same goes for restaurant operators. When it comes to communication, the assessment is quickly made. The food sector is driven by channels that generate numerous interactions and dominate mass culture. 👑 Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are the kings of #food. While the popularity of these networks can certainly help restaurant communication, the saturation they experience drowns users in a vast flow of information. Advertising gets lost, and advertisers struggle to find their way. 😕

Food industry players communicate via social media, Search, and Display. Tens of thousands of them are doing the same. Today more than ever, advertisers must adopt a cross-channel strategy to surface, stand out, and convert consumers.

‌🔥 Innovative levers that adapt to your targets

Whether it’s takeout or home delivery, the goal is to convert your targets by driving them to purchase. And even better, to get them to buy from your establishment. 😍

▶▶ DCO: Dynamic Creative Optimization

A powerful way to personalize digital ads for every individual. Whether through Display banners or Native Ads, DCO cross-references your target's data with their environment and external context. Simply put, the recipient sees an ad that takes into account their consumption habits, browsing history, interests, and intentions. But the power of DCO goes much further, as it allows you to integrate all kinds of criteria into the ad: weather, geolocation, language, time of day, sports results, and much more. 🙌 Applied to the food industry, such a lever is extremely powerful: targeting the individual, timing the delivery, selecting publisher sites relevant to your targets, and personalizing ad content based on the temperature, all while incorporating geolocation.

🔎 If DCO integrates perfectly into a target's digital environment, the lever will have a direct impact on the conversion rate. It also proves its worth for retargeting objectives, thanks to the performance of programmatic advertising.

📺 IPTV & Catch-Up

Top Chef, Un Dîner Presque Parfait, Le Meilleur Pâtissier… Replays are all the rage, and replays are meant to be watched from the comfort of your couch. How does it work? Before or during the shows being watched, it is possible to broadcast non-skippable 20 or 30-second ads. This works on mobile, tablets, TV, or desktop. The advantage lies in the wide range of programs available, and the fact that advertisers can target based on the shows' audiences. Our media partners include TF1, M6, Arte, France TV, Canal+, Pluto TV, and more. 💥

👉 In the same vein, 6Break by M6 fits into the following advertising strategy: the right moment, in the right place. The idea? Serve an ad the moment the viewer pauses their replay. Breaking with traditional advertising habits makes this format highly impactful. So why not take advantage of this pause to order takeout?

Example of an advertisement with 6Break by M6

❤ Tinder & Happn

The perfect match. While the link between dating apps and food might not seem obvious at first, remember that Tinder was designed for the 18-25 age group. This generation orders delivery regularly (64%)! A shared target audience, but more importantly, a similar context. Users head to Tinder to fill their free time, which in most cases is in the evening. Happn follows the same logic. Is it time to match with this audience?

Want to know more? Click here!👇

👗 Vinted

With the rise of e-commerce and the boom in second-hand goods, this clothing resale app has been all the rage in recent years. Vinted is a massive success, bringing together 10 million members in France and ranking as the tenth most visited e-commerce site according to Médiamétrie.

Vinted is popular with 18-29 year olds, who make up 60% of its users. It’s an especially interesting channel when you consider that Vinted ads blend seamlessly into users' feeds. ☀

📣 Reddit

The legendary trio of social networks popular for food (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) is flooded with advertisers. But other networks, still flying under the radar, are becoming hubs for rather disruptive communication—and Reddit is one of them.

A social network still undervalued by many advertisers, Reddit is gradually weaving itself into the daily lives of the French. If you hadn't heard of it until now, you’ve surely heard of the global impact of the "pixel war" 💣. A battle that revealed the power of a channel capable of mobilizing the masses. Like Facebook or Instagram, the principle of sponsored posts on Reddit works the same way: ads integrated into the user feed in text, image, or video format. But like any social network, Redditors have their own codes, and if you want to make a name for your brand, you obviously have to respect them.

Need a hand with your strategy?

👍 Traditional channels you should keep

We’ve said it time and again: social media, as well as SEA and Display, are used by a huge number of advertisers. The power of an advertising message can get lost in such a dense flow of information. However, the importance of being present and active as a restaurant brand remains undeniable. When integrated into a cross-channel approach, this strategy becomes even more relevant and effective. 💡

✅ Social Media

Food is a passion that’s exploding and shining bright ⭐
The holy grail of visual communication is undoubtedly Instagram. A favorite among both amateur and professional photographers, this channel stands out as the most popular for food content. Endless hashtags, stories for every occasion... In short, it’s the go-to lever for getting people talking about your brand! 89% of 12-25 year olds are on the platform, and it goes without saying that influencers play a major role in shaping users' culinary destinations.

In a similar vein, the number of tweets referring to food is spectacular, with 22 million posts on the subject annually, 62% of which are posted by 18-34 year olds.

As for Facebook, 40% of users watch content related to gastronomy, and 28% share it. It’s a network that brings together several generations; while it’s common to think of Facebook as targeting young people, the trend is shifting toward an older audience.

To wrap up the classics, YouTube also positions itself as a temple for food, as the topic is among the top 5 most-watched themes on the platform.

From a branding perspective, social media allows for message repetition and builds both brand awareness and image. It is through this repetition that the strategy pays off for click-and-collect services.

👋 Despite the multitude of ads, you can stand out by using formats that break the mold. At Klox, we offer formats and ways to showcase them that boost your visibility!

✅ Search: SEA

🤯 Food consumers spend time researching brands and products. While they spend a significant amount of time on social media, Google remains the go-to for answering all kinds of questions. This brings us, of course, to SEA, or paid search. The idea—or rather, the goal—is to get your brand to appear in the top Google search results to maximize visibility and convert your target audience.

By using programmatic advertising, Klox employs highly precise targeting and ad optimization methods, allowing us to reach food addicts based on both socio-demographic and psycho-sociological criteria.

✅ Display

You know the drill: static or animated advertising banners, refined targeting based on user interests, and a multitude of placements. But display also offers original formats: 360° view banners, augmented or virtual reality, stories, and much more. Speaking of innovation, we should also mention charitable advertising formats, which have the unique feature of involving the advertiser in causes that matter to them. It’s an effective call-to-action that can be further personalized through DCO. 🧐

👉 In short.

📢 In short, boosting click-and-collect conversion strategies for restaurant businesses to disrupt industry norms is essential today. You can now move beyond standardized communication and adopt a cross-channel strategy. As an Agency As A Service, our expertise provides access to a range of innovative products, exclusive partners, and optimal targeting. Klox also delivers high-performance management of catchment areas, whether local, national, or international.