Marketing Is Local · Part 8 of 8
In December 2024, my agency ran a video for Pearl Oasis, a multi-cuisine restaurant in Kohat. The CEO introduced the restaurant himself: the heart behind the place.
The numbers looked wonderful.
The video cost PKR 4,278. It reached a huge audience for very little money. And it started zero conversations.
Where the followers actually were
When I looked at the restaurant’s audience, the reason was sitting in plain sight. Pearl Oasis had about 13,000 Facebook followers. Only 15% of them were in Kohat.
85% of the audience couldn’t come for dinner.
Instagram was smaller, about 800 followers, but 60% of them were local. The smaller channel was the more valuable one, and nobody had noticed.
Then I searched the way a hungry person in Kohat would: “restaurants near me”, “best food in Kohat”, “fast food near me”. Pearl Oasis was hard to find. For a restaurant, that’s the shop window.
The restaurant that taught me the other half
Earlier that year I had worked with Munch, a fast-food place in the same city. The aim there was simple: orders.
So the ads were simple. A Large BBQ pizza for Rs 1,300, before Ramadan, and a button that opened WhatsApp.
No story about the founder. No brand video. An offer, a nearby person, and an easy way to ask.
Why the big video didn’t bring anyone in
It reached people, not neighbours. A local business has an address. Reach outside the delivery or driving radius is decoration.
It gave no reason to act today. A warm introduction builds familiarity. It doesn’t make anyone hungry tonight.
It asked for nothing. The video had a message button, but nothing in it invited a message. People did what the video asked: they watched, and liked.
Reach tells you how many people saw you. Local marketing asks how many of them can walk in.
What I changed in the plan
The next plan put everything inside a 10–20 km radius. It set out to put the restaurant on the searches people actually make, with a proper Google listing and a push for reviews from real diners. And it paired every story with a reason to visit and a way to ask.
I don’t have results from that plan to show you, so I won’t pretend. The lesson came from the two campaigns above.
What local marketing really is
Local marketing isn’t small marketing. It’s marketing with an address. The questions change:
- Not “how many people saw it?” but “how many of them live within 20 minutes?”
- Not “did they like it?” but “did they have a reason to come this week?”
- Not “how big is the page?” but “does the restaurant show up when someone nearby searches for food?”
The end of the series
That’s eight parts: perspective, psychology, storytelling, systems, trust, listening, subtraction and local. Each one started with a campaign that looked fine on the dashboard and something underneath it that wasn’t.
Marketing is all of these at once. The dashboard only shows you the result. The work is in the thinking under it.
Is your page big but your restaurant quiet?
Send me your page and your area. I’ll show you how many of your followers can actually walk in, and what I’d run first.
Questions people ask
How should a local restaurant use Facebook ads?
Target a tight radius around the restaurant, give people a reason to come this week (a dish, a price, an occasion), and make the ask easy, such as a button that opens WhatsApp. One Kohat pizza offer brought 68 chats for PKR 2,000.
Do followers matter for a local business?
Only the ones who can visit. One restaurant had 13,000 Facebook followers, but only 15% were in its city. A smaller, local Instagram audience was worth more.
Why don’t awareness videos bring messages?
Because they don’t ask for one. A warm brand video builds familiarity but gives no reason to act today. Pair the story with an offer and a clear, easy next step.
I’m Adil Mumtaz, a creative strategist for paid social. I find the question under the ad, then I make the ad. My case studies, with the real ads and numbers, are here.