United States · Restaurants
US restaurant marketing agency for independent restaurants
HMRA is a marketing agency built for independent US restaurants — one location or five. We fill slow weeknights, grow covers on the shifts that need them, and move reservations and orders off commission-charging marketplaces and onto channels you own.
The problem
Why independent US restaurants lose covers they should own
Most independent restaurants in the US are not short of demand in the abstract — they are short of demand on Tuesday at 7pm. Weekend service sells itself through reputation and foot traffic, which hides the fact that Monday through Wednesday is carrying full labor and rent against half the covers. That gap, not brand awareness, is where the profit is.
At the same time, a growing share of reservations and orders arrives through platforms that charge for the introduction. A cover booked through a marketplace and a cover booked on your own site are worth different amounts, and after a year that difference is a line item large enough to fund a second chef.
The third problem is invisibility in the exact moment of decision. When someone searches for dinner near them, they see a map with three results and a handful of recent reviews. If your profile is stale, your photos are two years old and your last review is from spring, the algorithm and the guest reach the same conclusion at the same time.
Built to answer
- “restaurant marketing agency for independent restaurants”
- “restaurant marketing agency near me”
- “how to get more reservations on slow weeknights”
- “restaurant local SEO agency”
- “reduce OpenTable and Resy commission”
- “multi-location restaurant marketing agency”
These are the searches United States operators actually run. This page exists to answer them properly rather than to repeat our UK copy with the currency changed.
Local terminology
We use your market's language, not ours
Hospitality vocabulary changes across English-speaking markets, and so do the platforms behind it. Getting this wrong is the fastest way for an overseas agency to look like an overseas agency.
Covers, not tables turned
We report on covers and check average per daypart, because that is how US operators forecast labor. Brunch, happy hour and late-night are treated as separate businesses with separate campaigns.
Marketplaces, not just OTAs
In the US the commission conversation is OpenTable, Resy, Toast, DoorDash and Uber Eats rather than Booking.com. The maths is the same, the fix is the same, only the logos change.
Discovery is a three-platform problem
Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect and Yelp all shape whether a hungry local finds you. We maintain all three, not just Google.
What's included
What the engagement covers
Daypart campaigns with ZIP-code radius control
Google and Meta campaigns built per shift — Tuesday dinner, brunch, happy hour, private dining, holiday party season — with spend capped inside a realistic drive-time radius so budget never leaks to people who will never visit.
Local search across Google, Apple and Yelp
Complete profiles on all three: correct primary category, attributes, service options, menus as structured content, current photography, accurate holiday hours, plus a review flow built into service so recency never drops off.
Direct reservations and direct ordering
A booking and ordering path on your own domain that is genuinely easier than the marketplace alternative, with tracking wired end to end so you can see what a direct cover costs versus a marketplace cover.
Menu and offer pages that rank
Dedicated pages for the searches people actually run — brunch, prix fixe, private dining for 20, patio, happy hour — instead of one PDF menu that ranks for nothing and converts worse.
Multi-location structure
Location-level landing pages, Business Profiles and reporting so each restaurant is measured on its own covers and revenue, with brand consistency held at the group level.
Monthly reporting in operator language
Covers added, cost per cover by channel, marketplace versus direct mix, review velocity and revenue per available seat hour. No impression counts presented as achievements.
United States proof
What this looks like in United States
Hospitality operators are pragmatic, so we lead with outcomes rather than adjectives: covers, room nights, direct revenue and commission saved.
+41%
weeknight covers in 4 months
Neighborhood restaurant, Brooklyn NY
2.8x
private-hire enquiries in 5 months
Two-location taproom, Austin TX
$38k
annual marketplace commission moved in-house
80-seat bistro, Chicago IL
+22%
check average on brunch service
All-day cafe, Portland OR
Illustrative examples for demonstration, not verified client results.
Where we work in the US
Remote-first, region-aware
Campaigns are built around your catchment, not a national average. Retainers start at From $650/mo, with full United States pricing on the United States page.
- New York & the Northeast
- Los Angeles & Southern California
- Chicago & the Midwest
- Austin, Dallas & Houston
- Miami & the Southeast
- Denver & mountain resort towns
- Seattle & Portland
- Nashville & Charleston
FAQs
United States questions we get asked
- What does a restaurant marketing agency cost in the US?
- Our US retainers start at $650/mo for a single location with foundations work, $1,600/mo for a full Google, Meta and content programme, and $3,200/mo for multi-location or hotel-restaurant operators. Ad spend is billed separately and always sits in your own accounts.
- Do you only work with independent restaurants?
- Independents and small groups are the whole focus — typically one to five locations, owner-operated, with no in-house marketing department. That is a different job from national chain marketing and we would rather be excellent at one of them.
- Can you help us reduce OpenTable, Resy and delivery commission?
- Yes, and it is usually the fastest margin win available. We rebuild direct reservations and direct ordering, then point search and social demand at those first so a larger share of each check stays with you.
- How quickly do slow weeknights start filling?
- Paid daypart campaigns typically move covers inside two to four weeks, because the offer and the audience are both narrow. Local search and review-driven gains build over three to six months and are what make the improvement permanent.
- Do you work with restaurants outside major metros?
- Often, yes. Smaller markets are frequently easier: less competition in the map pack, cheaper clicks and a catchment small enough to saturate on a modest budget.
- Are you a US company?
- HMRA is UK-headquartered and works remotely with US operators, with calls scheduled across Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time. Everything we build — listings, ads, reservations, reporting — is set up in your accounts, in your market.
Global footprint
Serving hospitality operators across the UK, US, Canada, Australia & New Zealand
Same discipline, localised delivery: local platforms, local currency, local search language and calls scheduled in your timezone rather than ours.
The weeknight problem we had lived with for three years turned out to be an offer problem, not an awareness problem. Covers moved in the first month.
We were paying a fifth of every peak-season booking to the OTAs. Shifting even a quarter of that to direct changed what the season was worth to us.
Functions were being answered whenever someone had a spare ten minutes. Now they're answered in minutes, with a pack, and we win far more of them.
Quotes and locations are illustrative composites written to show the kind of problems we solve, not verified testimonials from named clients. We publish client names and numbers only with written permission.
Operating in United States?
Free audit for US restaurant operators
We'll review your local search presence, reservation journey, marketplace mix and ad accounts, then send back the changes most likely to add covers on the shifts that need them.