Testing the Weak Spots
Most multi-location businesses default to “spread the digital advertising budget everywhere.” That’s a mistake. What if instead you put ad money where the upside is biggest: at your underperformers?
We ran that exact test for a high-end steakhouse with 20 locations. Two historically weak spots got baseline Google Ads investment, a new tactic for this business.
The results? Both locations hit all-time record site traffic and promo section engagement.
This test was done using two low-performing locations in the Houston area. These locations were really struggling to get people in the door. We allocated a modest budget (enough to move the needle and test efficacy, not to blow out the total marketing budget for these locations).
Over the test period, we measured:
- Site users (traffic)
- Promo engagement (on a prominent section of their site – users clicking on this section signal high intent)
- Performance of these locations versus the average across all other locations
Results
Comparison of Q2 2024 v Q2 2025:
Metric | Memorial City | Sugar Land | Other Locations Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
Site Users Increase | +67.00% | +26.82% | +5.93% |
Promo Engagement (Gold Bar Clicks) | +87.80% | +34.70% | –8.82% |
So: even with minimal spend, these two locations vastly outpaced the network average – in some cases by an order of magnitude.
And both sites hit their highest-ever user and engagement levels.
What’s Driving These Gains?
- Low baseline = high ceiling. When a location is underperforming, there can be unclaimed demand that just needs a little nudge. A small push can surface latent interest (“oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to try that place!”).
- Highly localized signal. Ads targeted precisely to the geographic area can deliver strong intent matches from people already nearby or have seen the physical location.
- Audience freshness. Because these locations had zero prior ad exposure, we weren’t fighting ad fatigue or overexposure.
Still, it’s important to know that this won’t always scale proportionally. At some point you’ll hit diminishing returns.
But the early gains justify doing more tests in similar underutilized areas.
Key Takeaways & Recommendations
- You don’t need a sweeping budget increase to see meaningful impact.
- Start small with localized tests – pick your worst performers.
- Focus on metrics that you can easily measure (traffic + high-intent signals).
- If a test works, scale it methodically; if not, kill it fast.
- Use insights (ad copy, audiences, time-of-day, creatives) from your test to incrementally optimize across your portfolio.
Looking Forward
The next phase is clear: roll out this same strategy to more underperforming locations, layer in cross-channel retargeting, evolve creatives, and allocate more budget to winners.
If you’re managing a multi-location brand and suspect some units are dragging the average down – this approach gives you a path to lift them without gambling the whole budget.
If you want help planning a similarly targeted ad experiment, we’d be glad to map it out with you.