Situated in a city of steakhouses, Hugo’s Frog Bar & Chop House was the new restaurant on the [chopping] block in Philadelphia. Competing with over a dozen steakhouses and countless high-end restaurants, Hugo’s had two major hurdles to overcome:
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A highly-saturated market
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Its location within SugarHouse Casino
Services Rendered

Growth Marketing Strategy

Content

PPC

Audience Exploration
One of the major challenges to immediately overcome was audience targeting. Who wants to visit a casino steakhouse? To find out, we pushed out marketing to a large variety of audiences and narrowed in on the top-engaged segments.
Email Marketing:
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SugarHouse Casino patrons
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Purchased list of residents within 10-mile radius with HHI of $75,000 and above
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Opt-Ins from OpenTable


Paid Social:
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Custom Audience: Export of OpenTable reservations
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Lookalike audience based on OpenTable reservations audience
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Engaged with the Facebook ad in the past 365 days
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Lookalike audience based on people who have engaged with the Facebook page
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All website visitors in the past 180 days
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Lookalike audience based on people who visited the website in the past 180 days
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Interest-based audience: Fine dining, in a relationship
Google Ads:
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“Steakhouse” keywords: people searching for steakhouses in the city of Philadelphia
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“Steakhouse” keywords: people searching for steakhouses in the nearby suburbs of Southeastern Pennsylvania
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“Steakhouse” keywords: people searching for steakhouses in the nearby suburbs of South Jersey

A Winning Combination of Paid Search + Social Media
By reviewing the data from our campaigns early and often, we were able to identify the winning combination of growth marketing hacks for Hugo’s Frog Bar & Chop House. And the winner is…
A constant pay-per-click Google Ads campaign that entices prospective patrons that are searching for steakhouses in their area.
A comprehensive social media strategy that uses a combo of organic and sponsored posts to increase reach, promote shares, and build restaurant reviews.
Results:
150,000+ Google Map Clicks
Annually from the Google Ads Campaign Extension
$3.86
Average Cost Per Click for Google Ads
Social Media Program Reaches 14,500 Users Monthly

$1 Average Cost Per Click
For sponsored campaigns on Facebook
40k Monthly Impressions
Average # of impressions on Facebook each month
14,500 Monthly Reach
Average # of users reached on Facebook each month

Value-Adding Content Gives Readers Something to Sink Their Teeth Into
We all love a quick and snackable social post, but sometimes more is more. Longform blogging has allowed us to improve search rankings, drive home the top-quality ingredients and methodology in the restaurant, provide a format for thought leadership, and create shareable content for social and email marketing.
Results:
10% Increase in Organic Website Sessions
Year-On-Year
Average Position 8.4 and Climbing
On the organic search engine results page
#1 Position for Steakhouse Searches
Best steakhouse near me, Top steakhouses in Philly, steak house in Philadelphia