I spent $11 on a restaurant ad in Saudi Arabia and got 321 likes at $0.05 per lead. No discount. No offer. Just a food photo. Here's exactly what I did.

Most restaurant owners think you need a big budget or a flashy offer to run ads that work. I just proved otherwise.

Last week I ran an engagement campaign for a fast food restaurant in Riyadh. Here are the actual numbers:

Budget: $11 Likes: 321 Impressions: 4,674 Reach: 2,432 Cost per lead: $0.050

No discount. No "buy one get one." Just a clean food image.

Here's what actually made it cheap:

The targeting was hyper-specific. Instead of blasting all of Riyadh, I targeted people with very specific food interests BBQ lovers, burger fans, fast food enthusiasts, and people interested in desi cuisine. These are people who are already hungry for exactly what this restaurant serves.

When your ad lands in front of someone who already wants what you're selling, you don't need a discount to get them to engage. The food photo alone was enough.

Most advertisers either target too broad (wasting money on people who don't care) or rely on offers to compensate for bad targeting. Fix the targeting first. The creative almost doesn't matter after that.