Events and festivals
How to promote a food festival, fair or restaurant week
An event has a place and a date, and its audience is the people who will be nearby when it happens. On Amazing Food, fairs, festivals and restaurant weeks can be promoted to people choosing where to eat in the host city and in the cities around it, with spend kept inside that catchment area.
Updated 4 min read
No contract and no minimum term. You pay only for real views.
Key takeaways
- Reach people browsing where to eat in the host city and the cities nearby.
- Spend stays inside the places you choose, with nothing outside the catchment area.
- Turn the campaign on for the run-up and the event days, then pause it.
- Measure interest by city and by day, and tag ticket sales with UTMs.
Why event promotion fits a food feed
Food events compete for a free evening or weekend. The people most likely to come are already thinking about where to eat in that city. Showing the event in that feed puts it alongside the alternatives they are weighing.
- Catchment-area targeting: the host city plus the nearby cities people would travel from.
- Short, intense windows: start a few weeks before and pause after the last day.
- Category fit: a craft beer festival can appear in beer and pub categories, a pastry fair in desserts and bakeries.
How it works for event organisers
Use the banner format: the event's key art with the name, dates and place inside the image, and a link to tickets or the programme. Banners are reviewed before going live, so submit early. Sizes: 1080×1200 px for the website and 1200×533 px for the app.
For a restaurant week, the participating restaurants can also run their own campaigns, such as a promoted dish with the event menu, alongside the organiser's banner.
Event campaign ideas
Countdown phases
Announcement, early-bird tickets and the last week: one creative per phase, with the bid raised as the date gets closer.
Restaurant weeks
The organiser promotes the event, participants promote their menus, all targeting the same city.
Neighbouring cities
A separate campaign for nearby cities, with a message about the trip: ‘45 minutes from you’.
Category-led festivals
Beer, wine, barbecue, street food: restrict the campaign to the categories of the theme.
Sponsor visibility
Brands sponsoring the event can run their own campaigns in the host city during the event days.
Accommodation tie-ins
Local hotels can promote stays for the event weekend. See hotel advertising.
Budget and bid for events
Credits are prepaid, and each real view costs your bid, from 0.01 to 4.99 credits. Higher bids are shown first when ads compete for the same page, which is useful in the last days before the event.
Packages come in 100, 500 and 1,000 credits (10, 40 and 70 in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, BRL). The campaign stops when its budget is used up, so the event can't overspend.
Measuring an event campaign
The daily chart shows how interest builds towards the event; the breakdown by location shows whether the neighbouring cities responded. Clicks carry UTMs (campaign, city, category), so ticket sales can be attributed in your ticketing or web analytics.
For free events, use a registration or programme page as the destination: it gives you a click you can count and a number to compare with the next edition.
Event launch checklist
- Set the window: announcement date, event days and the last day of promotion.
- Choose the host city and the neighbouring cities, plus categories if the theme is specific.
- Prepare the creative with the name, dates and place legible inside the image.
- Submit for review early, set the budget and launch.
- Raise the bid in the final days, then pause after the event.
Frequently asked questions
Can I show the ad only during the event?
You control it with pause and resume: activate it when promotion starts and pause it after the event. There is no automatic end date, but the budget caps spend.
Can a city government or a cultural agency advertise?
Yes, any organisation can create an account. Payment is currently by card in credit packages; if you need invoicing, talk to the Amazing Food team first.
Can participating restaurants advertise too?
Yes. Each one can run its own campaign, a banner or a promoted dish, targeting the same city.
How far in advance should I start?
Submit the creative a few days before the planned start so the review doesn't delay you, and run the campaign through the weeks people make plans.
