When it comes to dining at restaurants, the number one driver of visits is due to the simple act of craving.¹ More than just seeing a burger on TV, smelling the aroma of bread as you walk down the street, or watching people eat at a restaurant, once that craving hits, people turn to mobile to decide where to eat. In fact, 53% of frequent diners and 41% of occasional diners agree that their mobile phone is the first place they go to decide on a fast-food restaurant.²

Instagram is a key driver in helping people decide where to eat. For restaurant goers on mobile, 23% take a photo purely to remember the experience, and 15% share that experience on their social channels—which goes a long way on Instagram.³ After seeing friends’ photos and videos of fast-food restaurants on Instagram, 66% of frequent diners want to visit.²

US Instagrammers interested in restaurants are highly engaged. They’re active every day of the week with 1.4x more sessions than the average Instagrammer. They also have very large networks—with 2.6x more followers and nearly 4x more followings than the average Instagrammer.

When it comes to content, US Instagrammers interested in restaurants are actively posting and engaging with the world around them. In addition to liking 4.5x more content and posting 3x more than the average Instagrammer, they’re also 7x more likely to comment on posts.⁴

With such high engagement, what brings this demographic to Instagram? Since Instagram began, there’s always been a vibrant food community that brings food to life in exciting and innovative ways. Like Toronto-based, @bashirsultani, who takes the everyday and transforms it into works of salt art.

In Seattle, @saltyseattle makes colorful pasta art using vegetables, superfoods, eggs and flour.

And self-dubbed “Cereal Killer,” @mister-krisp, takes crispy rice cereal and forms it into everyday objects.

Enticing restaurant goers on Instagram is one thing, but how do you move people into action? Restaurants have created a three-step recipe for success: Create the Crave, Drive the Visit, and Bring Them Back.

1. Create the Crave. Through a series of five video ads, each depicting a burger inspired by five US regions, Ruby Tuesday (@rubytuesday) enticed Instagrammers to stop in for a juicy, fresh half-pound burger and endless fries for $6.99. With its campaign, the restaurant chain saw a 22-point lift in ad recall—outperforming similar campaigns by 96%. If also drove a 10-point lift in purchase intent among 45-54 year olds—which outperformed nearly 75% of similar campaigns for the same demographic.

2. Drive the Visit. TGI Friday’s (@officialtgifridays) developed a two-phased campaign that used video and carousel ads, as well as local awareness ads on Facebook, to promote its ribs and encourage people to enjoy them at a physical location. The six-week company not only drove a 3-point lift in purchase intent, but more than 50,000 restaurant visits were attributed to the campaign.

3. Bring Them Back. Home to the world-famous Blizzard, Dairy Queen (@dairyqueen) ran a campaign to increase awareness of its “Upside Down or Free” promotion, while also increasing sales of Blizzards and create new lifelong fans of the dessert treat. With its campaign, Dairy Queen reached 20 million people while driving an 18-point lift in ad recall among 25-34 year olds. The fast food company also drove an 8-point lift in awareness of its “Upside Down or Free” promotion and a 3-point lift in purchase intent.

As you can see, when it comes to cravings on mobile, Instagram is a place for visual inspiration. But more than just inspiration, Instagrammers interested in restaurants make decisions on where to eat based on what they see on the platform. So whether you're a chain or a single restaurant, Instagram is a place to create the crave with new and existing customers alike.