One search.
Five decisions.
One booking.
The other case studies prove the outcome. This one explains the mechanism — the exact journey a guest takes from typing into Google Maps to sitting at a table. Where this venue appears, where it was absent before, and what the data shows at every stage. The pipeline that produced 61,000+ covers, mapped in full.
The guest isn't
browsing a magazine.
They're on their phone.
The decision of where to eat on a given evening in Dublin city centre is made on Google Maps, on a mobile device, within seconds of intent forming. Understanding that decision surface is the entire brief.
75% of all Google Business Profile views for this venue arrive via Maps Mobile — 573,000 of 766,000 annual views. That is not a platform trend. That is the primary search behaviour of the guest demographic that a premium Dublin restaurant serves. Someone standing on Dame Street at 7pm deciding where to eat does not open a browser and search. They tap the Maps icon.
The Maps interface operates on a local algorithm entirely distinct from Google's web search ranking. A venue with a perfectly optimised website and strong web authority can be completely invisible in Maps if its local signals — citations, NAP consistency, review velocity, GBP completeness — are not built. Before this engagement, flagship engagement had none of those signals in place. The venue was invisible on the primary decision surface used by its guests.
Building local visibility is not the same as building a website or running ads. It requires a specific body of work — citation infrastructure, profile optimisation, authority accumulation — that compounds over months rather than activating overnight. This case study traces the five moments between a guest's first search and their confirmed booking, showing exactly where the venue now appears and what the data shows at each stage.
actually gets made.
Five stages.
One seat reserved.
Every booking that arrived through digital discovery passed through this exact sequence. Each stage has a drop-off point. Each stage has a data signal. Each stage is now covered — and was not before the engagement.
Intent
Impression
Visit
Commit
Arrive
searches.
earns a tap.
closes the gap.
confirms trust.
gets reserved.
19,600+ people
asked for directions.
A direction request is not casual interest. It is a guest who has seen the listing, reviewed the profile, made a decision, and asked their phone to navigate them there. It is the highest-intent pre-visit signal available in GBP data.
73,000+ total actions were taken from the Google Business Profile in 2025. Direction requests represent 26.7% of those actions — a guest who not only viewed the profile but committed to navigating there. The no-show rate of 1.2% suggests the overwhelming majority of direction requests converted to actual covers.
Compare to the industry average no-show rate of 3–5%. A venue with a 1.2% no-show rate is one where guests who commit to a booking arrive. 19,600+ direction requests at a ~99% show rate is approximately 19,400 near-confirmed visits. The pipeline is not losing guests at the final stage.
Five channels.
Every one now active.
The 61,000+ annual covers did not arrive through a single source. The pipeline has five entry points — each a different guest behaviour, each requiring a different infrastructure layer to activate.
Better visibility
brings better guests.
The pipeline doesn't just increase cover volume. It changes who arrives — higher spend, higher commitment, longer advance booking windows. The quality of the guest shifts alongside the quantity.
more per visit too.
The 80+ venue South City Centre benchmark average is €55.10 per cover. flagship engagement tracked at €62.99 — a +€7.89 premium per guest. Across 61,000+ covers, that premium represents over €488,000 in revenue above what the same cover count would generate at the market average spend. The pipeline doesn't just fill seats. It fills them with guests who spend more.
Five stages.
One commercial
result.
The guest journey above produced a single measurable outcome. Stated conservatively. Methodology fully disclosed.
Fixed monthly retainer → 43× revenue return
The five pipeline stages above — search visibility, Maps Pack presence, GBP profile, trust validation, OpenTable booking — together produced ~6,252 attributed covers at a conservative €50 floor. That is 50% of +12,503 additional covers. The other 50% belongs to the restaurant.
Break-even: fewer than one evening's worth of additional covers per month. The pipeline generated that by the first service of each month. Every cover beyond that threshold is pure return on the engagement cost.
The infrastructure behind this pipeline — DA 44, 107 citations, 7 pack positions — does not reset when the retainer ends. The pipeline stays open.
How does your
guest discovery
pipeline look?
A 15-minute audit maps the same five stages for your venue — where you appear, where you're absent, and what closing each gap would mean commercially. No cost. No commitment.
15-minute call. Pipeline audit included. No obligation.