Would You Spend $11.28…To Get $650?
Case Study
A 1-location Mexican cantina in South Texas launched with ABR. In 4 months on $1,164 of ad spend, the program built a 1,268-person opted-in database and pulled $7,789 in tracked sales. The unit economics: $11.28 to acquire each customer at the door — a number that pays for itself the first time they come back. Over half of every tracked dollar came from brand-new first-time customers. Pure acquisition, paid for at first visit.
And this all happened with a $1,164 Ad Spend using our ABR Customer Acquisition Program.
Step 1 · Attract Attention
A free appetizer. Over half who claimed it had never been before.
Featured Offer
Free Appetizer
One per guest · opt-in requiredA 1-location Mexican cantina in South Texas. Tacos, tequila, and a strong local reputation — 77 of 79 reviews are 5-star, with a 4.81 rating. The product was working. What was missing was the marketing layer: a way to introduce the cantina to neighbors who hadn't been yet, and a database to own them once they did.
The ask coming into ABR was simple — find first-time customers in this market, get them through the door, and capture them in a database the restaurant owns from there forward.
So we built the offer around the easiest entry point: a free appetizer, redeemable ONLY after a guest joins their marketing program. Low-friction first visit. The cantina gets the second receipt (the entree, the margarita, the table-of-four upsell) and a name, email, and phone on every opt-in.
The result speaks to the math: $11.28 to acquire a paying customer, half of whom had never been before. Every dollar of that CAC pays itself off the first time they come back.
The ads attracted this attention
In Just 4 Months.
Step 2 · Build A Database
A Database They Own.
In Just 4 Months.
Where that database showed up in sales
82% of tracked sales came from guests who weren't coming back on their own.
First-time guests walking through the door. Just over half of tracked sales — clean acquisition is the angle here.
Lost guests the offer pulled back in. Spent more dollars per share than New — the reactivation lever working alongside the acquisition lever.
The already-loyal regulars. Smallest share but the biggest dollars — Tex-Mex regulars carry a higher per-visit ticket.
82% of tracked sales came from new guests plus reactivated lost guests. That's revenue that wasn't showing up without the program — pure incremental dollars on top of what the regulars were already doing.
Step 3 · Results, Revenue…ROI
The results — and the economics behind them.
Sales & Operations
In Just 4 Months.
The ROI
Now the economics: CAC vs LTV
Because marketing isn't for one visit. It's for years of visits.
+ food cost of the promo
(low end — Tex-Mex regulars come 20+ visits/year)
Would you spend $11.28 to earn $650?
Plus the ad attention and customer data that come with it? We thought so.
Step 4 · Your Turn
This partner chose our ABR Roadshow & Accelerate Program to get these results.
Click below to schedule a consultation and see if we can help you — and if your restaurant is a great fit for the program.
Photos on this page are for visual reference only. Images may not depict the specific restaurant, location, staff, or menu item referenced in the case study.
Case study metrics reflect actual dashboard reporting from the restaurant referenced. Individual restaurant results vary based on market, concept, offer mechanics, operational execution, timing, and other factors. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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