Food and beverage · Pakistan
Agha Sajji: making a restaurant account worth following
A restaurant in Pakistan with one Instagram account, a handful of posts and almost no engagement, and no advertising of any kind. The food was not the problem, and the owner knew it.
- Client
- Agha Sajji
- Period
- About 3 to 6 months
- My role
- Set the offers and the marketing direction with the owner, restructured the social profiles, built the campaign structure and audiences, tested creative, and installed the pixel and retargeting.
- Platforms
- InstagramMeta Ads
The starting position
One account, a few posts, and a following that never grew. Nothing was wrong with the food; the restaurant was known locally and had regulars. The gap was that nothing online gave a new customer a reason to try it, and the owner had no way to reach anybody who did not already walk past the door.
What I changed first
The profile itself. Photographs that showed the actual dishes rather than stock images, a bio that said what the place is and when it is open, and a posting rhythm the kitchen could keep to without it becoming a second job.
Only after that did any money go into promotion. Sending paid traffic to a page with three posts is a way of paying for a first impression you cannot recover.
The paid side
Campaign structure and audiences built from scratch, aimed at people within delivery distance rather than a broad city audience that would never order. Creative tested in small batches, with the best-performing dishes pushed hardest. Pixel installed so retargeting had something to work with, and the offers agreed with the owner so the promotion price still made money.
What moved, and what it means
Engagement rose about 50 to 60% across the engagement, and the restaurant's own report was more footfall and more orders. The engagement figure is the platform's, and it is the weaker of the two numbers: on a small account, a change in the posting rhythm alone moves it. The footfall report is the owner's and I have not seen the numbers behind it, so it appears here as a statement and not as a claim.
Handover
The account is the restaurant's, and it was handed back with the content calendar and the campaign structure documented so the owner could keep it running without me.
Outcomes
Results and attribution
- Engagement
- Up about 50 to 60%Source: Instagram insights over the engagement; approximate.
Attribution
Engagement is a platform measure and a soft one. Footfall and orders are the owner's figures, and I do not have them, so nothing here claims a revenue effect. The direction of the offers, the pricing of promotions and the kitchen's capacity were the owner's decisions. What I owned was the account, the creative direction and the campaign build.
Methodology & definitions
Engagement is Instagram's own count of likes, comments, shares and saves across the period, compared with the same account before the restructure. It is an approximate range: the account was small enough at the start that a handful of posts moves the percentage, which is why no single figure is given.
Hindsight
What I'd do differently
- The first photography session was wasted on dishes the kitchen could not reproduce quickly. For a restaurant, what can be served at speed on a busy night is what should be on the grid.
- I pushed paid promotion earlier than the account deserved. A profile with three posts and no comment replies does not convert the traffic being sent to it.
Written 24 October 2026 · Syed Zameer
Food and beverage · Pakistan
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