Solved: Low CTR on Google Ads for Indian Food Truck

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your Google Ads. It’s completely normal to get bogged down in all the different metrics, especially when you're just starting out. The thing is, and this might sound a bit backwards, fixating on your Click-Through Rate (CTR) is probably one of the biggest mistakes you can make. I know that sounds mad, but stick with me.

We’re going to ignore the CTR for a bit and focus on what actually puts money in your pocket: getting hungry customers to your truck. We'll look at the kinds of searches people are *actually* making when they want your food, how to write ads that make their mouths water, and a few simple tricks inside Google Ads that most local businesses miss. Let's get this sorted.

We'll need to look at the right metrics... because CTR isn't one of them

Right, let's get this out of the way first. Your obsession with CTR is holding you back. I see this all the time. Business owners get fixated on these 'vanity metrics' because they're easy to see and understand. A higher percentage feels like winning, right? Wrong. It's a complete distraction from what actually matters.

Think of it like this: imagine you're standing outside your food truck handing out free samples. You could hand out 1,000 samples (that’s a high CTR!) but if only 5 people come back and buy a full meal, was it a success? Now, what if you only handed out 100 samples, but they were to people who were sniffing the air and looking starved, and 50 of them bought a meal? The first scenario has a massive 'click-through rate', but the second one made you actual money. That’s the difference between focusing on CTR and focusing on conversions and profit.

Your CTR of 2-3% could mean a few things. It could mean your ads are a bit generic, sure. Or it could mean you're showing up for broader searches, catching people earlier in their decision-making process. A very high CTR often means you're only targeting super-specific keywords, like your own brand name, and you're missing out on a whole universe of potential customers. A low CTR on a broad keyword that still brings in one or two profitable customers is infinitely better than a high CTR on a keyword that brings in zero.

The only numbers you should genuinly care about are:

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) or Cost Per Conversion: How much does it cost you in ad spend to get one customer to buy a meal? If your average order is £15 and it costs you £3 in ads to get that order, that's a brilliant result, regardless of what the CTR was.
• Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): This is the big one. For every £1 you put into Google Ads, how many pounds do you get back in sales? If you spend £100 and make £500 in sales that you can directly attribute to those ads, you have a 5x ROAS. That's a business-building machine. Who cares if the CTR was 1%? You're printing money!

Switching your mindset from "How do I increase my CTR?" to "How do I decrease my Cost Per Sale?" is the single most important change you can make. It forces you to think about the entire customer journey, not just the initial click. It makes you focus on better keywords, better ads, and a better experience for the customer. Everything else is just noise. To be blunt, CTR is a metric for marketing agencies to put in fancy reports to justify their fee to clients who don't know any better. You're a business owner, you should only care about the bottom line.

I'd say you need to understand search intent... it's everything

Okay, so if we agree to stop chasing CTR, what do we focus on to get more sales? It all starts with getting inside the head of your customer. You need to understand their *intent* when they type something into Google. Not all searches are created equal. Someone searching for "history of curry" is in a very different mindset to someone searching "indian food open now". One is researching, the other is starving.

Your job is to spend your ad budget only on the starving people. We do this by organising your keywords into campaigns and ad groups based on the user's intent. Most people just chuck a load of keywords into one ad group and hope for the best. This is why their results are mediocre. You need to be more strategic.

Let's break down the types of intent for a food truck:

1. Navigational Intent: They already know you and are looking for you. Keywords like "[Your Food Truck Name]", "[Your Name] indian food". These should have a very high CTR, but the volume will be low. You should definately bid on your own name.
2. High Commercial / Transactional Intent: This is the goldmine. These people are ready to buy, right now. Their wallet is out. Keywords will include terms like "near me", "open now", "food truck [your location]", "order indian food". They are specific and show urgency. This is where you should be focusing the majority of your budget.
3. Consideration Intent: They're hungry and considering their options. Keywords might be a bit broader, like "best indian food in [your city]", "top food trucks london", "what to eat for dinner tonight". These are valuable, but you need to convince them you're the best choice. Your ad copy here is vital.
4. Informational Intent: These people are just browsing. "how to make paneer butter masala", "what spices are in garam masala", "indian food recipes". You should almost never spend money on these keywords. They will get you clicks from curious people, destroy your conversion rate, and give you a misleadingly low CTR because your ad for a food truck isn't relevant to their recipe search. I suspect some of your low CTR might be coming from bidding on keywords that are too broad and fall into this category.

So, what does this mean in practice? It means you need to restructure your account. You should have separate campaigns, or at the very least separate Ad Groups, for each type of intent. For example:

• Campaign 1: Urgent & Local (Transactional Intent)
  • Ad Group: Food Truck Near Me (Keywords: indian food truck near me, food truck open now, etc)
  • Ad Group: Specific Dishes (Keywords: chicken tikka near me, vindaloo takeaway, etc)
• Campaign 2: Best in Town (Consideration Intent)
  • Ad Group: Best Indian Food (Keywords: best indian food [city], top rated indian restaurant, etc)
• Campaign 3: Brand (Navigational Intent)
  • Ad Group: Brand Name (Keywords: [Your Food Truck Name])

This structure allows you to write hyper-relevant ads for each search. The ad for someone searching "indian food truck near me" can be different from the ad for someone searching "best indian food in london". You can also allocate your budget more effectively, putting more money into the 'Urgent & Local' campaign that's likely to drive immediate sales. This level of organisation is what separates amateurs from pros, and it has a much bigger impact on your sales than your CTR ever will.

You probably should rethink your ad copy... it's your sales pitch

Once you've got your keywords sorted by intent, you can write ads that speak directly to that searcher. Most food truck ads are painfully boring. They say something like "Indian Food Truck - Authentic Dishes - Find Us Today". It's fine, but it's not exciting. It doesn't make anyone's stomach rumble. Your ad is your 3-second sales pitch on a crowded street. You have to stand out.

Let's use a simple copywriting framework: Problem-Agitate-Solve.

• Problem: The user is hungry. They want delicious food, fast.
• Agitate: Remind them of bad experiences. Bland takeaways. Waiting ages for delivery. Don't settle for another boring dinner.
• Solve: Your food truck is the answer. Hot, fresh, authentic Indian street food, ready in minutes.

Now let's translate that into actual ad copy. Instead of the boring ad, let's try something more compelling:

Headline 1: Hot & Fresh Samosas Near You
Headline 2: Rated 5 Stars on Google
Headline 3: Open Now Till 9 PM
Description: Tired of soggy, lukewarm takeaways? Grab authentic, piping-hot Indian street food made fresh to order. Try our famous Lamb Rogan Josh! Get 10% off your first order.

See the difference? It's huge. We've included:

• A Specific Dish: "Hot & Fresh Samosas" is much more enticing than "Authentic Dishes". If you know your Butter Chicken is a best-seller, shout about it in the ad!
• Social Proof: "Rated 5 Stars on Google" builds instant trust.
• Urgency & Practicality: "Open Now Till 9 PM" answers a key question and tells them they can come now.
• An Irresistible Offer: "Get 10% off your first order." This can be the thing that makes them choose you over a competitor. It lowers the barrier to trying you out.
• Agitation: "Tired of soggy, lukewarm takeaways?" connects with a common pain point.

You need to test different offers and different hooks. Maybe a "Free Mango Lassi with any main" works better than 10% off. Maybe mentioning you use "locally sourced ingredients" appeals to a different crowd. The point is to stop being generic. Your ad copy is your most powerful tool for convincing someone to click, and more importantly, to buy. A great ad targeting a 'buying-intent' keyword will always beat a boring ad, even if the boring ad has a higher CTR on a vague keyword.

You'll need to master Google Ad extensions... they're free real estate

This is probably the quickest and easiest win you can get. Ad extensions are extra snippets of information that you can add to your ads. They make your ad physically bigger on the search results page, pushing competitors down. They provide more information, which can pre-qualify customers. And best of all, they are completely free to add. Using them properly can absolutely increase your CTR, but more importantly, it will increase your conversion rate because you're giving customers the exact information they need to make a decision.

For a food truck, there are a few that are absolutely non-negotiable. If you don't have these set up, you need to stop reading this and do it right now.

• Location Extensions: This is the most critical one. It adds your address to the ad, shows your location on a map, and on mobile, it provides a one-tap link for directions. For someone searching on their phone for "food near me", this is a godsend. It screams "I'm right here, come and get it!". It connects to your Google Business Profile, so make sure that's up to date with the correct location, opening hours, and some great photos.
• Call Extensions: This adds your phone number to the ad, and a "Call" button on mobile. Some people might want to call ahead to see how busy you are or if you have a specific dish. It just removes another piece of friction. I remember one campaign we worked on for an HVAC company where adding a call extension was one of the biggest drivers of new leads. People want easy.
• Image Extensions: You sell food! You absolutely have to use image extensions. They allow you to show a picture of your delicious food right there in the search ad. Imagine someone searching for "chicken curry" and seeing an ad with a mouth-watering photo of your dish next to it. It's incredibly powerful and so many local businesses don't use them. This is a massive competitive advantage.
• Sitelink Extensions: These are extra links to specific pages on your website. Even if you have a simple website, you could have sitelinks for "Our Menu", "Today's Location", "Catering Services", and "About Us". It gives users more options and shows that you're an established, professional outfit.
• Price Extensions: You can show a list of dishes with their prices directly in the ad. This is great for transparency and can attract customers looking for a meal within a certain budget. Eg. "Samosas - £3.50", "Butter Chicken - £9.00", "Garlic Naan - £2.50".

Setting these up takes a bit of time in the Google Ads interface, but the payoff is immense. Your ad becomes a rich, informative powerhouse instead of just three lines of text. This is how you dominate the local search results page and turn those hungry searchers into paying customers.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

I know this is a lot to take in, especially when you're busy running the actual business. It's a common story. But getting this foundation right will completely change the way you see Google Ads. It stops being a confusing expense and starts being a predictable engine for growth. To put it simply, here's the plan:

Look, running a successful Google Ads account is a specialism, just like cooking fantastic Indian food is. You're an expert in your field, and you're busy with suppliers, staff, locations, and actually serving customers. Trying to become an expert in the ever-changing world of digital advertising on top of that is a massive ask.

Getting professional help means you have someone who lives and breathes this stuff, who knows the pitfalls and the quick wins, and whose entire focus is on turning your ad spend into profit. It frees you up to do what you do best: make incredible food. One of our best consumer services campaigns was for a home cleaning company which got a cost of £5 per lead. We've also worked with HVAC firms in competitive markets. The story is always the same – a focused, expert-led strategy based on business goals, not vanity metrics, is what gets results.

If you'd like to go through your account on a call and have us point out a few of these things in real-time, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. It's often the quickest way to get some clarity and see the potential you're currently missing.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh