We started their Instagram at zero followers. Sales doubled.
eatzocalo.com (opens in new tab)
Owner Interview
Zócalo · Midtown Atlanta
- Instagram followers, from a brand-new account
- 0 → 30KInstagram followers, from a brand-new account
- Sales, year over year
- 2.2xSales, year over year
- On Google for Midtown's top Mexican searches
- #1On Google for Midtown's top Mexican searches
Google Reviews
Lucero Martinez
Local Guide · 12 reviews · 1 photo
Amazing company! Have not work with a team this efficient in a long time! Projects are always fast and on time! They are available and on top of our businesses needs!
The challenge
Zócalo didn't have a product problem. It had a distribution problem. Three decades in Midtown had earned a loyal following, and almost none of it lived online. The Google rating sat at 4.4, just under the threshold that matters. Search "Mexican restaurant Atlanta" and Zócalo wasn't on the first three pages. Meanwhile, newer restaurants with a fraction of the history were winning the attention.
The results
Where it shows up on the P&L
Sales more than doubled year over year. The restaurant reinvested during the stretch, including a renovation. Our job was to fill the room once it was ready, and keep it full after the opening buzz faded.
That's the actual test of a marketing system: not the launch, the twelfth month.
Year over year
+118%
sales growth, year over year.
Consecutive months of growth
10
+118% in sales across the stretch
Through a renovation, and after the opening buzz faded.
Best single month
+158%
2.6x sales in the peak month
Instagram followers
0 → 30K
+32% in 2026 alone · 502 posts published
On a brand-new account we started from zero.
Google rating
4.4 → 4.7
Across 4,752 reviews
Below 4.5, a restaurant gets filtered out of “best of” lists.
- #1
- On Google for Midtown's top Mexican searches
- +47%
- Organic clicks from Google search
- 797K
- Views from thirty creator collaborations
What we did
A full marketing system, built from the ground up
Every piece feeds the next one. That's the difference between posting and building.
- Brand Strategy & IdentityA full brand system, built to let the team ship campaigns without starting over each season
- Social Media ManagementA new handle, a new account, and daily community management
- Content CreationTwo to three reels a week, shot and edited in house
- Influencer StrategyA curated Atlanta network, briefed and scheduled around each campaign
- Paid AdvertisingGeo-targeted Meta campaigns for followers, traffic, orders and reservations
- Website & Digital ExperienceA rebuilt site plus QR menus that send traffic back to it
- Local SEOPage structure, local content, and Google Business optimization
- Online Reputation ManagementMonitoring, responding, and disputing reviews that break Google's rules
That list is the short version. Here's what it actually took.
Brand Foundation
Thirty years of character, finally on screen
Zócalo already had a personality: bold, warm, a little loud in the best way. Our job was to translate it, not invent it. We built the palette, typography, photography direction, and templates that let the team ship a seasonal campaign in days, not weeks.
Logo, Color & Typography
A defined system: logo variations, a palette pulled from the cantina itself, and three typefaces. Reloka, Aloevera and Space Grotesk each come with rules for when to use them.
Shot Style & Art Direction
A photography brief covering tone, plating and the room: warm and honest, so the feed looks the way the restaurant feels.
Across Every Channel
Story templates, menus, flyers and the pop-up bars all come out of the same system, down to the borders and patterns added as the brand grew.
Social Media
We got them the handle. Then we built the account from zero.
Zócalo had been posting as @zocaloatl for years. The handle people actually type, @zocalo, was taken. We went and got it.
This is social media for restaurants run as a system, not a feed.
A new account on the right handle
0
32K
+32,000 followers gained
Content Creation
One reel reached ten times the entire following
"You feed us, we pour for you. Deal?" A fifteen-second reel about restaurant staff feeding each other mid-shift. It did 298,962 plays, 13,517 likes, and almost 4,000 shares.
Zócalo had 24,000 followers at the time.
The three biggest reels
Plays, October 2026
- 1
You feed us, we pour for you
March 2026 · Staff humor
302K
- 2
From Mexico City to our griddle
July 2026 · The food
102K
- 3
Sorry, I'm new
April 2026 · Staff humor
38K
A typical reel travels further
Organic views on a typical reel
2024
The account's first year · 181 reels
2.2K
2026 so far
96 reels
3.9K
1.8×
the views on a typical reel
This year against 2024, the account's first. Organic only, no ads behind it.
Influencer Strategy
30 collaborations. 797,000 views. Three campaigns.
Every seasonal campaign now launches with a curated group of Atlanta creators, briefed on one message and timed to land in the same window.
Cinco de Mayo
4 collaborations · 121,122 views
Top collaboration
74,111 views · 1,626 shares · 665 saves
Website & Digital Experience
A site built to be found and to convert
We rebuilt eatzocalo.com around two jobs: show up in local search, and turn a visit into a reservation. The menu page ranks #1 for "zocalo menu." The reservation flow is two taps from anywhere on the site. And the in-restaurant QR menus send every scan back to it.
Visit eatzocalo.com (opens in new tab)Two taps to a reservation
Paid Advertising & Email
Reach is easy. Reaching the right zip code is the job.
Anyone can buy reach. Zócalo's audience converts because we bought it locally: every campaign is geo-targeted around Midtown and the neighborhoods that actually drive covers. The creative comes out of the same system as the organic feed. That's why the ads don't feel like ads.
Geo-Targeted Meta Ads
Meta Ads
Restaurant industry benchmark
1–1.5%
Zócalo, blended CTR
4.3%
Email Marketing
Web Pop-ups for Campaigns
SEO & Online Reputation
From invisible to page one in Atlanta
When we started, Zócalo didn't rank in the top 30 for "Mexican restaurant Atlanta." Today it's on page one. In Midtown, it holds #1 for the searches that bring people through the door, including inside Google's AI Overview.
Our restaurant SEO services are built for exactly that.
Google Search
Position
midtown atlanta mexican restaurant
30 monthly searches
AI Overview#1mexican restaurant midtown atlanta
150 monthly searches
#2mexican restaurant atlanta
2,200 monthly searches
up from unranked#10Every branded search (zocalo, zocalo atlanta, zocalo menu, zocalo restaurant)
13,700 combined monthly searches
#1
Ahrefs Rank Tracker and Google Search Console. Top 10 positions only.
Organic clicks
13,227 → 19,425
Impressions
1,182,496 → 1,840,124
Google Search Console, last six months vs the six before.
Google Business Profile
Website clicks
Direction requests
GBP visibility
Google Business Profile, May 2026 alone; visibility growth January through May.
The other half of being found is being chosen. We moved the rating from 4.4 to 4.7 across 4,752 reviews. Below 4.5, a restaurant gets filtered out of "best of" lists. At that volume, three tenths of a point takes hundreds of new five-star reviews.
Asking at the right moment, answering every review, disputing the ones that break Google's rules. That's the work that keeps paying after the campaign ends.
Google Reviews
4,752 reviews
Featured campaigns
The moments
that moved the needle.
Two pop-up bars, one in December and one for Valentine's. Each launched with Atlanta creators and was built to be photographed.
December 2025
394,326 views · 14 creators
Christmas Bar
The restaurant, turned into a full holiday bar.
Decorated top to bottom: an enclosed heated patio, a seasonal menu with red tortillas, and a 12-shot Christmas tree tower built to be photographed. Launched with 14 Atlanta creators inside the same two-week window.
January–February 2026
281,941 views · 12 creators
Valentine's Bar
Same playbook, different season.
A themed pop-up with Lychee and Zocalove margarita towers, red birria tacos, and an XOXO mocktail. Twelve collaborations running from late January through Valentine's Day.
The bottom line
Zócalo had thirty years of character and no way to show it. Now Midtown finds it first on Google and sales have more than doubled.
+118% sales growth year over year, across ten consecutive months of growth.
+158% in the best single month.
0 → 30K Instagram followers on an account we started from zero.
797,000 views from thirty collaborations across three campaigns.
#1 on Google for Midtown's top Mexican searches.
Built and run by Resto Experience