Denny’s: Digital Stewardship, Revenue Insight & Performance Acceleration
A legacy brand transformed. Data-driven decisions. A chain optimized for growth.
With over 75 locations across Canada (corporate and franchise combined), Denny’s has been serving great food at great value for more than 60 years. It remains one of the most loved full-service family-dining restaurant chains in Canada, and in most locations, it even stays operational 24/7.
The Brief
Help Denny’s evolve from classic diner heritage into a modern, digitally-savvy restaurant operator by building its digital infrastructure, refining ad-buy performance, enhancing local SEO architecture and unlocking revenue intelligence via analytics.
The core goals
Develop a living data ecosystem that tracks SKU item performance across all Canadian locations, linking to guest behaviour and value.
Improve marketing attribution (multi-touch user journeys) so national and local advertising spend drives proven lift in guest count and revenue.
Elevate local search visibility for each of the 75+ Canadian locations, especially on mobile devices where “family restaurant near me” and “diner Canada” queries dominate.
Our Approach
We structured the project around three strategic pillars:
1. Digital Infrastructure & Data Architecture
Built a national dashboard system that aggregates POS data across all Canadian Denny’s locations, enabling SKU-level analysis of menu items, guest checks and incident rates (orders per guest) by region.
Implemented marketing funnel tracking, allowing attribution from awareness to conversion, thereby linking ad spend to revenue metrics at both corporate and franchise levels.
Leveraged a stack of platforms, including Google Analytics, Google Ads, Snowflake, Semrush, Looker Studios and Microsoft Power BI.
2. Media Enhancement & Ad Buying Optimization
Refined media planning by analyzing local versus national store performance, identifying high-lift regions and allocating ad buy accordingly.
Introduced SKU-level ad testing (for example, featuring promotional menu items), then measured the downstream effect on average invoice and guest lifetime value.
Established incident-rate metrics (orders per guest) for test locales (e.g., test kitchens) to inform broader menu and promotional decisions.
3. SEO & Local Search Architecture
Developed a robust SEO programme targeting local search queries such as “family dining restaurant near me Canada”, “Denny’s franchise locations Canada”, “late-night diner Canada”, etc.
Ensured mobile-first site performance, local schema markup for each location, and consistent local directory presence for stronger map-pack visibility and AI-search readiness.
Optimized landing pages for each Canadian location to drive both search traffic and conversion (reservations, offers, menu downloads).
Technologies & Tools Used
Google Analytics (GA4) & Google Ads for tracking and media measurement.
Snowflake as the central data warehouse for POS and marketing data.
Semrush for SEO audit and keyword tracking.
Looker Studios / Microsoft Power BI for interactive dashboards and insights.
Push (marketing automation) for local store messaging and offers.
Impact & Key Outcomes
Denny’s gained a clear line of sight into which menu items and store locations drive the highest average invoice and guest lifetime value.
Media spend became performance-driven: local stores could be benchmarked on lift in guest count and revenue rather than assumed reach.
SEO-enhanced local results helped drive incremental traffic to individual stores, especially on mobile, improving visibility in “near me” restaurant searches across Canada.
The integrated data-to-media-to-search ecosystem positioned the brand for sustained optimization rather than one-off campaigns.
FAQ
What digital and analytics services did Simple Simple provide for Denny’s?
We provided full digital stewardship, including building a national data architecture (POS-level SKU analytics), marketing funnel attribution (multi-touch ad tracking), ad-buy enhancement (local + national media optimisation) and SEO architecture (local store search visibility, mobile optimization).
How many locations does Denny’s have, and what’s the coverage?
Denny’s supports over 75 locations across the country (corporate + franchise combined) and remains one of Canada’s most loved full-service family-dining chains.
What kind of menu item analysis was built for Denny’s?
We created dashboards that evaluate each menu item (SKU), regionally and nationally, showing how item inclusion correlates with average invoice size, guest lifetime value, and incident rate (orders per guest). This gives management insight into what drives revenue and guest behaviour.
What search engine optimization (SEO) elements were prioritised for Denny’s?
- Local store landing pages optimized for “restaurant near me” queries in Canada.
- Mobile-first performance and responsive design.
- Use of schema markup for each location (LocalBusiness/Restaurant).
- Improved directory listings and local map-pack visibility.
- Keyword strategy focused on family dining, late-night, full-service restaurant in Canada.
Why is local SEO so important for a restaurant chain like Denny’s?
Because many diners use their mobile devices or voice search (“find a restaurant near me”, “family diner open late”) when deciding where to eat. For a chain with multiple locations, each store needs to appear in the local search context. The stronger a location’s local SEO presence, the higher the likelihood of capturing that guest’s intent and converting to foot traffic.
What role did media buying and ad optimization play in the engagement?
It allowed the brand to go from broad-brush awareness to performance-centred media. Local ad performance (store-level) was measured against results (guest count, revenue), so media budgets were reallocated to the highest performing areas and offers. Ad creative testing was tied to menu items and promotions, whose impact we could quantify via SKU dashboards.
What are some of the key technologies used in this project?
Google Analytics (GA4) for user-journey tracking; Google Ads for media; Snowflake data warehouse for POS and marketing data; Semrush for SEO audits; Looker Studios and Power BI for dashboards; Push/marketing-automation for local offers.
How did the project align with Denny’s long-term growth strategy?
It built the foundation for sustained growth by enabling smarter decisions: what menu items to promote, where ad spend delivers best incremental value, and how each store can rank in local search. The parent company continues to invest in digital infrastructure globally with the same priority.
