A franchise brand runs two kinds of advertising that should never share a budget. One brings customers to each unit, in its own market, with its own numbers. The other brings qualified people who want to buy a franchise. Mixing them in one account is the most common mistake I see, and the most expensive.
The waste usually comes from the structure, not from the ads themselves.
A national budget flows to the biggest markets and the cheapest clicks. Units in smaller markets get nothing, and nobody can say what each unit paid per customer.
Franchise opportunities is searched 12,100 times a month and much of it is curiosity. Without qualification on the page and in the form, the development team spends its time on people who cannot fund a unit.
When every ad needs brand approval, the account stops learning. Approved copy and page templates with local variables let each unit move without a new review.
The franchisor wants a view by unit, the franchisee wants their own numbers, and the ad platform gives one blended report. The structure has to produce both.
Built for a brand that needs one structure, many markets and two very different conversions.
Each unit gets its own campaign, budget, radius and phone number inside one account, so the brand sees everything and each owner sees their own.
Separate campaigns for people who want to buy a unit, with a qualification form, investment range questions and lead scoring before the development team calls.
Ad copy, extensions and landing pages approved once, then filled with city, offer and phone per unit.
Brand funded and franchisee funded budgets tracked separately, with the same conversion definitions.
A page template per service and a development page with the disclosure the FTC rule requires. Fixed scope, built for the campaigns. See landing pages and websites.
One for the brand, by unit and by market, and one per franchisee, in plain language.
Franchise development ads follow the FTC Franchise Rule. Any number about earnings or sales belongs in Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document, and the document has to be delivered at least 14 calendar days before anyone signs or pays. Ads promise a conversation, not an income.
Average cost per click on Google in the United States for the development side. Customer side costs depend on the category, from food to home services, and are on the Paid Media Cost Index.
| Search term | Monthly searches | Average CPC |
|---|---|---|
| franchise opportunities | 12,100 | $9.74 |
| franchises for sale | 6,600 | $7.46 |
| best franchises to own | 5,400 | $7.65 |
| home services franchise | 3,600 | $12.66 |
| franchise consultant | 1,300 | $29.51 |
| food franchise | 1,300 | $8.28 |
| how to buy a franchise | 880 | $8.55 |
| low cost franchises | 720 | $6.35 |
Source: Google Ads data for the United States via DataForSEO, read on October 22, 2026. National averages for the last twelve months.
I have not published a franchise case, and I would rather say so than borrow one. This is what is real.
Different industry, included because the numbers are public and verifiable. Roughly $20K per month in Google Ads spend, in a market with $45 to $80 CPCs. Read the case.
What carries over is the method. Conversions are defined as local leads and qualified franchise enquiries, calls and forms are tracked to the keyword, and bids are set against what a customer is worth.
I go through the account, the tracking and the path a customer takes from search to contact and tell you what is broken. The findings are yours whether or not we keep working together.
Tracking, conversion actions and structure get corrected first. Optimising on top of bad data just makes you confidently wrong.
Campaigns, ad copy and landing pages built around how your customers actually search, and around what the platform rules allow.
Weekly optimisation against local leads and qualified franchise enquiries rather than form fills, with a monthly written read on what moved and what is next.
Longer reads on this topic from the blog.
Franchise brands and multi unit franchisees that need local campaigns run from one structure.
Not a fit. National brands with hundreds of units and an agency of record, and brands that will not let units have separate budgets.
Yes, inside one account. A campaign per unit gives each location its own budget, radius and phone number, and gives the brand one view across markets. Units that share a campaign end up sharing a budget that flows to the biggest market.
They can live in the same account, but never in the same campaign or with the same conversion. One counts customers, the other counts qualified enquiries from people who can fund a unit. The search terms, the pages and the budgets have nothing in common.
Nothing outside what the Franchise Disclosure Document says in Item 19. The FTC Franchise Rule treats any earnings or sales claim as a financial performance representation, so the ad invites a conversation and the document carries the numbers.
You work directly with the consultant who runs the account, without an account manager in between. With no agency structure behind me, the fee sits below what specialist agencies in this field charge for the same scope. The ad accounts stay in your name.
I have not published a franchise case, so I will not claim one. The published numbers on this site come from a home services company in Houston. The method is the same one, applied to customers per unit and qualified enquiries for development.
A short form beats a long discovery call. Give me the basics and I will come back with a straight read on whether I can help, usually within one business day.
Rather book a time directly? Schedule a call.