Franchise PPC Agency
Strategy led by Austin Coker, Founder of 95 ProjectsPPC for franchises usually breaks in the same place: your locations end up in the same auction raising each other's click costs, while brand searches leak to whoever bids on your name. We run Google Ads for franchise systems under one structure the franchisor controls, and every location still gets its own campaigns and its own leads. Senior strategists build and manage each account for franchisors and multi-unit groups.
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A franchise system should run Google Ads from one structure the franchisor controls, usually a manager account with location-level accounts or location campaigns. Brand campaigns sit with the franchisor. Each location gets territory targeting taken from its franchise agreement, exclusions against neighboring units, its own ads and landing page, and call tracking that routes leads to the right location. Budgets are split between the brand fund and local co-op, and reporting shows results for every location.
There are two workable structures for local campaigns, and brand campaigns always sit with the franchisor.
| Structure | When it fits | Watch-outs |
|---|---|---|
| One manager (MCC) account with location-level accounts | Franchisees pay for their own clicks, billing has to stay separate per unit, or franchisees want their own account with franchisor oversight. | Shared negatives, conversion actions and ad standards have to be pushed from the manager level, or accounts drift apart and start overlapping in the same auctions. |
| One account with location campaigns | Co-op or brand fund pays centrally, the unit count is manageable, and the franchisor wants full control of copy, bids and tracking. | Per-location budgets need hard caps and clear labels, or strong markets absorb spend and smaller units go quiet. |
| Brand campaigns held at the franchisor level | Every system, whichever structure runs local campaigns. | Franchisees need clear rules on bidding for brand terms, and brand traffic must still route to the nearest location, not a national page that loses the lead. |
Three things settle the structure: co-op billing decides whether spend can sit in one account; franchisee account ownership matters when agreements give operators control of their own ads; and unit count matters most past a few dozen locations, where a manager account keeps standards enforceable.
Territory targeting
In many franchise systems, location targeting overlaps, so two units in the same metro pay for the same searcher and the franchisor funds a bidding war inside its own network. We rebuild targeting from the territory map in your franchise agreements, then lock it in with settings each location cannot quietly override.
Book a CallEach location targets the ZIP codes or radius its agreement grants, so ad coverage matches the territory the franchisee holds rights to.
Where territories border each other, we exclude the neighbor's ZIPs from each campaign, so a searcher sees one location's ad instead of two units competing.
Brand-wide negatives, job seekers, unrelated services and terms that belong to another location sit in shared lists applied across every account and campaign.
Campaigns target people physically in or regularly in the territory, not people searching about it from elsewhere, keeping out-of-area clicks off each location's budget.
Brand standards stay locked at the franchisor level while every unit gets its own ads, pages and leads.
Each location runs ads with its own city, phone number and offers, pointing to a landing page built for that unit, so searchers land on the unit that serves them, not a national page that asks them to pick one.
Every location gets its own tracking numbers and form routing, so calls and leads go straight to the unit that owns the territory, and conversions are recorded per location so bidding learns market by market.
Where Google offers them for your category, each eligible location gets its own profile, verification and service area. They charge per lead and sit above standard results, so we run them alongside search with separate budgets.
Performance Max can work for franchise systems, but only with limits set before it spends.
For locations with physical sites, campaigns run on location groups tied to each unit's Business Profile and local action goals, so they optimize toward real locations instead of broad online traffic.
Brand exclusions keep Performance Max from claiming your branded searches, which belong in the franchisor's brand campaigns where costs are lower and tracking is cleaner.
Assets are controlled centrally so nothing runs outside brand standards, final URL expansion is off so traffic lands on approved location pages, and negatives cut irrelevant queries.
For lead generation systems such as home services or senior care, we often keep it off until tracking can separate qualified leads from junk form fills.
Clear money flows and one set of numbers for franchisor and franchisees.
Brand fund money covers brand campaigns and system-wide coverage; local co-op or franchisee money covers each territory. Separate budgets show franchisees exactly what their contribution bought.
Each location sees spend, calls, form leads and cost per lead, and the franchisor sees the same numbers rolled up, so conversations start from shared data.
New locations launch with campaigns, territory targeting, tracking and a landing page ready before opening day, so the unit does not start from zero.
When a unit closes, transfers or loses its territory, its campaigns pause, tracking numbers are reassigned and neighboring targeting adjusts so the area is not left uncovered.
Selling franchises is a different business from selling your service, and the campaigns should run that way. Franchise development campaigns get their own budget, targeting people searching for franchise opportunities in your category and the markets where you want to grow. Ads and landing pages are reviewed by your franchise counsel before launch, and since some registration states require franchise sales ads to be filed first, timing is planned around that. We make no earnings claims or financial performance representations, and development leads are tracked apart from customer leads.
Every account is run by a senior strategist, and franchisors talk directly with that person, not a rotating account manager.
A high-value local market where every qualified lead matters, the same pressure a franchise location feels in its territory.
Revenue traced to a specific channel, the kind of attribution franchisors need when deciding where the next dollar of ad fund goes.
Growth inside strict compliance limits, the same discipline franchise development campaigns require.
Paid search covers what organic cannot reach quickly: new units with no ranking history and competitive markets where you need leads this month. SEO and AI search build the demand your system does not pay per click for. The two run on the same data: search terms that convert in paid campaigns show which topics and locations to prioritize organically, and organic gains let us pull paid spend back in markets you already win, lowering acquisition cost across the system. See SEO for franchises and GEO for franchises.
Pair franchise PPC with organic and AI search visibility for every location.
Location pages and local rankings for every unit in your system.
Explore Franchise SEO ›Get your franchise recommended in AI search answers by location.
Explore Franchise GEO ›Google Ads for multi-office professional service firms.
Explore Accounting PPC ›
Senior-led and in-house. You work with the strategists doing the work, not juniors learning on your account.
Meet the team ›Talk with a senior strategist about how your locations are set up today, where they overlap, and what a cleaner structure would look like for your brand fund, your co-op budget and every unit in your system.
Only when billing or franchise agreements require it. Separate accounts under a manager account make sense when franchisees pay their own clicks or own their ads. If spend is funded centrally, one account with location campaigns is easier to control. Either way, the franchisor should hold the manager account and set shared negatives and tracking.
Target each location only to the ZIPs or radius in its franchise agreement, exclude neighboring territories, and apply shared negative lists across the system. Set location targeting to people in or regularly in the area. When franchisees run their own accounts, the franchisor needs written rules and manager-level visibility to catch overlap.
The franchisor. Brand campaigns belong in one place, funded from the brand or ad fund, so franchisees do not drive up costs bidding on the same name. Brand clicks should still reach the nearest location's page or phone number, so the lead lands with the right unit.
Usually from two sources. The brand or ad fund pays for brand campaigns and system-wide coverage, and local co-op or franchisee funds pay for each location's territory campaigns. Keeping those budgets separate lets franchisees see what their money produced and lets the franchisor defend brand fund spend.
Yes, in categories where Google offers them. Each eligible location gets its own profile, verification and service area, and leads go straight to that unit. Local Services Ads charge per lead and appear above standard ads, so they work well next to search campaigns when budgets are kept separate.
Sometimes. It can work for locations with physical sites when it runs on location groups, local goals, brand exclusions and locked assets. For lead generation systems with weak lead quality tracking, we usually keep it off and rely on search campaigns and Local Services Ads until tracking can separate qualified leads.
Each location gets its own tracking numbers, form routing and conversion actions, so spend, calls, leads and cost per lead are measured per unit. Franchisees see their location's report, and the franchisor sees the same data rolled up across the system, which keeps both sides working from one set of numbers.
Yes, as a separate program. Franchise development campaigns need their own budget, keywords, landing pages and conversion tracking, apart from customer campaigns. Ads and pages should be reviewed by franchise counsel, avoid earnings claims or financial performance representations, and be filed in registration states that require it.
