At Franchise Performance Group (FPG), we’ve helped over 150 franchisors grow their brands through expert franchise lead generation.
FPG defines lead generation as “intersecting a qualified franchise candidate who is looking for a business opportunity like yours at their point of interest.” Therefore, one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal is Google Ads. Here are our best practices for maximizing your ROI on Google franchise lead generation.
Focus on High-Intent Keywords
When it comes to franchise lead generation, not all keywords are created equal. We prioritize:
- Hyper-focused category and industry-related franchise searches (e.g., “pizza franchise”, “QSR for sale”). Many agencies focus on broader terms and therefore waste your budget on consumer-focused traffic.
- Competitive traffic, both direct and indirect. Frankly, we steal franchise candidates from other brands and engage them with our advertising and content.
- Brand-specific searches (especially important for high-profile brands). We protect our clients traffic from other brands.
Remember to use negative keywords to eliminate consumer-related traffic and focus on those truly interested in franchise opportunities. Negative keywords are words and phrases, that if a candidate uses these in a search, your ads do not show up which is critical so you don’t waste your budget. Have you ever called leads only to find they are looking for jobs or making consumer complaints? This is because your agency doesn’t do an effective job eliminating consumer traffic through negative keywords such as “customer complaint” or “help wanted” in your franchise opportunity campaigns.
Implement Value-Based Bidding
Our strategy at FPG is to maximize conversions to a target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). Our target is to maintain a CPA under $200, but we commonly see that fluctuate between $100-$150 depending on the brands momentum, market conditions, and website experience. This approach ensures you’re not just getting leads, but leads that are likely to convert into franchisees. We are often asked “How many leads does it take to recruit a franchisee?” The answer is 1. The right lead. The right lead is a byproduct of generating high quality traffic, which is an exercise in focus.
Create Dynamic Search Ads
We recommend creating 3-5 dynamic search ads per ad group. Include 5-10 headlines and 3-5 descriptions to give Google’s AI more options to match user intent. Always preview both mobile and desktop versions before going live. Avoid cliches that might work in consumer ads but turn off investors, like “Sink your teeth into this restaurant opportunity” or “Make dough with pizza.”
Use Ad Extensions Effectively
Leverage ad extensions to drive traffic to specific sections of your franchise development site. Include links to “About Us,” “FAQ,” and “Request More Information” pages. Your call-to-action should encourage users to learn more or download information. Not only does this take up more ‘real estate’ on the search results page, but it also gives franchise candidates multiple points of entry to your website creating a better user experience.
Target the Right Demographics
Based on our experience with 150+ franchisors, we typically target:
- Ages 24-64 (consider excluding 55-64 for some concepts)
- Top 40% household income brackets. According to Forbes, about 25% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings.
- Both parents and non-parents
- Target geography where franchise validation is strong and your are most likely to close a deal
- Consider creating specific time-windows for your ads to serve to avoid blowing budget on international traffic and spam. For example, you can setup your ads to only serve between 6am-11pm.
Lead with Your Numbers
Feature content in your Item 19 or your FDD. Remember, this is an investment opportunity. At FPG, we specialize in blending beautiful ads while reinforcing that this is an investment opportunity. Below are a few examples of the creatives we’ve created for our clients.
Optimize for Mobile
With 96% of Facebook users accessing the platform via mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your ads and landing pages are mobile-optimized. However, with experience working across 150 brands, we’ve found that franchise candidates (the real in-market buyers) typically go on desktop to perform their own personal research.
Monitor and Adjust Regularly
At FPG, we examine lead counts daily and review budgets and cost per lead weekly. We make modifications based on trendline data to ensure continual improvement. An important note: if you make changes to campaigns too frequently, it’s common for campaigns to go back into ‘learning mode’ which delays the campaigns to gain efficiency. With efficiency comes more predictability.
Set Realistic Benchmarks and Measure the Right Things
Based on our experience, successful Google Ads campaigns for franchise lead generation typically see:
- Cost Per Lead (CPL) under $200, and under $100 in some advertising vehicles.
- Deal flow of .5-1% or more (leads to closed deals).
- 5% of leads to qualified applicants
- 20-25% or more of applications sign franchise agreements
- Cost per acquisition of a franchisee: $8,000-$15,000 in ad spend
By following these best practices, we’ve helped numerous franchisors achieve impressive ROI on their Google lead generation efforts. Remember, the key is to continually test, learn, and optimize your approach.
At FPG, we’re committed to making it easy for skilled entrepreneurs and worthy brands to find each other. If you’re looking to supercharge your franchise lead generation efforts, we’re here to help.
Demand transparency
Know where your advertising dollars are going. Measure only the statistics that matter most. Agencies have ways of puffing up their numbers to make their statistics look good while at the same time your pipeline remains anemic. Statistics like “Number of Impressions” may look impressive, but who cares. Impression share is more important than number of impressions. 100,000 impressions might sound impressive, but if 10% or more of that traffic didn’t click on the ad to learn more, who cares? And if 100,000 impressions led to an impression share under 10% that means your ad could have been shown 3-4X more if your campaigns were designed properly and you achieved an impression share of 30%-40%.
Franchise Lead Generation: Google Ads Best Practices – Webinar Resources