How to set up PPC campaigns for franchise businesses

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Setting up PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns for franchise businesses requires a strategic approach that balances the goals of the overall brand while catering to the specific needs of individual franchise locations. A well-executed PPC campaign can help franchises drive local traffic, increase brand awareness, and generate leads for each location. Below is a step-by-step guide to setting up successful PPC campaigns for franchise businesses.

1. Understand Franchise Structure and Goals

Before diving into the technical setup of PPC campaigns, it’s essential to understand the structure of the franchise business and its overall marketing goals. Typically, franchise businesses operate with two levels of marketing:

  1. Corporate Level: Oversees brand awareness, national campaigns, and consistency across all franchises.
  2. Local Franchise Level: Focuses on individual franchise locations, driving local traffic and conversions (leads, store visits, etc.).

Understanding this structure will help you design campaigns that align with both the corporate brand and the needs of local franchises.

Key Questions to Consider:

  1. Is the campaign intended to promote the entire franchise brand or specific locations?
  2. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for both the national and local levels?
  3. Will the campaigns be managed centrally (by the franchisor) or locally (by franchisees)?

2. Identify Your Target Audience

For franchise businesses, it’s crucial to define the target audience at both the local and national levels. Your PPC campaigns should reflect the needs of the local consumer base while maintaining the brand’s overall messaging.

  1. Local Targeting: Focus on local demographics such as age, income level, and behaviors, depending on the specific franchise location.
  2. Behavioral Targeting: Consider targeting based on users’ online behavior, like those who have shown interest in similar businesses or services.

If your franchise serves a wide range of customer types (e.g., families, businesses, etc.), consider creating segmented campaigns for each audience type.

3. Choose the Right Platforms

For franchise businesses, choosing the right advertising platforms is essential. The most common platforms for PPC campaigns include:

  1. Google Ads: The go-to for search and display ads. Google Ads allows you to target potential customers who are actively searching for your services or products, both at the local and national levels.
  2. Bing Ads: An alternative to Google Ads, Bing Ads can also be effective, especially for certain demographics that prefer Bing as their search engine.
  3. Facebook and Instagram Ads: These platforms are excellent for brand awareness and can be used to promote local events or offerings specific to each franchise location.
  4. YouTube Ads: For video advertising, YouTube can help build brand awareness and engagement, especially for franchise-wide promotions.
  5. LinkedIn Ads: If the franchise is B2B, LinkedIn can be effective for targeting professionals or business owners within a certain geographic area.

4. Structure Your PPC Campaigns

The way you structure your PPC campaigns for a franchise business will impact both performance and reporting. Here are the most common ways to organize your campaigns:

A. Corporate-Level Campaigns

Corporate-level campaigns are typically managed by the franchisor and focus on broader objectives like brand awareness or product promotions across all locations. These campaigns can be structured as follows:

  1. National Campaigns: Target all potential customers across a large geographic area (e.g., the entire country or multiple regions).
  2. Brand Awareness Campaigns: Promote the franchise’s overall brand identity, using consistent messaging across all ads.
  3. Promotional Campaigns: Run specific promotions (e.g., seasonal offers or product launches) that are applicable across all franchise locations.

Corporate campaigns should be structured to benefit every franchise location and help raise the overall brand profile.

B. Local Franchise-Level Campaigns

Local campaigns are focused on driving traffic and conversions for specific franchise locations. These campaigns can be managed by individual franchisees or centrally by the corporate team. Structuring local campaigns involves:

  1. Location-Based Targeting: Each campaign is targeted to specific geographic areas around each franchise location (e.g., by city or within a certain radius of the store).
  2. Local Keyword Targeting: Incorporate location-based keywords, such as “best pizza in Austin” or “plumbing services in Boston.”
  3. Ad Customization: Create ads that speak directly to the local audience and emphasize unique aspects of the franchise location (e.g., store-specific promotions or local customer testimonials).

You can use location extensions in Google Ads or Facebook’s local targeting features to ensure ads are only shown to users near the franchise.

5. Use Geo-Targeting for Localized Reach

Geo-targeting is one of the most powerful tools for franchise PPC campaigns. With geo-targeting, you can limit your ads to users within a certain geographic area, ensuring that only local audiences see your ads. Here’s how to use it effectively:

  1. Radius Targeting: Set a specific radius around each franchise location (e.g., 10 miles) to show ads only to nearby users.
  2. City or ZIP Code Targeting: For more precise targeting, use specific city names or ZIP codes to focus on the areas where your franchise is located.
  3. Exclusion Zones: Prevent ads from showing in areas where you don’t want to target customers (e.g., areas served by other franchise locations).

For businesses with multiple franchise locations, using geo-targeting allows each location to run campaigns that are relevant to their specific audience.

6. Implement Location Extensions

Location extensions allow you to display the address, phone number, and map location of each franchise directly in your PPC ads. This is particularly useful for driving foot traffic to individual franchise locations.

  1. Google Ads Location Extensions: Use Google My Business to link each franchise location to your Google Ads account. This will allow you to display location-specific information for users nearby.
  2. Facebook Ads Location Extensions: On Facebook, you can also use location extensions to show users nearby the exact address and map location of a franchise.

Location extensions not only increase visibility but also make it easier for users to find and visit a local franchise.

7. Optimize Landing Pages for Local Relevance

Each ad should link to a highly relevant landing page. In the case of franchises, it’s crucial to have localized landing pages that match the user’s geographic location and the ad they clicked on. Here’s how to optimize landing pages for franchise PPC campaigns:

  1. Local Contact Information: Ensure that each landing page displays the correct franchise location’s contact information, including address, phone number, and business hours.
  2. Localized Content: Tailor the content to reflect the local market. Highlight local testimonials, promotions, and offers specific to the area.
  3. Consistency with Ads: Ensure that the messaging in the landing page aligns with the ad copy, especially if you’re promoting a local deal or service.

Localized landing pages increase the relevance of the PPC ad to the user, which helps improve conversion rates.

8. Track Performance with UTM Parameters

Tracking the performance of each PPC campaign at both the corporate and local levels is crucial. Implementing UTM parameters allows you to track the success of individual franchise ads in Google Analytics or another analytics platform.

  1. Use UTM Parameters: Create unique UTM parameters for each campaign, source, medium, and franchise location.
  2. Track Conversions by Location: In Google Analytics, you can filter by UTM parameters to see how well each location’s campaign is performing in terms of traffic, leads, or sales.

By tracking performance using UTM parameters, you can measure the effectiveness of both national and local PPC campaigns and adjust your strategy accordingly.

9. Allocate Budget Effectively

For franchise PPC campaigns, proper budget allocation is essential to ensure each franchise location gets enough visibility without overspending. Here are a few budgeting strategies to consider:

  1. Corporate-Funded Campaigns: The franchisor may allocate a portion of the overall PPC budget to support local franchisees, particularly for brand awareness or product launches.
  2. Local Franchise Budgets: Franchisees may manage their own budgets for location-specific campaigns. This is typically best for businesses where the franchisee has control over local promotions and advertising.
  3. Shared Budget Strategy: Some franchises use a shared budget model where both corporate and local franchisees contribute to the PPC budget, ensuring everyone benefits from larger-scale campaigns while maintaining local relevance.

10. A/B Test and Optimize Ads

To ensure optimal performance, A/B test different ad variations for both national and local campaigns. Test different headlines, descriptions, CTAs (call-to-actions), and landing pages to see what resonates best with your target audience.

  1. Test Local Offers: Run A/B tests on different offers or promotions that are specific to individual franchise locations to determine which deal drives the most traffic or conversions.
  2. Analyze Results: Use analytics and reporting to assess which ad variations are performing best and make adjustments based on the data.

Continuous testing and optimization will help you refine your campaigns over time and improve overall ROI.

Conclusion

Setting up PPC campaigns for franchise businesses requires a balance between national brand consistency and local relevance. By targeting the right audience, using geo-targeting and location extensions, optimizing landing pages, and tracking performance through UTM parameters, you can create effective PPC campaigns that drive both brand awareness and local conversions.

A well-structured PPC strategy will ensure that each franchise location benefits from the advertising efforts while contributing to the success of the overall brand. By continuously testing and refining your campaigns, you can maximize ROI and help each franchise location grow its customer base.

Categories: Digital Marketing