Franchise marketing channels: which mix works for your franchise brand?

The marketing channels at a glance

Distinguish between demand-driven channels (the customer is already searching) and supply-driven channels (you go looking for the customer).

Demand-driven channels come first

Someone searching for ‘hairdresser near me’ wants an appointment today. That is the cheapest customer there is. Yet in the benchmark only 40% of 500 profiles were fully completed. So start with managing Google Business Profiles for franchises and answering reviews per location.

Then the supply-driven channels

Social media, email and radio build awareness and bring customers back. Radio and outdoor advertising are typically national; social and email work best with a local sender. Read about local social media per location and newsletters per location.

An example mix for a franchise brand with 30 locations

A possible division of the work, not of the budget. The budget depends on your fund; see the costs of franchise marketing.

How do you measure which channel works?

Measure per location and per channel: views and actions in the Business Profile, conversions from ads, opens and clicks from email. Combine it all in one monthly report. See the marketing dashboard per location.

Which channels carry the most weight in each sector

Not every sector uses the same mix. A food brand relies on opening hours, promotions and Google Maps, whereas a healthcare brand revolves around trust, reviews and clear information. B2B franchise brands get more out of Google search and LinkedIn. The table gives an initial direction; ultimately your own data determines the split. Use the table as a starting point for the discussion with your franchisee advisory council, and check after a quarter whether the split matches what the locations see in phone calls, direction requests and enquiries. Then shift budget to the channels that deliver the most per location.

With every expansion of the channel mix, keep asking the same question: can every location sustain this, and can we measure per location what it delivers? A channel that only works for the five most enthusiastic franchisees makes the franchise system uneven. It is better to choose a channel that can be run centrally for everyone, and on top of that give franchisees room for their own initiatives within the boundaries of the playbook. That way quality stays consistent everywhere and you can compare results fairly.

Review the mix every six months with the franchisee advisory council and drop channels that deliver nothing measurable per location.

How do you divide the budget across channels?

There is no fixed formula for dividing the budget across channels; it depends on the sector, the number of locations and the stage the franchise brand is in. There are, however, three principles that almost always help. First: time first, then money. Getting profiles, reviews and location pages in order mainly costs hours and little media budget, and forms the foundation that paid channels rely on.

Second: give every location a fixed base budget for local advertising, so that no location remains invisible, and on top of that deploy extra budget where the figures show it pays off. Third: keep part of the budget free for experiments, such as a new channel with a pilot group. That way the mix keeps evolving without staking the entire fund on a single gamble.

Discuss the split every year with the franchisee advisory council and back up choices with figures per location. How to divide the fund between national and local is covered in dividing the marketing budget.

A common mistake is dividing the budget by turnover: large locations get a lot, small locations get little. That seems logical, but it is often precisely a lagging location that has the most to gain from better visibility. So look not only at current turnover, but also at the potential in the catchment area, the competition nearby and the current score of the Business Profile. A short analysis per location shows where a euro delivers the most. That also makes the split easier to explain to franchisees who receive less than a colleague, because you can show which figures the decision was based on.

Repeat that analysis every year. Locations change, competitors arrive or disappear, and neighbourhoods grow or shrink. A split that was right last year may already be sending too much money to the wrong place this year.

Help with choosing your channels

Not sure which channels suit your franchise brand? A strategy session helps; read about marketing strategy for franchise brands or look at franchise marketing examples.