If you own a franchise, you might be wondering what the best way for good results is. Franchise businesses are different than regular businesses.
There are many reasons behind this. The biggest reason is the number of locations a franchise has.
A franchisee must be able to maintain and manage all these locations. You must do it most efficiently by using different techniques.
Some popular methods are franchise SEO and franchise PPC. They serve mainly the same purpose, but the results might be different.
Depending on what you need as a franchise and your budget, you might need to choose one or the other or both. Determining this might take time and effort.
We will talk about franchise SEO and franchise PPC and see which one you should go for if you want the best results.
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Also Read: Top 15 Franchise Marketing Strategies
Franchise SEO
You probably know what SEO is if you own a website and a business. SEO has many different distinct patterns within it for better results.
Because every business uses SEO to increase its search visibility, you have to be distinct and specific to your business.
Franchises must use franchise SEO if they want the best results in increasing their search engine visibility. This SEO technique requires mainly different efforts than a general SEO.
Franchise SEO is the effort you put in to improve the search engine visibility of your franchise’s websites. These websites promote your brand while focusing on localized pages for each location of your franchise.
There are many advantages to it. Along with advantages, there are also risks. You have to do it correctly for the best result. This tactic is more cost-efficient than most methods for finding customers.
Pros
- Increases your visibility
- Cost-effective
- The specific target audience for each location
Cons
- Very hard to navigate
- Requires constant work
- You might create duplicate content if you are not careful
Franchise PPC
PPC, or pay-per-click system, is a widely used advertising form to get more clicks and customers to a business. It is the ultimate way to get visitors without hassle and money.
Compared to other paid advertising methods, PPC is one of the cheapest options. You can easily get on top of search results on various platforms that billions of people use every day.
Franchise PPC requires more in-depth work than a normal PPC. You have to do keyword research for the different locations you want.
Organize those keywords in different ad groups for A/B testing and create different ads or visuals for each campaign. It is harder to manage because there are many different elements.
Franchisor PPC
This PPC model is a centralized one. The corporate team in the franchise’s headquarters takes everything into their own hands.
You can create your own campaigns as a franchisee, but the headquarters must review and approve the ad. They also fund these campaigns, making them more cost-efficient for the franchisee.
However, the franchisee has a lot of restrictions with this method. You have to follow certain rules and stick to whatever it is they want you to do.
Basically, you are not entirely free and can’t try new things to get good results. On the other hand, you have less stress managing all the PPC ad campaigns, so it’s easier to handle.
Franchisee PPC
This method is decentralized. This means that as a franchisee, you have every right to do what you want with your PPC campaigns.
There are no restrictions, and you create your own PPC campaigns for your franchise. However, you are also the one funding the campaigns.
So every campaign you come up with is something that you have to pay for yourself.
This method is way more complicated and requires way more effort and money. You can get all the freedom you want, and increasing your sales may be more than the centralized method.
However, it has risks because if your campaign fails, you will lose money from your pocket. It requires more detailed due diligence on your end, and you have to maintain all those campaigns.
Pros
- Compared to other paid advertising methods, the cheapest option
- Easily rank on top of the biggest search engines and social media platforms
- Each location gets its own ad campaign, thus, a higher visitor rate in total
Cons
- You have to spend money on it
- It could get extremely complicated because of all the different ad campaigns
- Managing and maintaining all the campaigns in different locations requires a lot of work
Which One Should You Go For?
Choosing which method to use might be hard. Eventually, these two methods partially give you the same result with different efforts and money spent.
They are two different methods to gaining customers, one might work for one franchise, and it might not work for another.
Finding the right system requires you to first understand your needs. Once you know what you need, it is easier to determine whether or not to use both.
Franchise SEO is the perfect solution for businesses with active blogs and content on their social media. It is easier to do franchise SEO when you have a blog you are constantly writing.
You can also do franchise SEO on social media. This means it is also a good way to implement if you have active social media accounts.
Franchise PPC is rather for businesses that do not actively use social media or write blogs. When you don’t have much to make your SEO more efficient, you have to spend some money on advertisements.
Of course, businesses with no blogs or active social media accounts can still do franchise SEO, but it won’t be as efficient.
When Should You Use Both
As a franchise, you might have an active blog, and you might also want to try PPC. This is generally the best idea.
Ideally, you should have a blog that you are putting some effort into and spend some money on the side for your PPC efforts.
This way, your efforts will have enough diversification, and you will get results on both ends.
However, not every franchise businesses have the means or the capacity to do both. You have to measure this well.
Doing franchise SEO with an active blog takes a lot of time because you have to write blogs for each location you have. Franchise PPC also requires the management of campaigns in every location.
These things take a lot of time and effort. If you think you can afford to do both at the same time, you should do both. If not, you have to choose one according to your budget and capacity.
However, you must be very careful handling them because both require a lot of effort. You might have to hire more employees to deal with them, which might end up in your losing money.
If you can’t plan well, try with one of them first and then move towards both of them later.
The Verdict
In conclusion, franchise SEO and franchise PPC are two popular methods for getting more visitors to your business. One of them doesn’t require money but requires a lot of effort.
The other, which is the franchise PPC, requires a bit less constant effort but also some money you need to invest.
PPC focuses on putting you on top of the search results per the money you spend on the campaigns. It is easier to get more visitors with franchise PPC.
Even though it’s free, Franchise SEO is harder to get results. But when you do, it gives you constant results without spending money all the time.
The ideal version is using both of them at moderate levels. This way, you will have short-term results with PPC and long-term and constant visitors with franchise SEO.
Sources
Amit Gupta is the founder of DrFranchises – a digital marketing agency that helps brands rank better on Google Maps through local SEO strategies. Amit has over 11 years of experience in digital marketing, SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing. He’s also the owner of multiple franchises and has helped countless brands achieve success online. When he’s not working, Amit can be found playing with his dog.