What is a franchise marketing fund?
A franchise marketing fund, often called a brand fund or advertising fund, is a pool of money collected from franchisees, usually as a percentage of revenue, and managed by the franchisor for marketing that benefits the system. How it may be spent is generally set out in the franchise agreement and disclosure documents.
Check your franchise agreement and Franchise Disclosure Document before changing how the fund is used. The framework below is about strategy and reporting, not legal requirements.
How should a franchise marketing fund be split?
Most systems split the fund into three buckets: brand building that lifts every location, shared infrastructure such as the website and tracking, and local performance advertising that generates leads in each territory. The right proportions depend on brand maturity and how much franchisees also spend locally.
| Bucket | What it covers | How to measure |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Creative, awareness campaigns, streaming TV, PR | Branded search volume, reach, direct traffic |
| Infrastructure | Website, location pages, call tracking, CRM | Uptime, lead routing speed, tracking accuracy |
| Local performance | Paid search, Meta and local campaigns per territory | Leads, cost per lead and booked jobs per location |
How do you allocate local ad spend across locations?
Allocate local spend by opportunity and contribution, not just equally. Consider each territory’s population and search demand, how much each franchisee contributes, competition and click costs, and each location’s capacity to take on more work.
An equal split can starve high-demand territories and waste money where demand is low. A forecast per territory makes the trade-offs visible before the money is spent.
How should franchisors report fund results?
Report every location side by side: spend, leads, cost per lead and, where possible, booked jobs or sales. Show results against a forecast so franchisees can see whether underperformance is a market issue, a marketing issue or a follow-up issue.
That side-by-side view is what lets corporate see which franchisees need help before the P&L shows it. It is the core of our franchise and multi-location advertising work.
Should franchisees also spend locally?
Many systems require or encourage a local marketing spend in addition to the brand fund. Coordinating the two avoids franchisees bidding against each other or against corporate campaigns for the same searches.
See how to structure Google Ads for multiple locations for the account setup that prevents that overlap.