Key facts
- Most franchise agreements require local marketing to follow the franchisor's brand standards manual, and a vendor working across locations needs a documented approval step with the franchisor's marketing team built into the process, not an assumption that local franchisees can approve their own ads.
- Many franchise systems fund local marketing partly through a co-op advertising fund, a shared pool franchisees pay into, which changes who signs the ad account, who approves the spend, and how invoices should be split between the fund and the individual location.
- A duplicate or unmanaged Google Business Profile is common in franchise systems because locations change owners over time, and a program covering 10 or more locations should include a one-time audit step to find and merge duplicates before ongoing management even starts.
- Local pages for a multi-location brand need distinct content for each address, not one template with the city name swapped in, since Google and most AI answer engines treat near-duplicate local pages as low value and can suppress all of them rather than picking a winner.
- A franchise marketing bid has to price two different things: a shared brand-level program (national or regional ads, a corporate content calendar) and a local layer that repeats per location, and a proposal that quotes only one blended number is hiding which part scales and which does not.
Scope boundaries
Separate brand-level work from local-level work in the RFP itself. Brand-level: a shared content calendar, national or regional ad campaigns, and brand standard enforcement across every local asset. Local-level: a page per location, a Google Business Profile per location, and local ad campaigns geo-targeted to each location's actual trade area.
State how many locations are in scope today and whether the contract needs to flex as locations open or close, since a franchise system rarely stays a fixed size for a full contract term. Out of scope unless separately priced: national or regional media buying beyond digital, and any print or in-store signage. Confirm whether the vendor works with the franchisor directly, with individual franchisees, or with both, since that changes who approves what.
What the vendor must be given
The current brand standards manual and a named contact on the franchisor's marketing team who can approve local variations quickly. A list of every location with its address, the franchisee or manager contact for that location, and its Google Business Profile access status, since this list is usually messier than head office assumes.
Access to the co-op advertising fund's billing structure if one exists, so invoicing matches how the fund actually splits costs. A single point of contact empowered to approve brand-level decisions, separate from the individual local contacts who can approve their own location's day-to-day details.
Ownership and exit clauses
State who owns each location's Google Business Profile and local page: typically the franchisor for the page template and brand assets, with the individual location's Google Business Profile transferable to a new franchisee if that location changes hands. Write this transfer process into the contract now, since franchise systems have ownership changes regularly, unlike a single-location business.
On exit from the vendor relationship, require a location-by-location handover, not one blanket transfer, since 50 separate Google Business Profiles and ad accounts need 50 separate confirmations that access moved to the right party. Require the brand-level content calendar and any local page templates delivered in an editable, non-proprietary format.
Milestones and acceptance tests
A full location audit within the first 30 days, flagging duplicate listings, missing local pages, and inactive ad accounts. Brand standard sign-off on templates before any local page goes live. A rollout schedule across all locations, since launching 50 local pages at once is a different acceptance test than launching them in batches of 10.
Acceptance test: after the first batch of locations goes live, check that each local page carries genuinely distinct content, that Google Business Profile categories and service areas are correct for that specific address, and that local ad campaigns are geo-targeted to that location's trade area rather than sharing a single regional budget with no location-level reporting.
Scoring rubric
Weight bidders on their ability to operate at scale, not just their pitch for one sample location.
Experience running marketing across multiple locations or franchise systems specifically, 25 percent.
Process for keeping local pages distinct rather than templated duplicates, 20 percent.
Reporting structure, brand-level and per-location, 20 percent.
Price structure across brand and local layers, 20 percent.
Onboarding and audit approach for an existing, messy multi-location footprint, 15 percent.
Ask every bidder for a sample local page they built for a past multi-location client, not a mockup.
Questions every bidder must answer
Require written answers.
Have you managed marketing for a franchise or multi-location system before, and how many locations, at peak?
How do you keep local pages from reading as duplicates of each other?
What is your process for approving local variations against a brand standards manual?
How does your reporting separate brand-level performance from individual location performance?
What happens when a location changes ownership mid-contract, to its page, its ad account, and its Google Business Profile?
How does your pricing change as we add or close locations during the contract term?
Related questions
Yes, and it is common, but the RFP should state clearly who approves what: the franchisor typically owns brand standards and templates, while individual franchisees usually approve their own local details, such as a service area or a location-specific offer. A vendor without a documented approval flow for both levels will create friction fast.
It varies by system, but many franchises use a co-op advertising fund that franchisees pay into, which then covers some or all of the shared marketing cost. The RFP should ask how a bidder's invoicing lines up with that fund structure, since a mismatch causes billing disputes later.
Usually because a location changed owners, an old profile was never merged with a new one, or a directory sync created a second listing years ago. A franchise marketing program covering many locations should start with an audit to find and resolve these before ongoing management begins.
No. Search engines and AI answer engines both treat near-duplicate local pages as low value, and can suppress several of them rather than reward one. Each location's page needs distinct details, real service area information, and content specific to that address, not a swapped city name on an identical template.
This should be planned in the contract, not improvised. A clean handover moves the local Google Business Profile and local page access to the new owner without losing the location's review history or ad account performance data, which is why this pack asks bidders to describe that process in writing.
SearchPod is a vendor for this kind of work and would answer this RFP; the acceptance tests here are the ones we agree to.
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