Key facts
- A shared Google Ads budget across multiple locations can drift toward whichever location's campaigns Google's automated bidding finds cheapest to serve, so an RFP for multi-location accounts should require either separate budgets per location or a written rule for how shared budget is allocated.
- Each location needs its own conversion tracking tied to its own Google Business Profile and phone number, or lead reports will blur together and you will not know whether an underperforming location has a marketing problem or a sales problem.
- Google Ads location extensions and Local Services Ads both pull directly from your Google Business Profile data for each address, so an agency managing ads across locations also needs a plan for keeping every profile's hours, categories, and service areas current.
- Franchise and multi-branch accounts often have a corporate brand campaign running alongside local campaigns, and the RFP should state whether the bidder is managing both layers or only the local layer, since the two can compete for the same searches if not coordinated.
- A location that has been open longer usually has more conversion history for Google's automated bidding to learn from, so a new location added to an existing account typically needs its own learning period even inside a shared account structure.
Scope boundaries
List every location by name and address, and state whether each one gets its own campaign structure or shares campaigns with location targeting layered on top. Both approaches work, but they are priced and managed differently, and a bidder should quote against the structure you actually want, not assume one.
State whether this RFP covers Local Services Ads (Google's pay-per-lead product with a background-check badge, common for home services) in addition to standard Search campaigns, since not every agency runs both, and the two have very different setup and qualification requirements.
State your total monthly ad spend and whether it is allocated evenly across locations or weighted toward higher-revenue ones. If you expect the agency to recommend the split, say so and ask them to justify it against location-level data rather than an even divide that ignores which locations actually convert.
What the vendor must be given
Give the vendor manager access to the Google Ads account (owned by you, not created under their login) and to every location's Google Business Profile, either directly or through a bulk-location management group if you use one for a large franchise network.
Supply a list of each location's tracked phone number, physical address, and service radius, along with any location-specific offers or pricing that differ from the corporate brand. Ads that ignore local pricing or promotion differences perform worse and can create customer confusion at the storefront.
Give the vendor access to location-level conversion data, whether that is call tracking numbers assigned per location, a CRM with a location field, or a franchise management platform, so results can be broken down location by location rather than reported as one blended number.
Ownership and exit clauses
Confirm the Google Ads account structure (whether it is one account with multiple campaigns, or a manager account with sub-accounts per location or franchisee) remains under your ownership, with the agency added as a manager-linked user at whichever level matches your structure.
State that all location-level campaign structures, audience lists, and any location-specific ad copy or offers built during the engagement transfer with the account on termination, since rebuilding dozens of location campaigns from scratch is a real cost, not a formality, for a multi-location business.
If individual franchisees fund their own local ad spend inside a shared account, add a clause stating how budget and reporting separation works if one franchisee leaves the group or the group changes agencies, so no single location's data or spend history gets tangled with another's.
Milestones and acceptance tests
Set an onboarding milestone: a written review of every location's Google Business Profile accuracy (hours, address, service categories) and current campaign structure, flagging any location with tracking gaps before spend increases. A location with broken tracking should not receive more budget until that is fixed.
Set a per-location 90-day milestone, since averaging results across locations can hide a struggling one. The acceptance test is a location-by-location report showing cost per lead and conversion volume for each address, compared against that location's own baseline, not against the highest-performing location in the group.
Set a recurring milestone, quarterly for smaller groups or monthly for larger ones, reviewing whether budget allocation across locations should shift based on actual per-location performance rather than staying fixed at the original even or estimated split.
Scoring rubric
Weight multi-location experience specifically, separate from general Google Ads experience: 30 percent the bidder's written plan for structuring and tracking multiple locations, 25 percent fee structure at your total spend across all locations, 20 percent relevant multi-location or franchise experience, 15 percent per-location reporting clarity, and 10 percent references from a comparable multi-location client.
Score the structuring plan on whether it names a specific approach (separate campaigns per location, or shared campaigns with location targeting) and explains why, rather than a generic answer that does not address the complexity of multiple addresses.
Ask references specifically whether reporting was ever delivered broken down by location or only as a blended total, since a blended-only reporting history is a sign the agency has not actually managed the location-level complexity you are asking about.
Questions every bidder must answer
Put these to every bidder in writing: How do you structure campaigns across multiple locations, separate campaigns or shared campaigns with location targeting, and why? How is budget allocated across locations, and how often is that allocation reviewed? Can I see a report broken down by individual location, not just a blended total?
Also ask: How do you handle a new location added to an existing account partway through the year? Do you manage Google Business Profile updates across locations, or is that a separate service? Have you managed a franchise or multi-branch account before, and can I speak to that client about how location-level results were reported?
A bidder who can describe location-level reporting in specific terms, by address, by conversion tracking number, is set up to manage a multi-location account well. A bidder who only discusses total spend and total leads is likely to manage it as one blended campaign regardless of what they promise.
Related questions
For most multi-location businesses, yes, or at minimum a written allocation rule. A fully shared budget with no location-level rule tends to drift toward whichever location's campaigns are cheapest to serve, which is not always the location that most needs the spend.
You need location-level tracking, a call tracking number and conversion data per address, to separate the two. Without it, a location with strong ad performance but weak in-store sales can look identical to a location with weak ad performance, and you would fix the wrong problem.
Yes, and many home service and local business categories run both, since they show up in different places on the results page. The RFP should confirm whether the bidder manages both or only one.
A new location typically starts its own learning period even inside an existing account, so budget expectations for a new branch should be set separately from your established locations' benchmarks, not blended into the group average immediately.
Yes. SearchPod's Google Ads management is 10 percent of ad budget with a $600 monthly minimum per account, and we report per location when a client runs more than one address, matching the milestones in this pack.
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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