How do you run paid ads for each franchise location separately?

One campaign for several stores sends the money where clicks come easiest. That is often the busiest store, which needs help the least. A newer store in a quieter area can go days without its ad showing. And nobody can tell which store an ad helped.

Separate campaigns fix both problems. Google’s store report help page shows calls, direction requests and visits for each location. It suggests you “move your budget around” to lift strong stores or support weak ones. That move needs each store to have a budget of its own.

Start with who pays. The owner of an ad account controls its billing, its users and its history. If you pay for the ads, keep the account in your own business. Head office, an agency or a marketing lead can still be given access.

On Meta, ad accounts live inside a business portfolio. Meta’s help page on adding ad accounts says an ad account created in a portfolio stays there for good. It cannot be deleted or moved to another portfolio. A new portfolio can also create only one ad account at first. That limit rises to 3 once a campaign delivers and a payment is made.

On Google, a manager account links many Google Ads accounts under one sign-in. Google’s manager account page says it can compare performance and run reports across all of them. An admin of a linked account can unlink it at any time. Ask your franchisor whether the brand runs a manager account your stores should link to.

Build the structure once, then copy it. Each store gets the same campaign layout with its own address, area and budget. Put the store’s street or city first in every campaign name. Reports then sort themselves by store.

On Google, add each store as a location asset. Google’s help page on location assets says to use them rather than call assets if you want calls for a local business. If the ad offers a call option, it uses the phone number of the store it features. Each store’s campaign is built like a single-store one. That build is covered step by step in setting up Google Ads for a restaurant location.

A trade area is the stretch of map your regular guests come from. Drive time shapes it more than distance does. A store by a highway exit may draw from farther away than one on a busy city block. Ask each manager where regulars live, and check the addresses on delivery orders.

Each platform draws the area its own way. Google’s location targeting page says a radius must be at least 1 km around a location. Its broad option, called “Presence or Interest”, also reaches people who only showed interest in the area. When two stores’ circles overlap, their campaigns chase the same people.

On Meta, drop a pin on the store and set a radius around it. Meta’s location targeting page says ads stay inside your locations unless “Reach more people likely to respond to your ads” is selected. Leave that box clear for a store campaign. The rest of the Meta setup is in running Facebook ads for a restaurant.

Do the sum before you launch. On Google, the daily budget is an average, not a hard stop. Google’s page on overdelivery says a campaign can spend up to twice its daily budget on a given day. Over a month, it spends no more than 30.4 times that budget.

Run the same sum for every store, then add the results. A store at $10 a day costs up to $304 a month. At LocaliQ’s average of $2.05 per click for restaurants and food, that buys about 148 clicks. A store in a dense area may need more. So may a new store in its first few months.

Who pays is usually written in your franchise agreement, so read its advertising section first. Some agreements set a floor for local spending. In one sample clause on Law Insider, the franchisee must spend at least 2% of gross sales each quarter on local advertising. If the franchisee falls short, the franchisor may spend that money for the store and bill it back.

Linking accounts does not move the bill. Google’s page on linking accounts says payment methods stay the same unless you set up consolidated billing. On Meta, put a spending limit on each ad account. Meta’s page on spending limits says ads pause once spending reaches that limit. You may be able to reset it automatically on the first of each month. If a co-op fund pays part of the bill, see how a franchise advertising co-op works.

Decide who may edit before anyone logs in. Google’s page on access levels lists five levels, from email-only to admin. Only standard and admin users can edit campaigns. Then put two questions to your franchisor. Does head office need to see new ads first? May you bid on the brand’s name as a keyword?

On Meta, the account owner shares access with a partner. Meta’s page on partner access says partial access covers tasks such as creating content and managing ads. A partner with full control still cannot pass the asset on to another business. To get new ads cleared quickly, see our guide to faster franchisor approval.

Count what each store’s guests do, not only their clicks. Google’s page on local actions counts calls and direction requests made for your physical store. By default, an ad gets credit for 30 days after the click. These actions need active location assets, which is one more reason to link every store.

Nearby stores blur the numbers. Google’s store report page warns that a guest may see an ad for one store and visit another when the two sit close together. Read such stores as a pair, and move budget between pairs. Store visit reports need enough data. Google’s store visits page says more locations make an account likelier to qualify.

Send your numbers to head office even if nobody asks. In Franchise Update Media’s yearly franchise marketing survey, 85% of brands required or recommended local spending by franchisees. Among them, 48% relied on the honor system. A monthly table of spend, clicks and calls for each store shows head office what its local money buys.

The switch is mostly setup work, done once. The harder part is agreeing who pays and who signs off before anyone builds a campaign.

Each store’s ad can show that store. A photo or short video from the actual dining room tells a nearby guest where to go. Clear new pictures and offers with your franchisor before they run. If you still boost posts store by store, read when to boost a post and when to run an ad.

CreatoRain, the company behind this guide, books creators from its food-creator network to film at each store. Each video is $300, and that price already covers the creator.