Key takeaways
- Let each location's targeting handle geography, so keywords stay about the service and every location bids only around its own address.
- Read your franchise agreement before bidding on the brand name. Some systems reserve brand terms for the franchisor.
- Start a shared negative list with franchise-sales, recruitment and staff-login terms, then add location-level negatives for territory you do not serve.
- Review search terms weekly for a new location's first month, then monthly.
The Google Ads keywords worth paying for in a multi-location franchise are service searches made near one of your locations: the service plus "near me", "open now" or a neighborhood name. The searches that waste money often carry your brand name but come from people who want to buy a franchise, apply for a job or log in to a staff portal. Pay for the first group. Block the second.
The keywords worth paying for
The keywords worth paying for describe a service in the words customers use, and they run inside each location's own campaign so that location targeting, not the keyword, decides where the ad shows. You do not need a town name in every keyword when each campaign already covers one location's radius or ZIP codes.
| Keyword group | Example in customer language | Where it belongs | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service + near me | "[service] near me" | Every location's campaign | Your core budget; highest intent |
| Service + timing | "[service] open now", "[service] open Sunday" | Location campaigns, scheduled to that location's hours | Only bid when someone can book |
| Service + neighborhood | "[service] [neighborhood]" | Only the location whose territory includes it | Never another franchisee's area |
| Brand + intent | "[brand] near me", "[brand] hours", "[brand] prices" | A brand campaign, if your agreement allows it | Who owns brand terms in your system |
| Problem or need | The problem your service solves, in the customer's words | A separate, tested ad group | Lower intent; judge on bookings |
| Competitor | "[competitor] near me" | A small test only | Rarely the best use of a location's budget |
Customer language matters more in a franchise than most owners expect. Brands name their services and packages for the menu board and the training manual. Customers search for plain words. Pull the phrases from each location's call recordings and form messages, not from the brand's service names.
Set each campaign's location option to people in or regularly in your targeted area. The broader option also shows ads to people elsewhere who have merely shown interest in it, which for a storefront brand usually means paying for clicks from people who will never visit.
Building a keyword list that pays
- Pick high-intent terms Searches that name a service you sell
- Choose match types Phrase and exact for control
- Add negative keywords Block searches you never want to pay for
- Read the search terms What people actually typed
Then refine the list
Match types
Start with phrase and exact match in each location's campaign. Try broad match only once booked new customers flow back from your CRM as conversions, so the system learns from bookings rather than clicks (Google's guide to matching options).
Two franchise-specific points:
- Broad match pulls in brand-adjacent searches. A broad keyword built on your brand name can match franchise-opportunity searches, competing franchise brands and corporate news. Watch the search terms report closely in the first weeks.
- The same keyword sits in every location's campaign. Google normally shows only one ad from your account on a given search, so overlapping location campaigns do not bid each other up, but the overlap decides which location gets the call. Draw each radius so a search near one address triggers that location.
Negative keyword list
- Create one shared list for the whole group. Google Ads lets you save negative keywords as a list and apply it to many campaigns (Google on negative keywords), so one fix covers every location.
- Block franchise-sales searches. Add "franchise for sale", "franchise cost", "franchise fee", "franchise opportunity", "own a franchise", "franchise disclosure document" and "FDD" as phrase match. Phrase match blocks "franchise cost" without blocking a customer who searches for the price of your service. Add a bare "franchise" only after the search terms show customers never use it to mean a location.
- Block recruitment and staff searches. Add "jobs", "careers", "hiring", "salary", "apply", "employment", "employee login", "staff portal" and "corporate office". A new location that is hiring will see these spike.
- Block do-it-yourself and free searches. Add "DIY", "how to", "template" and "course". Leave "free" off if your brand advertises a free first visit or trial.
- Exclude what the brand does not sell, then what each location does not offer. The first list goes on every campaign. The second goes only on the campaign of the location that lacks the service.
- Add territory names at the location level. Neighborhood and town names that belong to another franchisee, or to your other location, go on that one campaign as phrase negatives.
- Check before you save. Run every new negative against the last few months of search terms that booked customers. A negative that would have blocked a booked new customer is wrong.
Review cadence
Review search terms weekly for the first month of any new location or campaign, then monthly once the terms settle. A new location draws more job seekers, more curious neighbors and more brand-confusion searches than an established one, so its first weeks need the closest watch.
Three moments call for a full review outside the routine:
- Annual planning. Revisit the shared list, each location's territory negatives and your brand-term rules alongside the new budget.
- A new location nearby, yours or another franchisee's. Redraw radii and update territory negatives the week it opens.
- A brand-wide promotion. System-wide offers bring new phrasing into the search terms. Add what works as keywords and block what does not.
The organic side of the same research lives in the search keyword guide for franchisees. To see which keywords pay, measure them in booked new customers per location, as the cost per lead guide explains.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We build each location's keyword list from its own call recordings and search terms, set up the shared negative list and the territory negatives, and check your franchise agreement's brand-term rules before a single brand keyword goes live. The ads account stays in your company's name. Keyword work runs as a dated project, and the report shows booked new customers and cost per new customer by location. Book a growth consultation and we will show you which of your search terms are paying for people who will never become customers.
Sources
- About keyword matching options, Google Ads Help
- About negative keywords, Google Ads Help