Key takeaways
- The account, billing and conversion history should sit in your company's name, with the agency and, where required, the franchisor given access.
- Each location needs its own campaign, radius, budget and tracking number so results can be read per location.
- Reports should show booked new customers and cost per new customer for every location.
- Check your franchise agreement for approved-vendor rules, brand-term limits and required local spend before you choose a manager.
Google Ads management for a multi-location franchise means running each location as its own unit inside one account your company owns: separate campaigns, radii, budgets and tracking, with one set of shared rules across them. Done well, you can see which location's ads bring in new customers and which only bring clicks.
What management includes
- Structure by location. A campaign for each location, targeted to the ZIP codes or radius your territory allows, not one campaign stretched across the group.
- Location assets. Each Business Profile linked, so the ad shows the right address and distance.
- Call and form tracking per location. A tracking number on each location's ads and page, with calls counted as conversions (Google's call tracking setup).
- Booked outcomes imported. Booked new customers from your multi-location CRM or franchise management platform sent back as conversions, so bidding learns from customers (conversion measurement).
- A shared negative list that blocks franchise-sales, recruitment and staff-login searches for every location at once.
- Brand compliance. Ad copy inside your brand standards, and brand-term bidding only as your agreement allows.
- Budget pacing by location, against your plan and any required local marketing spend.
- A landing page per location with its address, hours and booking link.
- Launch campaigns for new locations, with their own budget and an end date.
Who owns what in a managed account
| Part | You own | We do |
|---|---|---|
| The account | Opened in your business name | Work in it as a user |
| Billing | Charged to your payment method | Recommend budgets |
| Changes | Every change visible in the account | Build, test and adjust campaigns |
| Results | History that stays with you | Report calls, booked jobs and cost per customer |
Who should own the account
Your operating company should own the account, pay the bills from its own card or invoice, and give the agency access that you can remove. That keeps the campaigns, the conversion history and years of search-term data with you when you change vendors, sell a location or add one.
| Setup | Who holds the account and history | When you change vendors |
|---|---|---|
| Your own account, agency given access | You | You remove access. Campaigns, history and conversions stay. |
| Account the agency opened in its own name | The agency | You often start over with no history or conversion data. |
| A franchisor-run or approved-vendor local program | The franchisor or its vendor | It depends on the agreement. History often stays with the program. |
Some franchise systems require an approved vendor or set rules for local search ads. Read the agreement first. Where you have a choice, ask for the account in your company's name. Where you do not, ask for admin access and a regular export of your locations' data. If the franchisor wants to see results, add it as a user rather than handing over ownership.
How we report
You get one report with one row per location. Each row shows spend, calls and forms, booked new customers, cost per booked new customer, and how many of last quarter's new customers came back. The group total sits at the bottom, never on its own, because a blended number lets a strong location carry a weak one.
Under the table, we list what we changed at each location that month and what we will test next. The report also reconciles against any local marketing spend your agreement requires, so you can show the franchisor the money was spent and what it bought. That answers the question brand-fund reports rarely do: which customers came in at your locations because of the spend.
How it works for a multi-location group
- Assess. We review who owns the account, how campaigns map to locations and whether calls and bookings are tracked per location. Then we pull the last 90 days by location.
- Prioritize. We rank locations by cost per booked new customer and by gap to plan, fix tracking first, and give every next step a date. Any location launching soon gets its own plan.
- Execute. We restructure inside your account, build the per-location campaigns and pages, and start launch campaigns a few weeks before a new location opens.
- Measure. We report monthly by location, move budget toward locations with spare capacity, and set the next year's plan in time for your annual planning cycle.
Two related guides go deeper: the keyword and negative list guide and how to work out cost per booked new customer.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We manage Google Ads for franchise groups inside accounts that belong to your company, so nothing is lost if you leave. Work is scoped as projects with outcomes and dates, such as restructuring by location or launching a new one, with no long-term contract. Every month you see booked new customers and cost per new customer for each location. Book a growth consultation and we will audit your account structure and tell you which locations your ads are carrying.
Sources
- About conversion measurement, Google Ads Help
- Set up tracking calls to a phone number on a website, Google Ads Help