The most effective social media ads are the ones that can connect directly to their target consumer. The beauty of franchise advertising is that since there are so many different locations, each franchise has the power to cater each advertisement to their specific local audience. However, this is easier said than done. Below are the two main issues in how franchises are currently conducting their Facebook advertising.
- When the local teams run their Facebook and other social ads independently from the national office. This is problematic because local franchisees often do not have a background in social marketing nor do they have the time and resources to learn about advertising best practices. Also, since the local branches are creating the ads, they have no connection to the corporate brand image, which puts the company’s brand continuity in jeopardy. And if the national office is running ads as well, they might be competing with local efforts.
- When the head office runs the same Facebook and other social ads for all franchises. This is ineffective because these ads are very generic and not catered towards each specific location and local audience.
Unfortunately, these two strategies present a disconnect between the national office and the local branches. The solution: bridge these opposing tactics by allowing the national office to easily create localized social media campaigns scalable across all franchise locations.
How to Implement a Localized Social Strategy in 5 Simple Steps:
Step 1: Create a Facebook page for each location.
People use geography to filter the world around them. As such, we are increasingly finding that most consumers would rather “follow” their local store’s Facebook page instead of the national brand page because they are more interested in what’s happening around them than at a national or global level. Franchises can take advantage of this by using Facebook’s Location framework and, as of recently, Twitter, which just created location services within direct messages, allows businesses to respond to their customers in an instant.
Step 2: Create a plan
It is crucial for every advertising campaign to have a focused objective. This will ensure that all advertisements have a purpose and are helping achieve the business’ goals. Are you looking to drive foot traffic? Brand awareness? Sales? Consider your objective and select your social network and ad units based on that.
Step 3: Involve your local teams
It is important to find a balance between local ownership and the national office. This can be done by training the local teams on social media. The national team should also provide templates and the ad creative that they would like posted so the local branches can stay on brand.
The main benefit of local advertising is the ability to connect to their specific local audience, and they can achieve this by making the national ad templates relevant to each local branch. Are there specific images, offers, or ad copy options (including neighbourhood names and local slang) that will allow local audiences to connect better with ads? Head office should offer a variety of ad options, allowing local franchisees to choose the ad or offer that makes the most sense for them, and then customize it to their local audience.
Step 4: Use technology
Having more than 20 locations can be very difficult to manage. Investing in a technology service like the Brand Amplifier to better manage all of the franchise advertising will make the process a lot easier. It will also allow your company to track all leads and optimization.
Step 5: Save money
By combining local and national, franchisees are able to save money on ads since they use the same social media campaigns, which are just customized slightly for each location. This saves money since the franchises can all put marketing budgets into the same social media campaign versus having to pay to create multiple new campaigns.
Although social media advertising in a franchise system can be more complex than in a traditional business model, by following our advice the success of your franchise will grow tremendously.
Looking for an ad platform designed specifically for franchises? The Brand Amplifier allows you to create, share, customize and measure Facebook and Google advertising at both the head office and local levels. It enables local billing and ad flighting, all within one national platform. To request a free demo, click here.
