Franchise marketing agency: websites and search planned around the FTC Franchise Rule

What does a franchise marketing agency do?

A franchise marketing agency plans and runs the online work for a brand that sells through franchised locations. That work serves two audiences. One is the person deciding whether to buy in, whom the Franchise Rule calls a prospective franchisee: someone who “approaches or is approached by a franchise seller to discuss the possible establishment of a franchise relationship.” The other is the customer searching for the nearest location.

Ours covers three parts. We build the websites: a development section for the first audience and a page for each location for the second. We run search, including a Business Profile for each location, and we check each month how often AI answers mention the brand. And we build the systems behind the site, such as a locator that sends each request to the owner of that location, and reporting by location. We don’t manage paid search or social ads, so a brand’s ad fund and its agency keep those.

Which rules shape what a franchise can say online?

This section covers two sources: the FTC’s Franchise Rule, 16 CFR part 436, and, for California, Corporations Code section 31156 and 10 CCR 310.156.3, as the DFPI’s instructions cite them. Each has its own scope, given below in the source’s words. The rules are the franchisor’s to follow. Your counsel decides what applies to a given page, and we give no legal advice.

Earnings and income statements

The rule defines a financial performance representation as any representation to a prospective franchisee, “including a representation in the general media,” that states, expressly or by implication, a specific level or range of actual or potential sales, income, gross profits or net profits (16 CFR 436.1(e)). The definition runs on to include “a chart, table, or mathematical calculation that shows possible results based on a combination of variables.” We would not build a calculator of possible returns without wording from your counsel.

Under § 436.9(c), a covered franchise seller may give a prospective franchisee such a representation only if the franchisor has a reasonable basis and written substantiation when it is made and the representation is included in Item 19 of the disclosure document, with a clear and conspicuous admonition that individual results may differ. A franchisor making none says so in Item 19.

On a site we build, a figure about sales, income or profit appears only as your counsel supplies it, with its Item 19 wording. Otherwise the pages carry no earnings, return-on-investment or “profitable” wording, and we write none of our own.

The rest of the page must agree with the disclosure document

Section 436.9(a) makes it an unfair or deceptive act for a covered franchise seller to “make any claim or representation, orally, visually, or in writing, that contradicts the information required to be disclosed by this part.” Wording about fees, territory and training on a development page has to agree with the disclosure document, so we would send counsel each page before it goes live. Section 436.9(b) bars misrepresenting that any person “can provide an independent and reliable report about the franchise or the experiences of any current or former franchisees.” A page of franchisee quotes sits close to that line, so counsel reads each one first.

Who the Franchise Rule covers

Section 436.2, the obligation to furnish documents, applies “in connection with the offer or sale of a franchise to be located in the United States of America or its territories,” unless the transaction is exempted under subpart E. A franchise seller is a person that “offers for sale, sells, or arranges for the sale of a franchise,” and the term includes “the franchisor and the franchisor’s employees, representatives, agents, subfranchisors, and third-party brokers who are involved in franchise sales activities” (§ 436.1(j)). Section 436.8 lists exemptions, among them a fractional franchise and a leased department. Whether an offer, or a person, falls inside is for counsel, and that includes an agency’s work.

The same section sets a clock: the disclosure document goes to the prospective franchisee at least 14 calendar days before a binding agreement or any payment. That runs through your sales process, so an inquiry form we would build asks for contact details and nothing more: no deposit, payment or signature.

California: advertising a franchise

The DFPI’s instructions, citing section 31156, say no person shall publish an advertisement “offering a franchise in California if the franchise is subject to the registration requirements” unless a true copy was filed with the Commissioner at least three business days before first publication, or a rule of the Commissioner exempts it.

One such rule, 10 CCR 310.156.3, exempts a communication “posted on a website on the Internet” when the franchisor meets three conditions. It files a verified notice that gives the URL of each Internet advertisement and agrees to follow the California Franchise Investment Law. The advertisement is “not directed to any person in the State of California,” which the rule defines as directed to a named person or group “and not to the public generally,” listing e-mail and instant messages as directed forms. And the offering circular carries the website’s URL with a prescribed statement in type of at least 12 points. The notice is effective until the end of the franchisor’s then-current registration period, and the exemption may be renewed for additional periods of one year. The DFPI’s form says: “This notice is required annually.”

Because the notice names each address, we would keep a list of every address that offers the franchise and send it to your counsel when it changes. A nurture email to a named prospect is a different channel from a posted page, and counsel decides whether section 31156 reaches it. Whether your franchise is subject to registration, and any other state’s rules, are for counsel too.

What do franchise owners pay toward marketing, and who decides?

The Franchise Rule puts the marketing terms in the disclosure document, so the answer for your brand is in yours. Item 6 lists the other fees a franchisee pays, with advertising and advertising cooperatives among its examples. Item 11 describes the advertising program: the media the franchisor may use, whether coverage is local, regional or national, and whether the franchisor must spend any amount in the franchisee’s territory. For a cooperative or another advertising fund it states how much the franchisee must contribute, and it gives “the percentage of advertising funds, if any, that the franchisor uses principally to solicit new franchise sales.”

We print no typical marketing fee because we found no sourced figure for one. Yours is in Items 6 and 11, and your counsel can read them with you. We don’t run the brand’s media. We would build and run the site and search those campaigns land on.

Which marketing channels does a franchise use, and who runs each?

A franchise system can run several channels at once. The table sets out what each does, the rule that applies and who would handle it if you worked with us.

How do locations show up in search without competing?

Google’s guidelines ask a chain to “maintain consistent names and categories across all of your business locations,” and say: “Do not create more than one page for each location of your business, either in a single account or multiple accounts.” These are Google’s Business Profile guidelines, so the page it means is a location’s Business Profile page. Its spam policies list “multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page” as doorway abuse. So each page and profile in a franchise system should describe one real location. The monthly work is on franchise SEO.

What should a franchise website show, and who controls each page?

Two audiences, so two sections. The development section covers why the brand, the model in outline, the territories on offer, an inquiry form and the disclosure wording from counsel. The customer side covers the brand’s services, a locator and a page for each location with its hours, address or service area, and a way to ask or book from the open times that location sets. We would keep the sections apart, so a customer never meets franchise terms and counsel reviews one section. The build is on franchise web design.

Who controls a location’s page is for the franchise agreement and the brand’s standards, not the agency. The rule’s definition of a franchise includes that the franchisor “will exert or has authority to exert a significant degree of control over the franchisee’s method of operation” (§ 436.1(h)(2)), and Item 11 states “the circumstances when the franchisor will permit franchisees to use their own advertising material.” Get answers in writing before a build: who approves a change, who manages each Business Profile, and how a new location gets its page. We would then build a fixed layout for the brand, with only local facts changing: hours, staff, photos and offers the brand has approved.

What should you check before you hire a franchise marketing agency?

Google’s guidance on hiring an SEO lists questions that carry over: examples of previous work, whether the SEO follows Google Search Essentials, “what kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe,” how success is measured, and what experience it has in your industry. It says to find someone else if an SEO promises its changes will give you first place.

For a franchise, add four. Ask who sends development-page wording to counsel before it goes live, and whether the agency says plainly that it can’t decide what counts as an earnings claim. Ask how each location’s page, profile and reviews are kept consistent. Ask how leads are reported by location. And ask whose name the domain is registered in; it should be yours. Costs are on website design cost and SEO pricing.

How do you measure what franchise marketing brings in?

Count requests and booked visits for each location first, then visits. On a site we build, Google Analytics 4, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are connected from launch, and the monthly report starts with leads by location, so an owner sees their own number and the brand sees the system’s. Calls need a count of their own: ask each caller which location they reached, and keep a log by source.

How does working with us start?

With a 15-minute call. You talk with Nicolas Perez or Noah Alvarez, our co-founders, about the brand, how many locations it has and who decides what goes on the site. Bring the address of your current site and, if you sell franchises, the name of your counsel. A written proposal follows.

We were formed in 2023 and work from our office in Valencia, California, with businesses across the US. To talk it through, book a 15-minute call.