The Leader In Franchise Leads & Franchise Sales

Across the franchise development campaigns we have managed, the all-time average cost per lead is about $32. Franchise portals usually charge about $30–$60 per lead, and those leads are often shared. If you are paying more than about $100 per lead, something is wrong with the targeting, the offer or the funnel.

With well-run PPC, a franchise sale typically costs $5,000–$15,000 in ad spend, and most of our clients land between $7,000 and $12,000. Franchise broker networks typically cost $25,000–$40,000 per sale in commission. That makes PPC cost per sale usually one-half to one-third of the broker cost.

Work backward from your sales goal. Multiply the number of franchises you want to sign by a realistic PPC cost per sale ($5,000–$15,000, most often $7,000–$12,000), then add agency management fees. A brand targeting 10 deals a year should plan on roughly $70,000–$120,000 in annual ad spend.

For paid search and social, plan on roughly 200 to 375 franchise development leads per signed franchise agreement. That range falls straight out of our own data: an all-time average cost per lead of about $32 and a cost per sale that lands between $7,000 and $12,000 for most of our clients. Your number will be lower if your follow-up is fast and your qualification is tight, and much higher if leads sit in a CRM for a day.

The best franchise development lead sources are the ones you own and can track to a signed deal: Google Ads for people already searching, Meta for volume at a low cost per lead, and referrals, existing franchisees and your own website. Portals and brokers are useful supplements, but judge every source by cost per signed franchise agreement, not cost per lead. In our data, PPC usually sells a unit for one half to one third of what a broker costs.

Brokers can be worth the commission, but they are rarely the cheapest way to sell a franchise. In our data, broker networks typically cost $25,000–$40,000 per sale, while PPC typically costs $5,000–$15,000 per sale, usually a half to a third of the broker cost. Brokers make the most sense when you need pre-qualified candidates and have no development team yet; PPC makes more sense once you can work leads yourself.

Call a new franchise lead within five minutes during business hours, and never later than one hour. Research published in Harvard Business Review found firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even an hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited a day or more. After the first call, keep a structured follow-up cadence for at least two weeks.

Franchise development ads are offers to sell a franchise, so they fall under the FTC Franchise Rule (16 CFR Part 436), the franchise laws of the registration states, and in California, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota and Washington, rules that require filing ads with the regulator before use. If you call or text leads with automated tools, the TCPA's consent rules apply too.