The best franchise marketing agency for your brand is the one that tells you up front what a location costs and shows you afterwards what it delivers. That is why we work with public prices per location and a dashboard per location. Of the 100 chains in our own research, only 6 replied to reviews within 24 hours: for most franchise brands there is still a lot to gain there.
How do franchise marketing agencies differ in their business model?
Many agencies and franchise platforms still charge in the traditional way. You pay for a listing in a directory, or you buy hours without agreeing in advance what those hours should achieve. That is not necessarily bad work, but it makes comparison difficult. You see the invoice, not the effect per location.
We deliberately chose a different model. Every location has a fixed monthly price, the packages are online with public prices per location, and everything we do shows up in a dashboard. So head office knows what the budget achieves in Emmen and what it achieves in Breda.
| Element | Traditional model | Franchise Marketing Bureau |
|---|---|---|
| Price | On request or per hour | Public, fixed per location per month |
| Reporting | Periodic report, often quarterly | Dashboard per location plus monthly report |
| Channels | Often one or two | Search, maps, AI assistants and social |
| Starting point | A large contract straight away | First a scan, then a pilot with a group of locations |
| Use of AI | Varies or unclear | Fixed tasks, always with human review |
What makes us different from other franchise agencies?
We keep it to four things you can check for yourself. No promises about rankings or revenue, but agreements you can verify.
Faster
AI collects the data from all profiles in Google, Apple and Bing in a single round and flags discrepancies. As a result, time goes into improvement rather than manual inventory. Read more about how we put AI to work and where we deliberately do not.
More transparent
You can see per location what has been done and what the effect is. The dashboard shows measurable figures for every location, from profile views to call clicks and direction requests.
Sharper pricing
A fixed price per location means a small franchise brand does not help pay for the overhead of a large account. We charge strategy and training by the hour, but always with a fixed quote in advance.
Easier to find
We work across all channels at once: Google, Google Maps, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, GEO (AI visibility) and social. See our full range of online services for the details per channel.
What do you gain from a founder who built a franchise brand himself?
There are plenty of online marketing agencies and a handful of franchise agencies. As far as we know, there is no other online franchise marketing agency with more than 20 years of experience whose founder set up and marketed a franchise brand himself. Gijs did so in 2010, alongside his work in online marketing since 1998.
You notice that in the questions we ask. We look not only at clicks, but at what a location yields and what a new franchisee is worth to the brand. That is why we do not agree annual contracts. We work on the basis of measurable online results and ROI, visible month by month in reporting for each location.
What knowledge do most agencies lack when working with franchise chains?
A general marketing agency is strong in brand, campaigns and creative work. With a chain, an extra layer comes on top that does not combine well with hourly billing: dozens or hundreds of location profiles in Google, Apple Maps and Bing, reviews per location, location pages with schema and the question of whether AI assistants mention your brand. Without local SEO, GEO and automation, that work is left undone.
Our research shows this: among the chains that did respond to reviews, a reply took 6.8 days on average, 90% had no demonstrable review process and not a single chain combined speed with a personal reply. That is exactly where we complement existing teams and agencies; see working alongside your current agency.
Want to check this yourself? Then use ten questions to test your agency or portal, with what a good answer looks like for each question.
Work together on measurable results, not on an annual contract. Start with the free visibility scan.
How do we deal with the objections to the traditional franchise model?
Anyone who talks to franchisors and candidates keeps hearing the same objections to directories, portals and recruitment packages. We have designed our model around them. For the full trade-off, see the drawbacks of the traditional portal model.
| Common objection | Our answer |
|---|---|
| Paying for listings and packages, even without results | No advertising packages and no annual contract; you judge us every month on results and ROI |
| Many applications from people without their own capital | Candidates are checked in advance; you pay per verified introduction |
| Having to keep paying to stay visible | We build your own visibility in Google, maps and AI assistants; it stays yours |
| Candidates also see your competitors | Recruitment through your own channels and recruitment pages; with matching, details only go to suitable franchise brands with consent |
| A listing looks like a quality mark | We are not a quality mark and we say so; we advise candidates to consult an independent lawyer and accountant |
How do you choose a franchise marketing agency? A checklist
Use this list in every conversation with an agency, including us. For each point, ask for a concrete example or a screen from the dashboard. An agency that cannot show this probably does not work per location.
| Question for the agency | Why it matters | How we measure it |
|---|---|---|
| Are the prices per location public? | You want to be able to budget per location | Price per month, excl. VAT, without surprises |
| Does every location get its own report? | Franchisees want to see their own figures | Dashboard per location, updated monthly |
| Which map services do you manage besides Google? | Apple Maps and Bing are often forgotten | Status in Apple Business Connect and Bing Places |
| How do you test visibility in AI assistants? | Candidates and customers increasingly ask ChatGPT | Fixed test questions, asked again every month |
| How quickly do you respond to reviews? | Response time is visible to every customer | Reply within 24 hours, measured per location |
| Can we start small? | You want to see proof first | Pilot with a group of locations, fixed period |
Which costs should you compare when choosing an agency?
Compare not only the total amount, but also what happens per location. A fictitious worked example for a franchise brand with 30 locations makes this concrete. The advertising budget is separate: you always pay that directly to the platform.
| Item | Calculation | Amount per month (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Growth package | 30 locations x €400 | €12,000 |
| Head office strategy session | Fixed quote in advance, €65 per hour | As quoted |
| Advertising budget | Directly to Google, Microsoft or Meta | Not through us |
| What you get back | Dashboard per location, reviews within 24 hours | Included |
Who is behind the agency and what is their experience?
Founder Gijs Bodenstaff has been working in online marketing since 1998. He also built his own European franchise brand with Europlacement.com and Globalplacement.com. So he knows being a franchisor first-hand. The team consists of specialists in local SEO, local advertising and research, plus ten freelancers who work for us on a permanent basis and have been trained by us. Meet the team behind the agency.
The knowledge from our research also comes from our own sources. Together with Stichting LODAK, we analysed 500 Google Business Profiles of 100 chains. Only 40% were fully completed. Want to know where your locations stand? You can request a free visibility scan.
What does a first collaboration look like?
We never start with a large contract. First we measure, then we test with a group of locations and only then do we roll out. That sequence is explained in our four-phase way of working. So you only make a decision about the whole franchise brand once you have seen figures from your own locations.
For franchisors who want to recruit franchisees online, we work with our network. On franchise-starten.nl prospective franchisees explore opening a location of their own.
What does a location outside the Google Maps top 3 cost you?
This calculation uses Dutch figures instead of American click-through rates. The average revenue per franchise location comes from the Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) statistics, reference year 2025. Nobody can say in advance exactly how much revenue a location loses without a top position in Google Maps, with a Google Business Profile that is not in order, or without proper review management. So you calculate a scenario per cause: a few percent of revenue going to a more visible competitor. Add them up and you see the combined cost.
| Sector | Revenue per location per year | 1% revenue missed | 3% revenue missed | Growth package (€4,800 a year) as share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All sectors (average) | €1,445,000 | €14,450 | €43,350 | 0.33% |
| Services | €480,000 | €4,800 | €14,400 | 1% |
| Hospitality | €1,230,000 | €12,300 | €36,900 | 0.39% |
| Health care | €1,270,000 | €12,700 | €38,100 | 0.38% |
| Non-food retail | €1,750,000 | €17,500 | €52,500 | 0.27% |
| Food retail | €2,910,000 | €29,100 | €87,300 | 0.16% |
| Other brands | €680,000 | €6,800 | €20,400 | 0.71% |
- 6 of the 100 largest Dutch franchise chains reply to a Google review within 24 hours; the average response time is 6.8 days and 90% has no demonstrable review management process.
- Only 40% of the 500 Google Business Profiles examined is fully completed.
- In the measurement one review was viewed around 15,000 times on average: an unanswered complaint stays visible to thousands of people.
- 42% of consumers would rather not do business with a company that never replies to reviews (BrightLocal 2026).
Sources: NFV Franchise Statistics, reference year 2025 (34,937 locations, €50.5 billion revenue); Local SEO Franchise Benchmark 2026 (100 largest chains, 500 profiles); sector model on franchiseseo.nl (in Dutch). The percentages are scenarios you choose, not a measurement or a promise. We do not promise rankings or revenue.
Questions about choosing a franchise marketing agency
Why do franchise brands choose Franchise Marketing Bureau?
What is the difference between a franchise consultancy and a franchise marketing agency?
Do you name agencies you compare yourselves with?
How do I know whether an agency really works per location?
Do you have experience of franchising from the inside?
Do I have to commit for a long time?
How do you use AI without quality suffering?
Why don't you bill by the hour?
Isn't the benefit of one agency for all channels overrated?
What happens if a location closes or moves?
Sources
Gijs Bodenstaff
Franchise marketer, local SEO and GEO specialist, author
Request the free visibility scan and test us against the checklist on this page.
