If you are viewing this article, chances are you are trying to figure out what the top franchise lead portals are or seeking PPC for franchises.

Best Franchise Lead Portals

There are certainly many to choose from for franchise lead generation. Here is a list of some of the more popular franchise portals:

  • Franchise Gator – Possibly the largest portal.
  • FranchiseOpportunities.com – Perhaps the second most well known portal.
  • Entrepreneur.com – Same company that does Entrepreneur magazine. Lead volume is lower but quality is higher.
  • Biz Buy Sell – Marketplace where people can buy or sell businesses. Many franchisors advertise here as well.
  • America’s Best Franchises – Smaller but more reputable portal.

If you can find the right portal for the right price, portal leads can be a great way to drive more leads and give your franchise development team more opportunities to close new franchisees.

Common Complaints Of Portals

One of the common complaints that you will hear from people who have purchased leads from franchise portals before is that the lead quality isn’t that great. This is partly because often times these leads are recycled, meaning that multiple franchisors or franchise brokers will call these leads and the leads are not exclusive.

Additionally, often times franchisors think that their leads are coming exclusively from the listing of their franchise within the franchise portal directory. However, this isn’t actually the case in practice. More often than not, people are filling out a form for someone else’s franchise, and the franchise portal is cc’ing you on the lead because the portal automatically recommended your franchise with a pre-filled check box. So, in actuality, the end user semi-mistakenly requested information from your franchise.

Beyond that, another common occurrence is that people who are filling out the contact form flat out don’t have the money required to purchase your franchise.

Alternatives To Franchise Portals

Many people don’t know this, but there are other ways to gather leads off of the internet besides using franchise portal sites. Google and Facebook can be great mediums for driving high quality franchise leads.

One caveat of driving your own leads from Google and Facebook is that you need to have really good landing pages in order to get a comparable Cost Per Lead (CPL) to your typical franchise portals.

Cost Per Lead

Our company, for instance, averages a CPL of around $32 for our 70+ franchise brands. But, often times when we meet potential clients who have tried advertising on Google or Facebook, their CPL is around $200-$300, which is usually cost prohibitive, since usually only .5% – 4% of your leads will end up becoming actual franchisees.

Need Help?

If you need help testing Google and/or Facebook ads for your franchise, feel free to reach out and let us know. We would be glad to help.