Franchise Consultant Leads

Franchise Consultant Leads

Overview

One of the most common inquiries that we get via our websites is regarding franchise consultants who need more franchise leads.  While we are probably the largest and most experienced provider of franchise leads via PPC leads (pay per click), we actually don’t offer franchise lead generation services for franchise brokers.  We only work directly with franchisors by providing PPC for franchises.

Having said that, it’s not that we don’t know how to generate leads for franchise consultants (if I was a franchise broker honestly I think I would absolutely crush it due to 13+ years of experience in the space and a lot of knowledge regarding franchise lead generation), it’s that our business model doesn’t really work very well for franchise brokers.  The biggest bottleneck that we tend to run into is that most franchise brokers want to advertise multiple franchise opportunities and for us each brand that we advertise is like having a separate client.  So, for us to advertise for 1 broker who wants leads inquiries regarding 10 different brands it’s the same as having 10 different clients for much less revenue.

But, since we do get some many inquiries from franchise brokers, I will try to surmise some of the keys that we have discovered when it comes to franchise leads in hopes that you can take some of these ideas and perhaps run ads for yourselves or find a different vendor that can actually perform at a high level for you.

Franchise Portals

The most common place for franchise consultants to buy leads is from franchise portals.  These are websites like Franchise Gator, Franchise Direct, and Entrepreneur.com that you can buy leads off of for between $25 – $150 each.  Keep in mind that it usually takes 50-200 leads to close a deal.  And, the most annoying thing for most people who are customers of franchise portals is that one way or another most leads get resold to multiple parties.  So, if you don’t call those leads immediately then chances are that you won’t be the first person that they speak with.

I actually created another article called “Top 17 Franchise Lead Portal Websites” on this topic.  In this article, I break down each major franchise portal along with their strengths and weaknesses.

Verified Franchise Leads

If you’re a franchise broker that has already tried using franchise portals and haven’t had much luck, then I would recommend testing call verified franchise lead companies like 5th Avenue Leads, Prospect Direct, and izmo Leads.

I’ve created another separate on article called “Top 14 Call Verified Leads Websites” that goes into more detail on this subject as well.  These types are leads are going to be more expensive than franchise portal leads, but you get what you pay for and it can save you a lot of hassle so that you can sift through most of the tire kickers and go directly to the higher quality leads.

Google & Facebook Franchise Ads

Really dialing in and understanding how to do Google and Facebook Ads properly is a whole beast in and of itself.

Some of the articles that I’ve written on the subject include “6 PPC Tips For Franchises“, “Top Franchise Advertising Ideas“, “5 Franchise Development Lead Generation Tips” and “Top 5 PPC Lead Generation Pro Tips“.  

The main things that really seem to matter are:

  1. Landing Pages – If you do these wrong, expect to pay $150-$1,000 a lead instead of $20-$75 per lead.
  2. Keyword Targeting – We’ve found that industry terms like “waffle franchise” and competitor terms like “subway franchise” work better than generic terms like “franchise opportunities”.
  3. Match Types – Google has made this much harder, but try using [exact match], “phrase match”, and +broad +match +modifiers in your keywords instead of generic broad match.
  4. Advanced Tracking – When a lead comes through, you should be tracking things like Campaign, Ad Group, Keyword, and Search Query and storing that in your CRM so you know what’s working for you.
  5. Cost Per Metrics – In addition to tracking your Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Lead (CPL), I would highly recommend tracking your Cost Per: Opportunity, Discovery Day, and Sale.  Sometimes some keywords are more expensive because they convert into sales better.

While franchise broker leads is not a service that we offer (we focus primarily on franchise development lead generation), feel free to read through our various articles on the subject.  Thanks!