Marketing Byte: How Franchises Use Social Media for Consumer Advertising

The 2024 Annual Franchise Marketing Report (AFMR) provides data-driven insights that marketing professionals and other leaders can use to measure and elevate their efforts. The franchise space is constantly faced with opportunities and challenges as marketers adapt to industry shifts, including the need to accelerate the digital transformation of their brands.

Franchise CMOs, CEOs, VPs, directors of marketing, and other senior-level marketing leaders completed detailed questionnaires for the sixth annual AFMR. The data and statistical findings were aggregated and analyzed to comprehensively examine the marketing practices, budgets, and strategies across a broad spectrum of franchise brands and sectors.

The importance of social media advertising

In 2025, the primary way to reach consumers with your brand’s message is through social media. Just as important to remember is the message must be broadcast across several social platforms to ensure you are reaching your target audience repeatedly and through their preferred channels.

In the latest AFMR we asked franchise marketing executives what types of social media they used for consumer advertising. The results displayed a wide range of approaches, along with some insight into where franchises spent the most money and received the most sales. Below are some of the primary takeaways about how franchises use social media for consumer advertising.

Primary channels for social media advertising

We first asked franchises what types of social media they use for consumer marketing, and that question yielded nine different social media channels. Facebook (88 percent), Instagram (85 percent), and LinkedIn (75 percent) all received at least three quarters of the responses. YouTube (56 percent) and TikTok (44 percent) were the next most popular platforms, highlighting the importance of video content. Marketing through the company blog (38 percent) and X (35 percent) rounded out the other methods of consumer marketing.

We similarly asked franchises where they are conducting their social media advertising for marketing. Facebook (81 percent) and Instagram (69 percent) were again the two most popular platforms. LinkedIn (42 percent) and YouTube (27 percent) received the next-highest number of responses. With so many different avenues being used, it is important to note that the best approach is to market through multiple social media outlets.

Facebook is tops for spending and results

Eighty percent of franchise marketing executives said they spent the most social media marketing money through Facebook. That was by far the most popular response, which showed the trust franchises have in putting their money into the platform. Instagram (48 percent) and LinkedIn (20 percent) were the only other outlets to receive more than four percent of the responses.

Franchises were also asked which social media sources produced the most sales, and their responses were generally consistent with the outlets which they spent their most money. Facebook produced the most sales with 74 percent of the responses. LinkedIn and Instagram each received 26 percent.