Marketing Byte: How Franchises Drive Customer Leads Through Marketing

Franchise Update Media recently released its 2025 Annual Franchise Marketing Leadership Report. The AFMR is a survey of top franchise marketing executives that provides insights into the latest consumer behavior trends, innovative marketing strategies, technology, and the impact of digital transformation on franchise businesses.

The AFMR is the first and only report dedicated to B2B and B2C franchise marketing leaders. It includes perspectives from industry experts about the evolving market dynamics and how franchises can stay ahead of the competition. This report delivers data collected from franchisors across the franchise community with responses organized by industry, marketing budget, system-wide sales, and more.

The annual report provides franchisors with the ideal resource for studying their marketing investments, benchmarking their sales and advertising budgets against their own industry categories, as well as setting goals and budgets for the year ahead. The AFMR also includes research into digital advertising practices, the growing investment in mobile and social platforms, and best practices in building marketing teams.

Over the last several years, the AFMR was expanded to include more information about online reputation management and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). It starts by identifying how many franchises are using AI and in which ways, along with their confidence in using the technology. It also looks at how the integration of AI has impacted the customer experience, its challenges and limitations, and their plans for future investment in AI. The report also explores franchisee involvement, franchisee training and support, and feedback from customers regarding the use of AI.

Most effective methods to drive customer leads

In an increasingly competitive environment, Franchise Update asked respondents in the latest AFMR what marketing efforts have been most successful in driving customer leads or traffic. Anticipating that digital marketing would be the most popular response, we also asked franchises which of those digital strategies were most effective. See their answers below based on business category and number of units.

By general business category

The highest percentage of responses to the marketing efforts that were most successful, regardless of business category, was with digital advertising. All retail (non-food) brands responded with digital advertising, and each sector responded with at least 67 percent. Social media and referrals were methods that each garnered a significant response among all categories, yet still trailed significantly behind digital advertising.

Among the digital marketing efforts by business category, pay-per-click on search engines was generally the most popular. Seventy-five percent of retail (non-food) brands listed that option, followed by 63 percent service (brick-and-mortar), and 40 percent service (non-brick-and-mortar). Social media advertising was the next most popular response, with two-thirds of retail food franchises listing that method, followed by 33 percent of food brands and 32 percent of service (brick-and-mortar) franchises.

By number of units

In general, digital advertising was the most effective marketing effort in driving customer leads and website traffic, regardless of the size of a franchise. Social media and website also ranked highly, while loyalty programs and traditional broadcast (TV and radio) rated highly among the largest franchises surveyed.

Pay-per-click on search engines was also the most popular digital marketing strategy by franchise size. Franchises with 251 to 500 units and 501 to 1000 units each responded with 60 percent for pay-per-click, followed by 40 percent of franchises with 101 to 250 units and 39 percent of brands with 26 to 100 units.

For more information about the 2025 AFMR and how you can purchase the report, read more HERE.