Marketing Byte: AFMR Examines the Successful Methods Driving Customer Lead Counts

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.

An increase in leads

One indication from the AFMR is that most franchises are seeing the same amount or more leads in 2024 from a year ago. Slightly more than half (54 percent) of the franchises surveyed in the AFMR said leads or traffic counts are up this year compared to 2023. Twenty-four percent said leads have remained the same, while only 20 percent said they have seen a decrease from last year.

Methods of driving leads

Franchise executives were asked which marketing efforts have been most effective in driving customer leads or traffic, and they responded with a variety of methods. Digital advertising was the most popular response with 72 percent. That was followed by social media (48 percent), referrals (42 percent), website (40 percent), and email marketing (26 percent). Advertising through print and television/radio (traditional and streaming) each received less than five percent of the responses.

Success through digital marketing

The report then drilled down on the most effective forms of digital marketing. Social media advertising and pay-per-click on search engines such as Google and Yahoo were the most popular responses with 28 percent each. Search engine optimization (SEO) and consumer-facing sites were the next most popular responses with each at 12 percent. Social content posts (8 percent), re-marketing/target trailing (6 percent), and sponsored content/native advertising (2 percent) were the other forms of digital marketing listed in the responses.