Marketing Byte: AFMR Examines Who Handles Franchise Marketing

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.

Marketing needs – In-house or outside agency?

In the latest report, Franchise Update asked executives about who handles their marketing and advertising, and what do they do. Their responses featured a range of companies and resources they use, with the differences likely due to the size and marketing needs of the franchise.

When asked where their advertising buying is done, nearly three-quarters of the respondents indicated it was done in-house (74 percent). Thirty-two percent said it was handled by an advertising agency and 12 percent responded it was done by a third party. Franchises who handle advertising both in-house and through an outside service account for the percentages.

The vast majority of franchises work with 1-3 digital companies (88 percent). Forty-six percent said they worked with one digital company for their marketing plans, while 42 percent said they work with 2-3 companies. Eight percent said they work with 4-5 companies, and four percent indicated they work with five or more. Again, these responses are likely a reflection of the size of the franchise and scope of their marketing efforts.

Outsourcing marketing resources

With many franchises working with at least one outside company, the AFMR asked marketing executives about the services handled by these companies. There were nine different services listed with many franchises using multiple services.

Web design easily received the highest response with 80 percent. That was followed by digital ad buying (48 percent), digital ad creative (39 percent), and social media (33 percent). Media buying (28 percent) and content creation (26 percent) also received more of a quarter of the responses.