How to Improve Ad Buying Efficiency as a Multi-Location Brand
Reducing CPMs and CPCs, while maintaining, and even improving, performance? Can you have your cake...
As your brand grows, the need to consistently improve on your franchise advertising strategies and capabilities has to evolve. Not only is it important to understand and target the new local communities where your brand is expanding, but you must have the ability to customize the messages and offers for community relevance.
Here are several ways to improve your brand’s advertising to digitally dominate in the crowded restaurant franchise industry.
- Target Every Single Location
When national PPC or display ad campaigns are built with a national ad fund, the budgets typically shift toward larger DMAs with greater populations or to certain ad groups that are performing well for “most” locations. Consumers expect locally relevant and impactful brand experiences. If you rely on national, regional, or DMA audience data - you're leaving many locations behind.
The idea that all locations benefit equally from national ad funds isn’t a reality. When it comes to local advertising, this is one of the greatest challenges that franchise marketers face. It’s an even bigger problem when franchisees don’t see geo-targeted PPC campaigns immediately benefiting their location.
- Focus on Local Relevance
Location targeting isn’t the only way to localize your ads. Messages that reflect the local community’s preferences, timely offers, events, and even the weather will greatly influence local effectiveness.
In fact, Subway boosted foot traffic 31% by changing its ads to correspond to local weather shifts. The weather not only influences the type of food people crave, but a sudden weather crisis can impact whether a location is currently open at all.
Paid ad experts, with the help of franchise advertising technology, can help you set up rules that activate, deactivate or increase bids for certain ads and even change custom ad creatives for each location.
- Build and Use Local Data
Build local audiences and unique data sets for every location - so your brand message resonates in every community your brand serves.
- Collect first-party data through website tracking tools. When a prospective customer visits your website, for example, you’d want to know their location so you can show relevant retargeting ads based on their location.
- Launch retargeting ads. When customers visit other places online or scroll social media, they will be served your ad since they showed previous interest. This will increase their chances of engagement and maximize the return on ad spend.
- Create look-a-like audiences that share similar interests with your current customers and reach them online. Facebook, for ex., allows you to create up to 500 lookalike audiences from one audience type.
- Involve Local Franchisees
When creating ads, consider directly involving individual franchisees. Empower locations to safely take part in brand marketing for their community. Increasing advertising transparency will increase adoption when franchisees can easily participate, and see how local ad dollars are helping their location.
If your franchisees don't believe digital advertising works, learn how to make them believe.
- Leverage a Franchise Advertising Platform
Using a platform like Hyperlocology enables your team to easily launch local advertising, with custom messages, targeting, budgets, and reporting for every location. You will be able to track participation rates and maintain brand control in one central place.
Hear what our AdOps Lead Spencer Moody has to say about localization.
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