Why Brands Should Centralize Their Paid Ad Strategies

Here's a breakdown of the necessary steps to achieving a cohesive multi-location brand advertising strategy.

When it comes to paid advertising for multi-location brands and franchises, it’s important to make sure your strategy is localized and scalable to your specific business.

We know that building ad campaigns, analyzing performance metrics and tracking ROI can be difficult and time-consuming, which is why we’re here to teach you about centralizing your advertising efforts.

In this blog, we’re going to walk through the steps of centralizing your ad campaigns when you work with a dedicated marketing team (like us). Plus, we’ll break down the different types of ads we recommend for multi-location brands.

Step 1 – Identify the Objective/Goal

When working with a digital marketing agency for your paid ads, the first step is to identify the objective of your campaign.

You should ask yourself these two questions to guide you:

What action(s) do you want consumers to take?
What problem are you trying to solve for?

This step is a great time to brainstorm and look back at the previous objectives or goals your business had in the past.

Don’t rule out any objectives that didn’t work previously. There are a lot of factors that come into play for advertising, including budget, benchmarks and implementation. Working with a marketing team that knows best practices for your industry can really help you step up your advertising game!

If you want to learn more about objectives or setting goals, check out these resources:

Step 2 – Set a Budget

Next, you need to get your budget in order.

Your objectives and goals that you previously set will help you determine the right budget for your multi-location brand.

Keep in mind that some industries are more aggressive than others. In some cases, you will need to have a higher budget if you want to keep up with your competitors.

At RevLocal, here are the factors we consider when creating a budget for your multi-location brand:

However, you also need to be realistic with your budget. If your budget is limited and does not allow you to be competitive in your industry, investing in alternative strategies may be your best approach.

When you integrate your digital marketing strategies, you’ll provide a consistent brand message across all platforms.

Speaking of platforms, it’s important to note that the strategy and platforms you choose for your advertising efforts will also affect the cost. We’ll talk more about the ad types later on in this blog.

Step 3 – Establish Benchmarks

We’re at the halfway point. This isn’t so difficult, right?

After your budget is in place, you need to establish benchmarks for your brand when it comes to your advertising efforts.

Data will be your best friend during this step. When evaluating your marketing efforts, you’ll want to consider things like your typical close rate and the average lifetime value of your customers.

When you partner with an outside marketing agency, like RevLocal, we track the data for you in one platform to make gathering and analyzing this information easier.

Additionally, an agency partner will help you build KPIs based on your goals, which can include data points like CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate, etc.

Step 4 – Build an Infrastructure

Another important step of your paid advertising strategy is creating an infrastructure for your ads.

If you’re looking at advertising from the corporate level, you need to ask yourself these questions:

Where will the ads lead to?
Will each location have its own landing page?
Will all traffic be centralized and redistributed?
What tools or resources are needed?

If you jump into an ad strategy for your franchisees without thinking these questions through, it’s likely a disconnect will occur and your ads won’t be as successful.

Step 5 – Determine Your Ad Strategy

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The last step to having a centralized ad strategy is determining which strategies are best for your multi-location.

At RevLocal, we have several ad strategies to consider:

Brand Expander Ads – This impression-based tactic is a cost-effective option for businesses of all sizes. Overall, this ad type helps increase overall awareness for your brand. These ads are great if your brand is expanding into a new market or opening a new location.
Targeted Search Ads – You know the ads you see at the top of Google? This is what targeted search ads are! While this is a great strategy, it can be costly depending on keywords and if you’re in a high competition industry, but these ads are great for lead generation.
Targeted Social Ads – For social ads, this is a combination of text and graphics that are served to a specific audience. Targeting can include demographics, interests, activity and geographic area.
Retargeting – If you run a brand that has a longer buying cycle, retargeting ads are a must! These types of ads “follow” consumers on specific sites and help remarket your products or services. Learn more about retargeting.
Local Services Ads (LSAs) – Ultimately, LSAs help you reach consumers who are looking for a service you offer. Your ads will appear in the area you serve and you only pay for leads when you receive a call.

While your budget will play a role in determining your ad strategy for your location, it’s crucial that you have a comprehensive approach. Having a combination of brand awareness and lead generation is key to reaching consumers in every stage of the marketing funnel.

If you want to learn more about choosing a RevLocal paid advertising strategy, download our checklist for more information.

Final Thoughts

I know we covered a lot, so let’s quickly recap the steps of having a centralized advertising strategy from the top down:

Step 1 – Identify the objective (don’t neglect past results)
Step 2 – Set a budget (and be realistic)
Step 3 – Establish benchmarks (data, data, data)
Step 4 – Build an infrastructure (your ads need to lead somewhere)
Step 5 – Determine your ad strategy (which approach is best based on the other steps?)

As a multi-location brand, you have a lot of opportunities with advertising (if you follow the proper steps). You not only need to have an advertising strategy in place, but you need to comply with corporate-regulated policies.

When you have a centralized advertising strategy, this allows you to market your location with ease and follow brand compliance all in one. Remember, work smarter, not harder.

Let us help your brand gain the traction it needs in the digital landscape. Receive a free analysis of your online presence from a local marketing expert.

This post was created in collaboration with Erica Flinn and Cory Miller, our Senior Paid Advertising Manager and Senior Manager of Brand Creative.