Why most marketing agencies cannot help franchise chains

Who this page is for

This explanation is written for marketing managers and boards of franchise brands with ten or more locations who feel they pay a lot for online marketing but see little return per location. You do not need to be a specialist to follow the points. The aim is that after reading you know which questions to ask and what to look out for.

The core problem: agencies measure a domain, Google assesses a location

An agency usually reports on website traffic and the rankings of the domain. That says little about whether the location in Breda or Zwolle appears when someone nearby searches for your product. For a local search, Google looks at relevance, distance and prominence per location. A location can rank at the top 300 metres away and be nowhere three kilometres further on. An average position across the whole domain hides that completely.

Then there is AI. For a local question, AI assistants often name only two or three providers. Which ones they choose depends on profile data, reviews and the information about a location that can be found online. That is work per location, not per brand. Read also how visibility in AI assistants works.

Eight reasons why ordinary agencies fall short

In conversations with franchisors and in the benchmark we keep seeing the same patterns. None of the reasons is unwillingness; they are consequences of how agencies are set up.

1. The wrong unit of measurement

Reports are about the domain. If you do not measure per location, you cannot see which locations are slipping and which are growing.

2. Changing account managers

At many agencies the contact person changes regularly. Knowledge about your franchise brand, the exceptions per location and the agreements with franchisees is then lost unless it has been documented.

3. Reactive instead of proactive

Google adds features and removes them, such as the public questions and answers on the Business Profile that disappeared at the end of 2025. If you notice that before your agency does, nobody is actively monitoring.

4. No geo-grid measurements

Standard ranking tools give one position. A geo-grid shows, for each location, at which points in the catchment area you are visible. Without that measurement nobody knows where the gains are.

5. A different discipline

Agencies are often strong in websites, content and campaigns. Managing Business Profiles, categories, verifications and suspensions is a profession in its own right, with its own rules and its own pitfalls. Read what managing Google Business Profiles for franchises involves.

6. The scale problem

Maintaining a hundred profiles is production work with fixed routines, not a project with a beginning and an end. It fits poorly into the billable-hours model of an ordinary agency.

7. No specialist in-house

Few agencies employ someone who focuses solely on local visibility. The work then disappears among the other SEO tasks.

8. Reviews without a process

Responding to reviews happens when there is time. Without a fixed deadline, a clear division of responsibility and measurement per location, it gets left undone. That costs customers; see the cost of not responding to reviews.

What the benchmark of 100 franchise chains shows

In the Local SEO Benchmark of Franchise Chains 2026, 500 Google Business Profiles of the 100 largest Dutch franchise chains were tracked for six months. Almost all of these chains work with an agency or an in-house marketing department. Yet for a majority, the basic data is not in order.

What this costs a franchise chain

According to NFV figures, an average Dutch franchise location turns over roughly €1,445,459 a year. One percent of turnover going to a competitor because they are more visible in Maps or in an AI answer already amounts to €14,455 per location per year. How to calculate that for your own chain is explained in the calculation of lost revenue per location.

How can you tell whether your agency really can do it?

You do not need to be a specialist to judge that. Ask a few concrete questions and pay attention to the answers. All ten are worked out in the ten questions for your marketing agency. You will find a short check below.

What franchise chains need instead of an ordinary agency

A chain needs three roles that work together. Head office safeguards the brand, the budget and ownership of the profiles. The location supplies local knowledge: different opening hours, new photos, the team, the neighbourhood. And a specialist in local visibility takes care of the routine: checking profiles, following up reviews, measuring per location and stepping in when Google changes something.

At many chains that third role is missing. The ordinary agency handles the website and campaigns, the franchisee does what they can, and nobody feels they own visibility per location. The result is exactly what the benchmark shows: incomplete profiles, reviews left unanswered for days and no measurement of what it delivers.

Three situations we often come across

We encounter the following situations, in various forms, at many franchise brands. If you recognise one of them, there is a good chance your agency does not have visibility per location in view.

• The franchisee's profile. Years ago, a location created its own Business Profile. When the business is taken over, it turns out nobody at head office has access, and the new owner starts again, resulting in a duplicate profile.
• Everything pointing to the homepage. All profiles link to the brand's homepage. Google and AI systems find no information there about the specific location, so locations in the same region get in each other's way.
• The attractive monthly report. Every month the agency sends a report showing rising website traffic, while three locations dropped out of the Maps top three months ago. Nobody notices, because nothing is measured per location.

Keep your agency or switch?

There is no need to dismiss a good agency for your website and campaigns. The only question is who manages visibility per location. You can assign that task to your existing agency, provided it adapts its way of working, or place it separately with a specialist. What certainly does not work is assuming it will sort itself out. Make it measurable per location and agree on an owner.

What a specialist does every month for each location

To make the difference concrete: this is the recurring work a chain needs for each location. It is not about big projects, but about a routine that never stops.

• Checking profile data for changes made by Google or by users, and reversing unjustified edits.
• Answering reviews within 24 hours and passing negative reviews straight on to the location.
• Posting new photos and updates, tailored to the season and the local situation.
• Entering special opening hours for public holidays and events in good time.
• Measuring each location's ranking with a geo-grid and checking mentions in AI answers.
• Producing a monthly report per location with direction requests, phone calls and website clicks.

With ten locations that is already a sizeable job. With a hundred locations it is only feasible with fixed processes, good tools and people who do nothing else.

How we organise it differently

We are set up for franchise chains. For us, every location is a unit of measurement, with a fixed routine for profiles, reviews and local pages for every location. We always start with the free scan of three locations, so you first see where the gains are. After that you can choose: continue yourself with the handbook, a Local SEO & GEO workshop for chains, or outsourcing local SEO for your franchise brand. Prices per location are listed under pricing per location.