Run every franchise location’s marketing from one login
Reviews, social, Google Posts, bulk updates, optimisation and rankings across the whole network. Head office keeps brand control. Franchisees keep local control. $5.33 per location, with no per seat charge.
No card needed · franchisee logins are free · no location minimum
Why a franchise is harder than a chain
A chain that owns all its own stores has one problem, which is repetition. A franchise has a second one, and it is the one that actually causes trouble. Software that treats a franchise like a chain solves the repetition and leaves the real problem untouched.
| Chain that owns its stores | Franchise network | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the profile | The company, always | Often unclear, and it matters enormously |
| Who makes changes | Head office, by policy | Owners who are not employees and cannot simply be instructed |
| Who answers reviews | Whoever is assigned | Head office does not operate the location being reviewed |
| Someone leaves | A staff change | A business owner exits and may take the profile with them |
| Off-brand content | A management matter | A contractual matter with an independent operator |
Who owns each Google Business Profile?
This is the question that decides everything else, and most networks find out they got it wrong at the worst possible moment. The franchisor should hold primary ownership of every profile, with each franchisee given manager access to their own location.
- Ownership decides who keeps the profile, the reviews and the history
- Franchisees get manager access to their own location, not ownership
- A unit changing hands does not take the reviews with it
- Access is removed in 1 action when an operator exits
How do you keep brand standards without removing local autonomy?
Lock everything down and franchisees stop engaging, then post nothing and answer nobody. Leave it open and you get 40 versions of your own brand. The answer is to split the fields rather than the people.
- Head office holds name, primary category, logo, cover image and description
- Franchisees hold opening hours, holiday hours and photos of the real site
- Local offers and posts publish through an approval step
- A location proposes, head office signs off, then it goes live
Which fields sit where
Head office holds the fields that carry the brand or affect ranking. The franchisee holds the fields only the operator can know.
| Field | Controlled by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Head office | Naming is where compliance problems start, and Google bans most of what people add |
| Primary category | Head office | Directly affects ranking, so not something to leave to preference |
| Logo and cover image | Head office | Brand assets, pushed in bulk |
| Description | Head office template | Consistent structure, local detail slotted in |
| Opening hours | Franchisee | Only the operator knows when they actually open |
| Holiday hours | Franchisee | Varies by location and is the most commonly wrong field on Google |
| Photos of the site | Franchisee | Real photos of a real place beat brand stock every time |
| Local offers and posts | Franchisee, with approval | Local relevance and brand safety, both preserved |
Who answers a review at a location you do not operate?
Head office cannot credibly apologise for a service failure it was not present for. The franchisee can, but a badly handled complaint at one location damages the whole brand. So neither answers everything.
- Franchisees answer routine 4 and 5 star reviews for their own location
- Anything at 1 or 2 stars routes to head office
- Drafted replies in brand tone, held for approval before publishing
- Every review from every unit arrives in 1 inbox with the store code on it
How fast can you onboard a new franchisee?
This is where most brand inconsistency actually starts. If every new owner sets their profile up from scratch, you get 40 interpretations of your own standards and spend the next year correcting them.
- Apply the template instead of starting from a blank profile
- Standard categories, services, attributes and description structure in 1 action
- Then hand the franchisee manager access to the parts they own
- A new unit is consistent on day 1 rather than after a year of fixes
What stops a location going off-brand between check-ins?
Profiles do not usually break loudly. A category gets changed, a phone number gets updated to somebody’s mobile, Google accepts a public suggested edit, and nobody notices for a month.
- Alerts when a name, category, phone, website or hours changes on any profile
- It does not matter whether a franchisee or Google made the change
- Monitoring covers the ground that approvals cannot reach
- You find out the same day instead of at the next audit
Everything else the network needs
This is the ordinary weekly work. All of it is included, with no tier upgrades.
Across the network
- Rank tracking per location. Geo-grid scans across each catchment, so you can see which units own their area and which are invisible.
- Posting across the network. A national campaign to every location in 1 action, with units able to swap in a local offer.
- Reporting both ways. Head office gets network performance and a ranked view of underperformers. Each franchisee gets their own numbers.
For the rest of it
- Menus in bulk. For food franchises, price changes and seasonal items across every location without editing each profile.
- Store locator. A find-a-branch map on your own site fed by the same location data, so it never drifts out of sync.
- AI visibility. How AI assistants describe your brand across 6 AI search engines, which for a franchise matters at brand and unit level.
What it costs a franchise network
Per location, everything included. There is no per seat charge, so franchisees, regional managers and agency partners all get access without affecting the bill.
| Network size | Per location | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 locations | $5.33 | $53.30 | $640 |
| 25 locations | $5.33 | $133.25 | $1,599 |
| 50 locations | $5.33 | $266.50 | $3,198 |
| 100 locations | $5.33 | $533.00 | $6,396 |
| 250 locations | $5.33 | $1,332.50 | $15,990 |
Below 8 locations the price is banded instead: $16 a month for 1 location and a flat $37 a month for 2 to 7. Agencies reselling to franchise clients should read the reseller program.
The platform is the same. What changes is who controls what.
Agencies
- Client locations, white label reporting and bulk management from 1 login.
- See the agency view
- Or resell it under your own brand
Multi-location brands
- You own every location, so there is no autonomy question to solve. Bulk everything.
- See the brand view
- Running 1 or 2 sites instead?
Franchise questions, answered properly.
Who should own a franchise location’s Google Business Profile?
How do you keep brand standards without removing local autonomy?
Who replies to reviews at a location head office does not operate?
How long does it take to onboard a new franchisee’s profile?
What happens to the profile when a franchisee leaves?
How much does it cost for a franchise network?
Can franchisees get access without getting everything?
How do you stop one location publishing something off-brand?
Can you report on the whole network and on individual locations?
Is this only for large franchise networks?
Brand control at the centre. Local control at the location.
Settle profile ownership, split the fields, route the reviews, and the rest of franchise GBP management stops being a monthly fire drill.
$5.33 per location · franchisee logins included · no per seat charge