Learnings From Google and Meta Earnings for Franchise Lead Generation
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
May 13, 2026 – Now that first quarter earnings reports from Google and Meta are behind us, there are a few hints about how the franchise lead generation ecosystem is changing.
Franchise Development Teams Embraced Google AI Ad Tools Ahead of the Pack
Google shared that in Q1 2026, 30% of companies using the company’s paid search products also used their AI tools for campaign management, including Performance Max and AI Max. This adoption rate is much lower than the 42% of franchise development teams using these Google AI ad tools in 2025, and another 27.2% (69.1% total) who plan to use them in 2026 according to the 2026 Franchise Development Lead Generation survey.
Google reported “Search and Other Ads” revenue increasing 19% in Q1, while “Network” revenue – from partner sites and platforms that carry Google ads – declined by 4%. They also reported “all-time high query volume” without specifying the number or percentage gain. This is in contrast to 2025 when reported query volume grew about 54%.
So inventory (queries) and total paid clicks still seem to be growing with the advent of AI tools, but we do not know the average impact on click rate or volume that a typical advertiser experienced, nor the number of organic clicks lost as user focus is concentrated on AI top-of-page results, and many questions are answered with “zero-clicks.”
We do know from the 2026 Franchise Development Lead Generation survey that in 2025, 75.6% of franchisors responding employed Google paid advertising (including YouTube), down from 87% in 2024, as 39% of franchisors reported that lead costs increased somewhat (32.5%), or significantly. (6.5%).
Meta Squeezes More Revenue With High Adoption of AI Ad Tools
Meta, in a nutshell, took in 33% more revenue to deliver 19% more ads at a 12% increase in the average price of ads. It sounds like Meta may be more satisfied with its results than advertisers.
While not expressing the adoption rate of AI ad tools as a percentage, they reported “more than 8 million advertisers” for Instagram, Facebook and Reels, and also more than 8 million users of one or more of its AI ad tools (Advantage+ Creative, Meta AI, etc.), suggesting that most all of their advertisers used their AI tools in some fashion.
So one may conclude that AI helped them generate more ads and extract more revenue per ad, but it begs the question – how did this impact the return on advertising investment for its customers?
In contrast to Google, less than a third of franchise development teams (31.6%) reported using AI features in Meta advertising platforms (e.g. Advantage+ Creative, Meta AI), with another 27.6% planning to use them in 2026, according to our 2026 survey.
According to research from Emarketer, 42% of tech CMOs say that traditional search is already failing them, leading them to pursue alternative B2B lead pipelines as AI is changing how buyers discover and evaluate brands.
Faced with aggressive goals for system growth, increased competition, and technological transformation of lead generation, franchise developers employed AI to gain advantage and lower costs in 2025, and more will do so this year. As evidence, only 11.3% of respondents said they will not be using AI by the end of 2026.
Over 88% of Franchise Development teams adopted Artificial Intelligence tools in one or more areas of their lead generation efforts.
By the end of 2026, 88.7% of respondents to the 2026 Franchise Development Lead Generation Survey say they will have deployed AI tools in at least one part of their processes in pursuit of creative content options, lower costs or improved performance. While franchises increasing their expansion budgets (18.5%) included all tiers of system sizes, 76.7% made tactical changes in their budget allocations among the largest paid sources in 2025 and plan to do so in 2026.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026.