Franchise Development Benchmarking

Forecast for Top Four Franchise Development Lead Generation Platforms by 2026 Usage

March 4, 2026 – When asked about 2026 plans, more than 45% of teams reported increasing budgets for one or more of their chosen sources.  Franchise directories or “portals” as a category grew in 2025 usage to 74.4% and are expected to grow further in usage to 78.8% in 2026. This difference of 4.4% is the highest absolute growth in usage among the top four source platforms. Among sources surveyed, only Google is expected to decline in usage in 2026.

2025 Franchise Development Lead Sources Survey Highlights

May 13, 2025 – Business news is bustling with headlines about tariff negotiations, the disruption and opportunities presented by AI, antitrust claims and remedies potentially impacting Google, and content freedom vs. moderation on many platforms, and a pending outright ban of TikTok in the U.S. along with separate actions TikTok brought by several states. Meanwhile, franchisors must navigate these waters to successfully grow their systems.  

2025 Franchise Development Lead Sources Survey

April 30, 2025 – Franchise development teams are largely maintaining or increasing their expansion plans in 2024-2025. They have responded to changes in the lead generation ecosystem by aggressively diversifying their paid sources, in the face of rising cost per lead, to achieve growth goals and complement organic growth.

Changes in Cost Per Lead for Top Paid Franchise Development Lead Generation Sources

April 9, 2025 – Most systems responding to the 2025 Franchise Development Lead Generation Survey anticipated increased spending in 2025, to which higher costs per lead were a factor for most sources. In 2025, 87% of franchisors expect to employ Google paid advertising (including YouTube), up from 82.5% in 2024, despite 24.6% of them reporting that lead costs increased somewhat, and 7.3% significantly.

Changes in Franchise Development Lead Generation Paid Sources Planned for 2025

March 26, 2025 – When asked about advertising plans for 2025, 100% of franchise development teams already using the major franchise lead generation sources expected to increase their spending somewhat or significantly in 2025.
This is following a difficult 2024 where, despite challenging business conditions and the distractions of an election year, more than 58% of franchisors surveyed either stuck to their growth plans (50.0%) or increased them. Franchises increasing their expansion plans (8.3%) included all  tiers of system sizes, and 98% of them increased their spending in 2024 across the four largest third-party advertising platforms.

Natural Disasters Significantly Impact Franchise Lead Generation

January 14, 2025 – If your franchise sales team is noticing a decrease in lead generation in recent days, they are not alone. Despite a great start to the year, California is experiencing a significant drop in inquiries – down 21.3% through January 13, according to proprietary data from the Franchise Ventures lead generation platform of franchise investment inquiries in the United States. 

Franchise Prospects Report Improving Contact Attempt Rates In Recent Months

November 26, 2024 – Initial contact attempts by franchisors to inquiring prospects rose substantially over the last six months  as reported by the latest FranchiseInsights.com “mystery shopping” surveys from June to November 2024.  In November 2024, over 60% respondents reported that they were contacted by all of the franchises they inquired about.

With Lots of Options to Choose From, How Do Prospects Find Your Franchise Brand?

August 28, 2024 — Only about seven percent of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about on franchise portals, and another 19% are “already somewhat familiar” with them, according to recent surveys of interested franchise seekers on the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform in July 2024.

Two Strong Months of Prospect Contact Attempt Rates Precede a Dip in June

July 17, 2024 – After two successive months of higher prospect initial contact attempts, rates dipped  as reported by the latest FranchiseInsights.com “mystery shopping” survey in June 2024.  More than half of respondents say they were contacted by all of the franchises they inquired about in April and May, at 50% and 57.1% in April and May, respectively. 

Do You Know Where Lead Referrals to Your Franchise Development Website Are Coming From?

May 29, 2024 — Cost per lead is often a key decision factor when evaluating franchise directory websites (portals), assuming quality standards are met. But leads submitted at franchise  directory websites also result in substantial referral visits to franchisor websites, in addition to being a significant source of leads submitted at development websites…

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