This is a bonus chapter about the most argued-over searches in franchising: people typing the brand's own name. They're the cheapest customers a franchise system has, because they already picked the brand. They're also where franchisors and franchisees most often end up bidding against each other for a customer who was coming anyway.
This chapter covers what Google allows, what franchise agreements say, what it costs when everyone bids, how often rivals actually show up on a franchise's name, how to keep a location's campaigns off the brand searches, and what a trademark complaint can and can't do. The search examples come from one example market, Orlando. The rules are Google's and the agreements', and they apply everywhere.
Google Doesn't Restrict Trademarks as Keywords. Any Franchisee Can Technically Bid on the Brand's Own Name.
Start with what Google allows. Its Trademarks policy lists what it won't restrict, and a trademark used as a keyword is first on that list. Google does restrict trademarks in ad text in some situations, covered at the end of this chapter, but the keyword itself is open to anyone with an account.
The searches are worth having. In the example market, Chapter 2 found "european wax center" drawing about 18,100 searches a month, "kumon" about 2,400 and "mister sparky" about 1,000. Every one of those searchers already chose the brand. Most just need the nearest location.
So nothing at Google stops a franchisee, a franchisor, a competitor or a lead reseller from bidding on a franchise's name. Whether a franchisee should is decided somewhere else.
At Least 8 of the 21 Franchise Agreements We Read Bar Franchisees From Using the Brand in Keywords Without Consent.
Of the 21 franchise disclosure documents we read, none uses the phrase "bid on" the trademark. But at least eight bar franchisees from using the brand's marks as a "keyword," a "search engine keyword," in "pay-per-click" advertising or as "search terms" without the franchisor's consent, usually in writing, or reserve those uses to the franchisor: Orangetheory, Anytime Fitness, ServiceMaster Restore, One Hour Heating & Air, Take 5, European Wax Center, Hand & Stone and Goldfish Swim School. Take 5 goes further and bars any search engine keyword tied to the location without approval.
European Wax Center's agreement, for example, says the franchisor "retains the sole right to use the Marks on the Internet, including ... as domain names, directory addresses, search terms and meta-tags." Chapter 9 quoted the same agreement reserving internet marketing to the franchisor.
Google opens the door. The agreement decides who walks through it. Before a franchisee adds the brand's name to any campaign, the advertising and trademark sections of its agreement need reading, and, in many systems, a written yes from the franchisor.
When the Franchisor and Its Franchisees All Bid on the Brand, the System Pays More Than Once for Customers It Already Had.
Even where it's allowed, every location bidding on the brand's name is the expensive version. One agency that writes about franchise accounts calls two owners bidding on the system's own name "the most expensive and most common conflict." Another, which works for franchisees, describes the result from the owner's side: "You are taking turns, and both of you pay for the privilege."
Google's own rules add a wrinkle. Its Unfair advantage policy says an advertiser can't try to show more than one ad for the same business or site in one ad spot. Franchisees whose ads all point to the brand's domain are close to that line; whether separately owned locations count as one business, Google doesn't say. Our reading: don't build a system that depends on the answer.
The structure we recommend is the one Chapter 2 set out. One brand campaign, usually the franchisor's and paid for by the brand fund, buys the brand's name for the whole system. It sends each searcher to the nearest location using location assets, as Chapter 12 covered, so the customer still reaches the local door. Each location's own campaigns stay on service searches inside its territory.
Report the two separately. A brand search is a customer who already chose the brand, so its cost per lead will almost always look better than a service search's. A comment from the agency Search Kings, read out and endorsed on a franchise marketing panel, made the same point: brand and non-brand cost per lead belong in two separate numbers. Blend them, and a location's results look better than the work behind them, and nobody can tell whether its own campaigns are paying off.
A Rival's Ad Showed Up on Just 1 of 27 Franchise Brand Searches We Ran. Most Showed No Ads at All.
How much competition is there on a franchise's name? We ran 27 franchise brand searches covering 24 brands, mostly the brand plus the example market's city, such as "kumon orlando," three times each within a few minutes on one afternoon. On 25 of the 27, no paid ad appeared in either desktop capture. On desktop, Google most often showed the brand's own block of nearby locations, along with the brand's pages.
Two exceptions. On "mister sparky orlando," a local electrician's text ad appeared in one capture, above the brand's own listings. On "kumon orlando," Kumon's own ad for one of its locations appeared once.
That's a snapshot of one market on one afternoon, not a rule. It suggests that, for now, most franchise brand searches are won by the brand's free listings without anyone paying. It doesn't mean they'll stay that way. A brand campaign is insurance: it usually costs less per click than service searches while nobody else bids, and it's already running on the day a competitor or a lead reseller starts buying the name.
Owners checking for rivals should be careful how they look. The host of one franchise marketing webinar called Googling themselves "the worst thing a franchisee can do," because what follows is panic, confusion and screenshots. Repeated live searches also add impressions to whoever is advertising and can skew their numbers, which is why Google offers its preview tool instead. The preview tool from Chapter 4 renders a sample results page for any search and town and leaves the advertisers' impression counts alone. Using it takes a login to a Google Ads account, so an owner without one asks whoever manages theirs. When a franchisee does spot a rival, a marketing chief on the same webinar asked franchisees to send "a screenshot including what you searched, including your search query," so the brand team can see what the customer saw.
Without a Brand Exclusion, a Franchisee's Broad Match Ads Show Up When People Search the Brand's Name.
A franchisee doesn't have to add the brand's name as a keyword to end up paying for it. Broad match, Performance Max and AI Max all reach searches the location never listed, and searches for the brand's own name, like "european wax center near me," are close cousins of the location's service searches.
Google's fix is brand exclusions. Its brand settings page says that with brand exclusions, "Your campaign won't serve for queries associated with a brand that you want to avoid," and they're available for Search and Performance Max campaigns. For a location's Performance Max campaign, they reach its search placements, including Shopping and YouTube searches, but not its display or video ads. On a Search campaign, adding a new brand exclusion now means turning on AI Max, and a brand missing from Google's list has to be requested first. Applied to the location's own brand, they keep its campaigns off searches the brand campaign is already covering.
Negative keywords back that up. One agency that sets up franchise accounts makes brand-name negatives, misspellings included, mandatory in every franchisee account, warning that "automated campaign types like Performance Max or queries set to broad match will inevitably pull in brand traffic" without them. A franchisor running a manager account can build that list once and share it, as Chapter 5 covered.
Competitors Can Bid on a Franchise Brand's Name. A Trademark Complaint Reaches Their Ad Text, Not Their Keywords.
The franchisees aren't the only ones who might bid on the brand. Competitors can, and one agency notes that "Third-party lead resellers and aggregator sites bid on franchise brand names constantly."
A trademark complaint is the tool, with limits. Google's policy covers the trademark in ad text: a complaint names specific advertisers by their web addresses, and when Google restricts a trademark, it says the restrictions "will generally be applied on an ongoing basis in any ads that use the same second-level domain in their final URL." It doesn't stop anyone from using the name as a keyword. If Google upholds the complaint, a direct competitor generally can't use the brand's name in its ad text, though resellers and informational sites can still qualify. A rival can still show up on the brand's searches. Google, not the franchisor, decides each case.
For a franchise, the complaint belongs to the franchisor, which owns the mark. A franchisee using the brand's name in its own ads may need the franchisor's help if Google ever questions that use. Ask the franchisor's marketing team how the brand handles trademark questions with Google before an ad is disapproved, not after.
A franchisee that thinks the brand campaign isn't covering its town has a better move than bidding on the name itself: ask for the brand campaign's results for its own area, from the franchisor's report or a shared view of the campaign. If the brand name isn't showing an ad there and a rival is, that's the franchisor's campaign to fix, and many agreements say so.
Next: Franchise Development Costs About $17,550 per Signed Franchisee
The last bonus chapter turns the guide around: from franchise locations finding customers to franchisors finding new franchisees, and what Google Ads costs per signed agreement.
All sixteen chapters, from tracking and territories to who runs the ads and franchise development, are on the guide's home page.
In our Google Ads management, franchise brand names run in one brand campaign, and every location's campaigns carry a brand exclusion. Own a location? Ask whoever runs your ads to preview your brand's name plus your town in Ad Preview and Diagnosis, and check your agreement before you bid on it.
