New franchise brand marketing: the first 90 days

By Gijs Bodenstaff · Updated: 2026-10-04

In new franchise brand marketing, foundations come first: establishing your brand as a recognisable entity, putting the first locations correctly into Google, Apple and Bing, and only then recruiting. In 90 days you build a base that every subsequent location benefits from straight away. We work with a fixed plan in three blocks of 30 days.

What do you do in the first 90 days of a new franchise brand?

A young franchise brand has little time and little money, so the order matters. Anyone who starts with advertising before the profiles are right pays for clicks that end at a wrong address or an empty page. That is why we build from the inside out.

Worksheet: 90-day plan for a new franchise brand
Period	What we put in place	Why in this order	How we measure it
Day 1 to 30	Website, brand profiles, schema with sameAs, consistent name	Everything that follows refers back to this	Number of channels with identical brand details
Day 31 to 60	First locations in Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places, location pages	Customers search nearby first	Verified listings per location
Day 61 to 90	Content, collecting reviews, recruitment campaign	Only now do visitors land on something that is right	Reviews per location, candidate sign-ups

Three blocks of 30 days for a new franchise brand.

How do you make new franchise brands recognisable as a brand and entity?

Search engines and AI assistants build a picture of your franchise brand from separate pieces of information: your website, your profiles, mentions elsewhere. If those pieces match, you become a recognisable entity in the knowledge graph. If they contradict each other, a system does not really know what you are.

For a new franchise brand that is an opportunity. From day one you can use the same name, description and links everywhere and tie them together with schema and sameAs. That is also the foundation for Generative Engine Optimisation for franchise brands, so that ChatGPT or Gemini can mention your brand when someone asks about your sector. How we ourselves work with a network of connected sites is shown under our network of franchise websites.

One name, identical everywhere

Choose the exact spelling of your franchise brand and locations before the first profile goes live. A difference of a space or a capital letter seems small, but makes linking harder.

Organisation and locations in schema

The franchise brand gets organisation markup, and each location its own local markup that refers to the brand. That way systems understand the relationship between head office and locations.

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How do you get the first locations of a new franchise brand online?

With the first locations you set the template for all the ones that follow. Each profile gets the same categories, photo layout and standard copy, supplemented with local details. Many chains only do Google. From the start we also include Apple Business Connect for locations and locations in Bing Maps, so iPhone users and Bing searchers find you too.

Checklist per new location
Component	Why	How we measure it
Google Business Profile verified and complete	At the start this drives most local searches	Profile completeness as a percentage
Apple Business Connect with photos and opening hours	Apple Maps shows the place card on iPhones	Listing active and identical to Google
Bing Places registered and verified	Bing also supplies data to other services	Status of the listing
Dedicated location page with local markup	Profiles link to it	Page indexed and linked to the profile
First reviews and responses	A profile without reviews does not convince	Number of reviews and response time

When does a new franchise brand start recruiting online?

You only recruit once candidates have something to see: a location that is listed properly in Maps, reviews and a clear recruitment page. Then you set up the funnel for prospective franchisees, with qualification on region and own capital. Prospective franchisees also research matching platforms such as franchise-starten.nl, a site from our own network.

The Dutch Franchise Act also applies to a young franchise brand. You must inform a candidate in advance about matters including fees and required investments, after which a four-week cooling-off period applies before signing. Have your contract reviewed by a franchise lawyer; this is not legal advice.

A young franchise brand in particular has little budget for paid listings and stands at fairs. By making your own website and profiles visible in Google and AI assistants, candidates find you directly. Weighing up a portal against your own recruitment shows what each channel costs and delivers.

Fictional worked example: marketing costs in year one with 4 locations
Item	Calculation	Fictional amount excl. VAT
Full service for 4 locations	4 x €600 x 12 months	€28,800 per year
Strategy kick-off session (fictional 10 hours)	10 x €65	€650 one-off
Recruitment campaign	Fixed monthly price on a quote	On a quote
Advertising budget	Paid directly to the platform	Your own choice

How does a new franchise brand get started with us?

Even if you only have one or two locations, you start with a no-cost scan of your locations. It shows what is already online about your franchise brand, including things you did not post yourself. Then you choose which channels to tackle first from our channel services.

What does a location outside the Google Maps top 3 cost you?

This calculation uses Dutch figures instead of American click-through rates. The average revenue per franchise location comes from the Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) statistics, reference year 2025. Nobody can say in advance exactly how much revenue a location loses without a top position in Google Maps, with a Google Business Profile that is not in order, or without proper review management. So you calculate a scenario per cause: a few percent of revenue going to a more visible competitor. Add them up and you see the combined cost.

Worked example per sector: what 1% or 3% less revenue per location per year costs
Sector	Revenue per location per year	1% revenue missed	3% revenue missed	Growth package (€4,800 a year) as share of revenue
All sectors (average)	€1,445,000	€14,450	€43,350	0.33%
Services	€480,000	€4,800	€14,400	1%
Hospitality	€1,230,000	€12,300	€36,900	0.39%
Health care	€1,270,000	€12,700	€38,100	0.38%
Non-food retail	€1,750,000	€17,500	€52,500	0.27%
Food retail	€2,910,000	€29,100	€87,300	0.16%
Other brands	€680,000	€6,800	€20,400	0.71%

Sector or average revenue per location

Or enter your own revenue per location per year (€)

Number of locations

Scenario: revenue missed without Google Maps top 3

Scenario: revenue missed through an incomplete or outdated Google Business Profile

Scenario: revenue missed through poor review management

Our package per location per month

Revenue missed per location per year: - (per day -)

Revenue missed for all locations together per year: -

Package cost for all locations per year: -

The package pays for itself if each location wins back - of its revenue.

6 of the 100 largest Dutch franchise chains reply to a Google review within 24 hours; the average response time is 6.8 days and 90% has no demonstrable review management process.
Only 40% of the 500 Google Business Profiles examined is fully completed.
In the measurement one review was viewed around 15,000 times on average: an unanswered complaint stays visible to thousands of people.
42% of consumers would rather not do business with a company that never replies to reviews (BrightLocal 2026).

Sources: NFV Franchise Statistics, reference year 2025 (34,937 locations, €50.5 billion revenue); Local SEO Franchise Benchmark 2026 (100 largest chains, 500 profiles); sector model on franchiseseo.nl (in Dutch). The percentages are scenarios you choose, not a measurement or a promise. We do not promise rankings or revenue.

Questions about marketing for a new franchise brand

Is a new franchise brand with two locations not too small for an agency?

No. We charge per location, so you pay for what you have. It is precisely in the early phase that it pays to set things up properly, because every subsequent location gets the same template. Otherwise, mistakes you make now in name, category or schema are copied to every new location.

Why the brand first and advertising only after that?

Adverts send people to your website or profile. If information is missing or wrong there, they drop off and you pay for nothing. Moreover, search engines and AI assistants build their picture of your franchise brand from consistent data. You lay that foundation in the first month; after that every euro spent on advertising works better.

What does it mean for your franchise brand to become an entity?

An entity is something search engines can recognise unambiguously, such as a company or a person. Google and AI assistants connect your website, profiles and mentions elsewhere into one picture in their knowledge graph. With schema and sameAs links you help them make that connection, so your franchise brand is recognised as one brand.

Should we be in Apple Maps and Bing straight away too?

We recommend it. Many chains start with Google only and later discover that their locations in Apple Maps show an old address or are not listed at all. Creating a listing at the start takes less work than tracking down and correcting old or wrong details later across a growing number of locations.

How do new locations get their first reviews?

By making it easy for customers, for example with a short link or QR code at the till or in the confirmation email. We set that up per location and respond to every review. We never buy or swap reviews, because that is against the platforms' rules and harms your franchise brand.

When can we start recruiting franchisees?

As soon as there is something to see: one or more locations that are properly listed online, with reviews and a clear recruitment page. In our plan that is around day 61. Candidates look up your franchise brand before they respond. If they then see a messy picture, the best candidates are the first to drop out.

Which legal rules apply to recruitment for a new franchise brand?

The Dutch Franchise Act applies to every franchise brand, new or established. You inform candidates in advance about matters including fees and investments, after which at least four weeks must pass before you sign. We handle the online recruitment; the duty to inform stays with you. Have your contract reviewed by a franchise lawyer; this is not legal advice.

Roughly what does marketing for a new franchise brand cost?

That depends on the number of locations and the package. A fictional example: four locations in Full service cost €2,400 a month in total, excl. VAT. We charge strategy by the hour with a fixed quote. Recruitment and ad management get a fixed monthly price on a quote; you pay the media budget to the platform yourself.

Can you also build the franchise brand's website?

We build location pages and local landing pages with schema, and make sure the website has the right markup for search engines and AI assistants. Whether we build the whole website is something we discuss case by case. What matters most is that the structure of brand and locations is right before the first profiles link to the site.

What if we grow quickly after the first 90 days?

Then the work of the first months can be reused immediately. Every new location gets the same template for profiles, page and schema. As a result a new location goes live much faster. You simply add locations to the package and see them in the dashboard from the first month.

Sources

Portrait of Gijs Bodenstaff, founder of Franchise Marketing Bureau in Utrecht and author of this page about New franchise brands

Gijs Bodenstaff
Franchise marketer, local SEO and GEO specialist, author

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