Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! It's a common headache, trying to figure out the best way to structure Google Ads when you're juggling multiple locations and services, especially when it's not your full-time gig. Your instinct to keep things simple is understandable, but it can often backfire and end up costing you more time and money in the long run.
I've put together some detailed thoughts for you below. The main idea is that a bit more structure upfront will actually make your life *easier*, not harder, and get you much better results. It's a bit of a myth that lumping everything into one campaign is the most manageable approach; it's often the opposite.
Let's get into it.
TLDR;
- Your proposed structure of one campaign per franchise with multiple ad groups is a recipe for wasted spend and poor performance. It gives Google too much control over where your budget goes.
- The best structure is to create one campaign for each of your 13 franchises. This gives you precise control over location targeting and budgets, which is non-negotiable for a franchise model.
- Inside each franchise campaign, you then create ad groups for each service (e.g., 'Installation', 'Survey', 'Branded'). This ensures your ads are hyper-relevant to what people are searching for, boosting your Quality Score and lowering costs.
- To solve the management issue, use Shared Budgets to control spending across groups of franchises (e.g., a 'Northern Region' budget) instead of managing 13 individual ones.
- This article includes an interactive Ad Spend Calculator to help you estimate your monthly budget and a visual flowchart of the ideal account structure.
The big problem with the "one campaign" approach...
I get it, the thought of managing 30-40 campaigns sounds like a nightmare. So you think, "I'll just create one campaign for my London franchise, and inside it, I'll have an ad group for surveys, one for installations, and one for my brand name." Simple, right?
Wrong. This is probably the most common and costly mistake I see people make. When you lump different services—with completely different search intents and potential costs—into one campaign, you're essentially handing the keys to Google and saying, "Here's my daily budget, you decide how to spend it."
And what does Google's algorithm do? It chases the easiest, cheapest clicks. Invariably, it will pour most of your budget into the 'branded' ad group. Why? Because people searching for your specific franchise name are already looking for you. They're cheap to get clicks from and have a high click-through rate (CTR). Meanwhile, your 'installation' ad group, which targets people who have *never heard of you* but have an urgent, high-value problem, will get starved of budget. Google sees these keywords as more expensive and competitive, so it avoids them in favour of the easy win.
You end up spending money on people who would've found you anyway, while missing out on the new customers that actually grow your business. You also lose:
- Budget Control: You can't tell Google, "I want to spend £50 a day on finding new installation clients and only £10 on branded searches." The single campaign budget applies to everything.
- Performance Clarity: It becomes a real mess trying to figure out which *service* is actually profitable. Your overall campaign might look like it's doing okay because of the cheap branded clicks, hiding the fact that your high-value services are losing money hand over fist.
- Ad Relevance: Your Quality Score suffers. Google rewards tight-knit campaigns where keywords, ads, and landing pages are all perfectly aligned. A single, sprawling campaign for everything looks unfocused to the algorithm, meaning you pay more for every click. It's a slow but certain way to burn through your cash.
Thinking this structure saves time is a false economy. You'll spend far more time later trying to untangle the messy data and figure out why you're not getting any decent leads. We need a better blueprint from the start.
I'd say you need a scalable blueprint for your 13 franchises...
Right, so forget the idea of one campaign to rule them all. The foundational principle for any business with multiple physical locations is this: Campaigns should control for Geography and Budget. Ad Groups should control for Theme and Intent.
This means you need to flip your proposed structure on its head. Here is the exact structure I would build for your business. It seems like more work upfront, but I promise you, it's the key to making this whole thing manageable and profitable.
Level 1: Campaigns by Franchise Location
You will have 13 campaigns in your account. No more, no less. Each campaign is named after and dedicated to a single franchise.
- Campaign 1: Franchise - London
- Campaign 2: Franchise - Manchester
- Campaign 3: Franchise - Birmingham
- ...and so on for all 13.
The settings for each campaign are configured ONLY for that franchise's specific service area. The 'Franchise - London' campaign will be set to only show ads to people within, say, a 15-mile radius of the London office. This is the most important step. It ensures that the London franchise's budget is only spent on London customers, and the Manchester budget on Manchester customers. You stop wasting money showing ads to people who can't even use your service.
Level 2: Ad Groups by Service/Keyword Theme
Now, *inside* each of those 13 campaigns, you will create your ad groups based on the service themes you mentioned.
So, inside the "Franchise - London" campaign, you will have:
- Ad Group 1: Installation -> Keywords like "electrician for new wiring", "install security system", "local installation service london". The ads will all talk about your expert installation services. -Ad Group 2: Survey -> Keywords like "electrical safety survey", "get a property survey london", "home survey quote". The ads will all promote your survey offering. -Ad Group 3: Branded -> Keywords like "[Your Franchise Name] london", "[Your Franchise Name] reviews". The ads will reinforce your brand and direct people to your site. -Ad Group 4: Emergency/Repair (Hypothetical) -> Keywords like "emergency electrician london", "24 hour electrical repair". This would capture urgent, high-intent searches.
You repeat this structure for every single one of your 13 franchise campaigns. Yes, it means you'll have around 39 ad groups (13 franchises x 3 themes), but they are organised in a way that is perfectly logical and easy to navigate.
This structure gives you the ultimate control. You can see at a glance which franchise is performing best. You can see which *service* is driving the most leads in Manchester versus London. This is the kind of data that allows you to make smart business decissions, not just guess.
Campaign: Franchise London
Targeting: 15-mile radius of London
Budget: £50/day
Ad Group: Installation
Keywords: "install service london", etc.
Ad Group: Survey
Keywords: "home survey quote", etc.
Ad Group: Branded
Keywords: "[Your Name] London", etc.
Campaign: Franchise Manchester
Targeting: 15-mile radius of Manchester
Budget: £40/day
Ad Group: Installation
Keywords: "install service manchester", etc.
Ad Group: Survey
Keywords: "home survey manchester", etc.
Ad Group: Branded
Keywords: "[Your Name] Manchester", etc.
...and so on for all 13 franchises
Each with its own location & budget
You'll need to make it manageable (this is how)...
Okay, this is the part that addresses your biggest concern. A structure with 13 campaigns and 39+ ad groups sounds like it goes directly against your need for something that isn't a full-time job. But this is where some of Google's more advanced (but easy to use) features come in and make this structure *more* manageable than the messy single-campaign option.
Your New Best Friend: Shared Budgets
Instead of setting an individual daily budget for each of your 13 campaigns and having to check in on them all constantly, you can use a 'Shared Budget'.
Let's say you group your franchises by region. You might have:
- 5 franchises in the South
- 5 franchises in the Midlands
- 3 franchises in the North
You can create three shared budgets. For example, a "Southern Region Budget" of £200/day. You then apply this single budget to all 5 of your southern franchise campaigns. Google will then automatically distribute that £200 across those 5 campaigns, sending more money to the ones that are getting more searches and clicks on any given day. If Manchester is having a busy week and Birmingham is quiet, the budget shifts automatically to where the opportunity is.
Now, instead of managing 13 individual budgets, you're only managing 3. This is far more efficient and gives you high-level control while letting the algorithm handle the daily micro-adjustments. It combines the control of separate campaigns with the simplicity of centralised budget management.
Setting Realistic Expectations: What Do Leads Cost?
Before you set those budgets, you need a rough idea of what a lead might cost. For local service businesses, this can vary wildly depending on the service and competition in the area. From our experience running campaigns for similar businesses, the range is broad:
- For a home cleaning company we worked with, we got the cost down to £5 per lead.
- For some childcare services, we've seen a cost per signup of around $10.
- On the other end, we're currently running a campaign for an HVAC company in a very competitive city, and their leads are costing about $60 each.
Your cost will likely fall somewhere in that range. For a service like an electrical survey or installation, you might be looking at £20-£50 per lead. Knowing this is vital for setting a budget that can actually generate a meaningful number of leads.
To help you with this, I've built a small calculator. You can adjust the sliders to see how many leads you can expect and what your total ad spend might look like. It's a simple tool, but it will help you move from guesswork to making an informed budget decision.
260
£9,100
You probably should write ads that speak to a specific pain...
Once your structure is solid, the next piece of the puzzle is the ad copy itself. With your new, tightly-themed ad groups, you can now write ads that speak directly to the searcher's specific problem. This is something that's impossible with a single, generic campaign.
You need to adopt the Problem-Agitate-Solve framework. You don't sell "electrical services"; you sell a solution to a frustrating, urgent, and often expensive problem.
Let's compare ad copy for two of your ad groups within the "Franchise - Manchester" campaign:
Ad for the 'Installation' Ad Group:
- Headline 1: Expert Electrical Installations
- Headline 2: Serving Manchester for 15+ Years
- Description: Planning a new kitchen or office fit-out? Don't risk faulty wiring. Our certified electricians ensure your installation is safe, compliant, and done right the first time. Get a free, no-obligation quote today.
This ad speaks to someone planning a project. The 'problem' is the risk of bad wiring. The 'agitation' is the mention of safety and compliance. The 'solution' is a free quote from a certified professional.
Ad for an 'Emergency/Repair' Ad Group:
- Headline 1: 24/7 Emergency Electrician
- Headline 2: Fast Call-Outs in Manchester
- Description: Power out? Flickering lights? Don't wait for a disaster. Our emergency team is on call 24/7 to find and fix your electrical faults fast. Call now for immediate help.
See the difference? This one is all about urgency. The 'problem' is a power outage. The 'agitation' is the risk of a disaster. The 'solution' is an immediate call-out. You would never run this ad in your 'Installation' ad group, because the audience intent is completely different. This level of relevance is what gets you cheaper clicks and, more importantly, better-qualified leads.
This is the main advice I have for you:
To wrap this all up, here is a summary of the actionable steps I recommend you take. This isn't just theory; it's a proven blueprint for multi-location service businesses that we've implemented time and again. It turns a potentially chaotic account into a well-oiled machine for generating leads.
| Component | Recommended Action | Why It's Better |
|---|---|---|
| Account Structure | Create 1 dedicated campaign per franchise location (13 total campaigns). | Gives you precise control over geo-targeting and budgets for each distinct market area. Stops budget waste. |
| Ad Group Strategy | Inside each campaign, create ad groups for each service (e.g., Installation, Survey, Branded). | Ensures your keywords, ads, and landing pages are tightly themed, boosting relevance, Quality Score, and lowering CPC. |
| Budget Management | Use Shared Budgets to manage spending across regional groups of campaigns (e.g., a "Northern" budget for 3 franchises). | Massively simplifies management. Instead of 13 daily budgets, you might only manage 2-3, while Google allocates funds efficiently. |
| Ad Copywriting | Write specific ads for each ad group using a Problem-Agitate-Solve approach. | Speaks directly to the user's immediate need, dramatically increasing click-through rates and lead quality. |
| Conversion Tracking | Ensure you are accurately tracking every lead form submission and every phone call from your ads. | Without this, you're flying blind. It's the only way to know which campaigns and keywords are actually making you money. |
You'll need an expert to get it right...
I know this is a lot to take in, and it might still seem daunting. The truth is, while the principles are straightforward, the execution can be tricky. Getting the settings right, doing the keyword research for 39 ad groups, writing compelling copy, and setting up conversion tracking properly is time-consuming and has a lot of potential pitfalls.
This is where working with a specialist can make a huge difference. An expert can get this entire structure built for you correctly from day one, saving you the costly trial-and-error phase that drains so many businesses' budgets. We could not only build this foundation but also manage the ongoing optimisation—testing ads, adjusting bids, and refining targeting—to continually improve your cost per lead and ensure your investment is generating a real return.
Since this isn't your full-time job, having someone in your corner to handle the complexities allows you to focus on what you do best: running your business and serving the new customers we send your way.
If you'd like to discuss this further, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your current situation together and map out a more detailed plan of action tailored specifically to your franchises. It's a great way to get some expert eyes on your strategy and see if we'd be a good fit.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
