Why Your Franchise Locations Are Competing Against Each Other on Google

If you run paid ads for a multi-location franchise system, there's a very good chance two or more of your locations are bidding against each other right now. You won't see it in any single account view. You'll just notice CPCs creeping up and conversion rates softening.

How it happens

Franchisees pick their service area. Corporate sets a different one. The agency layers in a third radius for "spillover." Three months later, location A in one suburb and location B 12 miles away are both showing for the same query in the overlap zone.

Google doesn't tell you. It just charges both of you.

How to spot it

1. Pull a Geographic report at the city level for each location.
2. Cross-reference cities that appear in multiple location accounts.
3. For any overlap city, check who's actually closer / better positioned to convert.

How to fix it

• Define exclusive primary territories per location.
• Use location exclusions, not just inclusions.
• For franchise systems with corporate-level brand campaigns, exclude all franchisee territories from the corporate campaign.

The result is usually a 10–25% CPC reduction within 30 days, with no loss in volume.