Beyond CPL: A Franchise Brand CMO’s Guide to PPC Performance Evaluation
In lead generation PPC, Cost Per Lead (CPL) has long been the most visible and relied-upon KPI. For franchise brands managing large, distributed networks of franchisee locations, CPL provides a simple, scalable way to measure campaign success.
But smart franchise brand CMOs know that CPL alone doesn’t tell the whole story. To truly evaluate and optimize PPC performance across a network, CMOs must look at their paid media efforts in totality — factoring in campaign structure, market maturity, seasonal patterns, and multi-channel strategies.
Let’s dig into why CPL can be misleading if viewed in isolation, and how CMOs can create a fuller, smarter PPC evaluation framework.
Why CPL Can Be Misleading
At first glance, a low CPL might seem like a home run. But without context, it can mask important nuances.
Example 1: Brand Name vs. Service Keywords
Bidding on a franchise’s brand name (e.g., “Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning”) typically results in extremely low CPLs. These searchers already know your brand — they’re high-intent and have little competition, making clicks cheap and conversions easy.
Meanwhile, lower-funnel service searches like “carpet cleaning near me” or mid-funnel phrases like “best carpet cleaning tips” face steeper competition and usually higher CPCs. Leads from these keywords cost more — but they also introduce your brand to new customers, not just those already familiar.
If you only chase low CPLs, you risk over-indexing on branded campaigns and underinvesting in true market expansion.
Example 2: Aggregated CPL and Market Maturity
CPL can also vary widely based on seasonality and location maturity:
- A pest control franchise might see rock-bottom CPLs in peak spring and early summer — and much higher CPLs in fall and winter.
- A newly opened plumbing franchise in a new city will likely have a high CPL for the first 6-12 months as it builds brand awareness and reputation, compared to a 10-year veteran location.
If you aggregate CPL across the entire network without segmenting by season and market age, you risk misinterpreting natural trends as performance issues.
The Importance of Historical and Granular Data
To truly assess PPC health, CMOs must track historical CPL data:
- At the brand level: Understand how overall CPL trends move year-over-year or season-over-season.
- At the franchisee level: Spot which local markets are improving or struggling relative to their own past performance.
- At the keyword level: Analyze whether certain keywords (branded, service, mid-funnel) are becoming more efficient or expensive over time.
This enables the CMO to establish accurate benchmarks — and critically, to evaluate whether CPL is stable or, ideally, trending down.
However, if you notice CPL is dropping, it’s crucial to ensure you’re making an apples-to-apples comparison.
Is the improved CPL due to smarter keyword strategies and real efficiency gains?
Or is it simply because the campaigns have shifted budget away from costly prospecting keywords to cheap branded ones?
Without that nuance, it’s easy to celebrate “improvements” that may actually represent lost growth potential.
Total lead volume also plays a major role in interpreting CPL. A low CPL with only a handful of leads isn’t necessarily a win — it may indicate underinvestment or limited campaign reach. On the other hand, a slightly higher CPL may be completely justifiable if it’s driving a high volume of qualified leads with strong conversion potential. In a multi-location franchise environment, CMOs must constantly balance efficiency (CPL) with scale (lead volume) to ensure campaigns deliver real business impact across regions and stages of maturity.
Beyond CPL: Additional Metrics CMOs Should Track
Leading franchise brand CMOs supplement CPL with other critical performance metrics, especially at the top of the funnel:
- CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
Monitoring CPM can help assess how efficiently your brand is gaining awareness. A falling CPM on Meta Ads or Google Display, for example, can signal less wasted spend and broader brand exposure. - Reduced Waste via Optimization
Waste reduction isn’t just about lowering CPL — it’s about tightening the entire funnel:
- Keyword Optimization: Regularly eliminate non-converting keywords, refine match types, and prioritize higher-intent search terms.
- Seasonal Budget Shifts: Allocate more to high-performing keywords in peak seasons and scale back intelligently during slow periods.
Home Service Example:
An HVAC franchise might pause AC repair keywords in winter, reallocating spend toward furnace repair or maintenance, ensuring budget isn’t wasted on out-of-season demand.
- Smarter Channel Mix
Channel selection matters just as much as keyword strategy.
Home Service Example:
A lawn care franchise could:
- Prioritize Meta Ads for brand awareness campaigns in late winter (before the busy spring season) — targeting homeowners with tips for spring lawn prep.
- Then pivot to bottom-funnel Google Search in spring and early summer, focusing on high-intent keywords like “lawn care company near me” when consumers are ready to buy.
Similarly, a garage door repair franchise might run Facebook lead-gen ads in December promoting “winter garage door maintenance,” while in April it shifts Google budget toward urgent searches like “garage door won’t open.”
Finally, lead quality plays a huge role in how meaningful a low or high CPL actually is. Not all leads are created equal — a low-cost lead that never converts is far less valuable than a higher-cost lead that turns into a repeat customer. That’s why savvy CMOs look beyond the surface and work with operations and sales to measure actual revenue contribution and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). The best way to do this is through a CRM integration that allows the brand to track each lead from click to customer. With this data in place, you can start optimizing campaigns not just for quantity, but for long-term profitability. Adplorer offers seamless CRM integrations with custom lead attribution models that help franchise brands tie PPC campaigns to revenue and CLV — giving CMOs the full-funnel visibility they need to make smarter decisions.
Conclusion: CMOs Must See the Whole Field
Today’s franchise brand CMOs need to resist the temptation to chase the lowest possible CPL at all costs. Instead, they must:
- Analyze CPL trends historically and at multiple levels (brand, franchisee, keyword)
- Confirm that gains are truly apples-to-apples improvements
- Supplement CPL with broader metrics like CPM, lead quality, and channel efficiency
- Build adaptive, seasonal PPC strategies across channels like Google and Meta
At Adplorer we believe in this guide so much we want you to take it with you! Download our Franchise Brand CMO’s CPL Interpretation Checklist below and put your new found knowledge to work!
Franchise Brand CMO’s CPL Interpretation Checklist
CPL is important — but real leadership comes from seeing beyond it.
At Adplorer, we make it easy for franchise brand CMOs to access all the critical PPC data points discussed — from historical CPL trends to keyword-level performance insights — all in one platform. With powerful tools for bulk editing, ad grant fund management, budget optimization, and pacing, Adplorer helps brands reduce PPC management costs while maximizing campaign efficiency across every location. R
Ready to build your franchise marketing system with smarter software? Schedule a demo and see how Adplorer helps franchise brands grow faster—locally and at scale.
