Effective MCC (My Client Center) management is the foundation that supports the success of multi-location marketing agencies and franchise brand marketing teams’ Google, Facebook and Bing PPC programs. Your company’s MCC structure will determine the scale, quality, efficiency and profitability of your PPC program. PPC is long term service that requires continual adjustment and updating, without correct structure the resulting disorder can render the work impossible.
Good: Centralized National PPC Campaigns with Location Exclusions
Starting with the “Good” approach, having one single account with a national PPC campaign and location exclusions may seem like a streamlined strategy. The advantages of this method are evident – centralization allows for quick execution. It’s simple and easy. However, the cons loom large when it comes to serving individual or multi-unit owner franchisees. With this approach one cannot allocate portions of a budget to individual franchisees, billing individual franchisees becomes a herculean task, reporting lacks meaning for individual locations, and local customization is impossible. In the long term, this approach can result in high churn as it is nearly impossible to communicate ROI/ value added to individual franchisees. This approach is most appropriate when the goal is simply national branding.
In Summary:
Pros:
- Streamlined strategy with a single account and national PPC campaign.
- Quick execution, simple, and easy to manage.
- Ideal for achieving national branding goals.
Cons:
- Budget cannot be allocated to individual franchisees
- Billing individual franchisees becomes challenging.
- Reporting lacks meaningful insights for individual locations.
- Local customization is impossible, limiting tailored approaches for specific regions.
Better: Individual Campaigns for Each Franchisee Location
Moving on to the “Better” approach, creating individual campaigns for each franchisee location provides a more tailored strategy. The campaigns can be customized to fit the demographic and location constraints of each territory, fostering a more personalized connection. However, the downside of this approach surfaces in the form of efficiency hurdles. Customization demands detailed organization, and reporting becomes siloed because data isn’t standardized, requiring substantial time to reference different campaigns. Creating and sustaining multiple campaigns for a single location/franchisee can become very complicated and messy. Billing and invoicing individual or multiple locations also pose significant challenges, with potential for errors that can compound over time.
In Summary:
Pros:
- More tailored strategy with individual campaigns for each franchisee location.
- Customization to fit demographic and location constraints fosters a personalized connection.
Cons:
- Efficiency hurdles due to detailed organization required for customization.
- Siloed reporting due to lack of standardized data, time-consuming to reference different campaigns.
- Risk of reporting data becoming meaningless between locations without standardization.
- Billing and invoicing challenges; it is impossible to link a payment method of a single franchisee directly in Google without a separate account for that franchisee resulting in invoicing errors that will easily compound over time
Best: One Account, Multiple Campaigns – Tailored for Each Franchisee Location
And finally the “Best” practice – having an account with at least one campaign for each location. This approach offers unparalleled benefits and is obligatory for any enterprise level PPC program. Providing customized local campaigns becomes a breeze, ensuring maximum relevance. Reporting is location-specific, delivering meaningful and accurate insights that drive informed decision-making. Billing and invoicing are streamlined, significantly reducing the risk of errors.
In adopting the “Best” practice, multi-location marketing agencies and franchise brand marketing teams empower themselves to navigate the intricacies of managing PPC campaigns seamlessly. The ease of customization, accuracy in reporting, and accountability in billing contribute to a well-rounded strategy that aligns with the diverse needs of individual franchisee locations. The one disadvantage to this strategy is that it requires some expertise in how to set up and structure the accounts and campaigns correctly. This will take some initial time investment and perhaps require some consultation.
In Summary:
Pros:
- Unparalleled benefits with at least one campaign for each location.
- Customized local campaigns for maximum relevance.
- Location-specific reporting provides meaningful and accurate insights.
- Streamlined billing and invoicing, reducing the risk of errors.
- Well-rounded strategy aligns with diverse needs of individual franchisee locations.
Cons:
- Requires expertise in setting up and structuring accounts and campaigns correctly.
- Initial time investment and possible consultation needed.
Choosing the good, better or best approach is dependent on your agency or franchise brand’s goals for your local Google/Meta/Microsoft PPC program. When making this decision, ask yourself the following questions about your client or brand’s product/service, (if the answer is yes to any of these questions we strongly suggest adopting the best approach).
- Do the franchisees’s ads benefit from meaningful data?
- Do the franchisees ads require local customization?
- Are you serving more than 20 locations?
The journey from good, to better, to best MCC management practices is a progression towards scale, efficiency, accuracy and risk reduction. Each tier of MCC structure can be used successfully but as your business grows, pay attention to this process and change your MCC structure when it becomes necessary.
Adplorer stands as a beacon in this journey, offering a tool that can take siloed data from multiple accounts and campaigns and create meaningful reports through a customizable dashboard, provide templated campaigns and custom alerts to reduce campaign management burden and simplify/automate individual location invoicing through an invoicing tool.
If you’re interested in building an efficient, scalable PPC operation that will grow your business and your partner’s businesses click the link below to learn more about Adplorer.
**Please note that Adplorer now offers MCC consulting services to help franchise brands and agencies implement the Best Practices described above.**