2024 AFDR Data Bytes You Can Use

Franchise Update Media has been researching franchise lead generation and franchisee recruitment processes for more than a decade. An annual in-depth online survey queries franchise development professionals about a number of issues related to their lead generation and recruitment strategies.

All the responses are collected, aggregated, and analyzed to produce a detailed look into the recruitment and development practices, budgets, spending allocations, and strategies of a wide cross-section of franchisors. The results are presented each year in the Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR), which can be ordered online at afdr.franchiseupdate.com.

The 2024 AFDR report is a valuable resource that can provide crucial insights on franchise development lead generation and recruitment best practices. It’s the kind of information that can help brands assess what they are doing right, and what needs improvement.

This is the beginning of a series of articles that will draw out a few important insights from this year’s AFDR in upcoming issues of the Franchise Leadership & Development Report. It’s hopefully the kind of information that can give you an edge in your lead generation and recruitment efforts.

For perspective, this year’s study surveyed a 120 brands. The franchisors had 2,533 company-owned units and 24,101 franchise units. The brands represented a variety of segments, including food, retail food, nonfood retail, brick-and-mortar service, and service based on population and territory.

Recruitment budgets 

Franchisors were asked about their recruitment budgets for advertising efforts and development teams. Fifty-seven percent of brands report higher recruitment budgets for 2024 over 2023. Ad budgets have ticked upward for the past decade.

For 2024, the overall franchise development employee budget—including salaries, benefits, and bonuses—was reported to be $471,155. The overall franchise recruitment media budget was $263,409. The total franchise recruitment budget—not including brokers—was $734,564.

  Franchisors also listed their 2024 sales goals as 43 locations/units with 72% new franchisees and 28% existing franchisees.

2023 media spend

Tracking ad spending and its effectiveness are important parts of an effective recruitment strategy. For 2023, the recruitment media spend as a percent of the budget was as follows:

• Digital, 45%
• Print, 6%
• Referrals, 7%
• Trade shows, 11%
• PR, 14%
• Brokers, 29%
• Email, 9%
• Direct mail, 3%
• Broadcast, 4%
• Franchise opportunity site, 15%
• Other, 5%

There’s no question that digital advertising dominates the budget spend and is an effective tool in franchise recruiting. But brands should also watch and nurture their efforts to recruit from referrals.