Franchise Lead Generation Best Practices Update – Google Removes Paid Keyword Data From Analytics in the Name of Privacy

September 28, 2022 — Franchise marketers using the data on keywords that converted to visitors to tune their paid search programs suffered significant signal loss on September 1, 2022 when Google stopped providing this data in its Analytics products  “to meet a higher privacy threshold.”    What does this mean for franchise lead generation through pay per click?

Less Insight into Visitor Intent

Visibility in Google Analytics into the keywords that drive traffic gives search marketers information about the intent of the user visit, and the opportunity to develop content around what franchise prospects are looking for. Seeing what actually brings in new visitors for your ad dollars helps identify new keywords to bid on and when to apply or increase budget.

Less Ability to Identify Wasted Spend

Conversely, this keyword data allowed you to identify “negative keywords” that cost you ad dollars but didn’t convert. For example, paid search dollars spent on users looking for a coupon or a retail location could be excluded. Now you won’t see them unless they pass the threshold of thirty clicks.

What is the magnitude of this impact? Search marketing experts estimate that by limiting your keyword visibility to keywords that get 30 or more visitors, as much as 99% of keyword data is no longer available. More keyword data is available in Adwords than Analytics, but still less than in the past, and without the insight into what the visitor did on your website..

Add this to the list of headwinds for franchises using digital marketing to find the best prospects for their offerings. Last year, Apple reduced tracking across mobile apps, which Meta (parent of Facebook, Instagram) estimated would reduce their ad revenues (including your franchise lead generation results) by $10 billion in 2022. Google announced a similar initiative, but has pushed back the timeline into 2023 or 2024. Further, Google announced the deprecation of third party cookies in its dominant Chrome browser, following in Apple’s footsteps with Safari, which will impair your ability to do campaign retargeting.

All this means higher costs (more waste), and more work to ensure return on investment  in paid search. What to do about it?

The best advice is to utilize the first party data — that franchisors and suppliers gather on their own sites — which becomes significantly more valuable for targeting. Further, when lead generation portals provide contact information of persons requesting more information, and initial contact is established, that becomes “first party” data to the franchise advertiser. Optimizing the nurturing of those inquiries  and referred visits to your franchise development website — through phone, text and drip email marketing channels — will continue to grow as critical skills in franchise development.

Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.

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Published on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022.