Changes in Cost Per Lead for Top Paid Franchise Development Lead Generation Sources

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

April 9, 2025 – Most systems responding to the 2025 Franchise Development Lead Generation Survey anticipated increased spending in 2025,  despite experiencing higher costs per lead for most sources in 2024.

In 2025, 87% of franchisors expect to employ Google paid advertising (including YouTube), up from 82.5% in 2024, despite 24.6% of them reporting that lead costs increased somewhat, and 7.3% significantly.

Meta (Instagram and Facebook) rose to second place at 76.8% in anticipated usage for 2025, up from 69.8% in 2024, while 26.1% of them reporting that lead costs increased somewhat, and 5.8% significantly.

Brokers or Referral Networks fall to third in usage in 2025, as Meta (Instagram/Facebook) rises to second place for franchise development sources.

Brokers and referral networks as a group grew from 71.4% usage to 73.9%, moving to third place among paid lead sources. Cost per lead for this source as a group was seen as increasing somewhat by 17.4% of systems reporting, and by 7.3% increasing significantly.

Franchise Portals as a group grew from 61.9% usage to 68.6%, an increase of 10.8%, the highest growth among the top four sources. Cost per lead for this lead source as a group was seen as increasing somewhat by 21.7% of systems reporting, and by 5.8% as increasing significantly. [Note: Franchise Insights is sponsored by Franchise Ventures, the largest lead generation platform.]

Franchise Portals will grow the most in usage in 2025 among the top four sources of franchise development leads, according to survey respondents.

LinkedIn was used by 46% of franchise developers in 2024, while 17.7% of them reported that lead costs there increased somewhat, and 4.4% significantly.

TikTok was used by only 15.9% of franchise developers in 2024, and 2.9% of them reported that lead costs increased somewhat, and none said they increased significantly.

Despite challenging business conditions and the distractions of an election year, more than 58% of franchisors surveyed either stuck to their growth plans (50.0%) or increased them. Franchises increasing their expansion plans (8.3%) included all  tiers of system sizes, and 98% of them increased their spending in 2024 across the four largest third-party advertising platforms.

Supporting the validity of data from the Franchise Insights 2025 Franchise Lead Generation Sources survey, a broad cross-section of franchise development teams participated, from emerging systems to well-established franchises with many thousands of units.

FranchiseInsights.com surveys franchisors periodically to get a pulse on the industry, provide benchmarking and identify franchise development best practices. This survey was conducted in January 2025.

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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, April 9th, 2025.