Create Different Social Media Campaigns for a New Franchise Location
Create reusable ad playbooks that support a franchise location from its grand opening through ongoing local marketing.
For new franchise locations, a single campaign isn't always enough. Different stages of the location's lifecycle have different goals, from generating awareness before opening to promoting limited-time offers and maintaining a steady stream of local customers.
Use Playbooks to create repeatable campaigns that franchisees can opt into and launch with their own local budgets, schedules, creative, and targeting.
Info Box: What Solutions Can You Build Campaigns In?
You can create these campaigns in Meta Ads, as well as build similar campaigns in Google Ads and ChatGPT Ads.
However, the available campaign objectives, targeting options, creative formats, and other settings can differ between advertising platforms.
Recommended Campaigns for a New Location
A strong starting campaign strategy includes:
| Campaign | When to Use | Recommended Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Opening | Before and immediately after a location opens | Build local awareness and drive opening-related action |
| Seasonal / Limited Offer | For a temporary promotion, event, or special offer | Drive traffic, leads, or conversions around the offer |
| Ongoing / Evergreen | After the location is established | Maintain consistent local awareness and customer acquisition |
How to Create a Playbook
The build process is similar for each campaign type.
- Open the appropriate paid advertising solution.
- Go to Playbooks and click Create.
- Add the playbook's basic information.
- Choose which workspaces should have access.
- Select how the playbook will launch.
- Set the budget and schedule.
- Choose the campaign objective.
- Configure the audience, creative, and ads.
- Add any workspace questions or local inputs needed at opt-in.
- Review the playbook and click Create.
You don't need to configure every setting differently for every campaign. The key is choosing the right objective, timing, campaign type, creative, and workspace inputs for the stage you're targeting.
1. Grand Opening Playbook
A Grand Opening Playbook is designed to introduce a new franchise location to its local market and build awareness around its opening.
Best For
- New locations preparing to open
- Locations announcing an opening date
- Grand opening events
- Generating awareness in the surrounding community
- Driving people to learn more, visit, book, or take another opening-related action
Recommended Playbook Settings
Playbook Type: One Time
A grand opening has a defined event and timeline, so a one-time playbook is generally the best fit.
Recommended Objective: Awareness
Use an awareness-focused objective when the primary goal is to get the new location in front of people in its local market.
If the grand opening has a specific conversion goal, such as bookings, registrations, leads, or another measurable action, choose the objective that best matches that action instead.
Launch: Workspace Opt-Ins
Let franchisees confirm their local opening information, dates, landing page, and other details before the campaign launches.
Creative: Hub Provides Media
For highly branded grand opening campaigns, provide approved images, videos, logos, or other creative from the Hub.
You can also allow workspaces to provide local media when the campaign benefits from location-specific content like showing off building pictures, owners, behind the scenes shots, and opening day pictures.
Helpful Opt-In Questions
Only ask for information that isn't already stored in Workspace Variables or Ad Configuration.
Examples:
- What is your grand opening date?
- What local offer or event are you promoting?
- What landing page should the ad link to?
- Is there a specific opening-day event you want to promote?
Recommended Timing
Start promoting the location before the grand opening so the local audience has time to become familiar with the new business.
Consider creating separate creative or messaging for:
- Coming Soon
- Opening Soon
- Now Open
- Grand Opening Event
This lets the campaign evolve as the opening date approaches.
2. Seasonal / Limited Offer Playbook
Seasonal and limited-time campaigns give franchisees a reusable way to promote offers, events, holidays, or other time-sensitive opportunities.
Best For
- Seasonal promotions
- Limited-time discounts
- New products or services
- Holiday promotions
- Local events
- Special membership or trial offers
- Time-sensitive calls to action
Recommended Playbook Settings
Playbook Type: One Time
Use a one-time playbook when the campaign is tied to a specific promotion or date range.
Recommended Objective: Choose based on the offer
Unlike a Grand Opening campaign, there isn't one objective that works for every promotion.
Choose the objective based on what you want customers to do:
- Awareness → Get the offer in front of more local customers.
- Traffic → Send people to a promotion or landing page.
- Leads → Collect information from interested customers.
- Sales → Drive a specific purchase or conversion when supported.
Launch: Workspace Opt-Ins
Give franchisees the opportunity to select the approved offer, dates, landing page, or other local details.
Offer Variants: Recommended when applicable
If franchisees can choose from a set of approved offers, use Offer Variants instead of creating a separate playbook for every version.
For example, a Hub could provide:
- 10% off
- Free consultation
- $25 introductory offer
- New customer special
This keeps the campaign standardized while giving locations controlled flexibility.
Creative: Hub Provides Media
Use Hub-provided creative when the promotion should look consistent across the network.
Allow workspace-provided media when local photos, employees, events, or other location-specific content will make the offer more relevant.
Recommended Timing
Build the schedule around the offer's availability.
Give the campaign enough time to reach the local audience, but set a clear end date so the promotion doesn't continue after it expires.
3. Ongoing / Evergreen Playbook
Evergreen Playbooks give franchisees a repeatable campaign they can continue using after their grand opening and seasonal promotions.
Best For
- Ongoing customer acquisition
- Brand awareness
- Trial or introductory offers
- Core products or services
- Local lead generation
- Consistent advertising between seasonal campaigns
Recommended Playbook Settings
Playbook Type: Recurring Evergreen Process
Use this option when franchisees should be able to opt into the campaign repeatedly as one run ends.
Recommended Objective: Choose based on the ongoing business goal
For example:
- Awareness → Maintain visibility in the local market.
- Traffic → Drive visitors to a website or location page.
- Leads → Generate ongoing inquiries.
- Sales / Conversions → Drive a measurable customer action.
The objective should match the action the business wants customers to take rather than simply defaulting to the same objective for every evergreen campaign.
Allow Stacking: Usually Off
For most evergreen campaigns, keep stacking off so each location maintains one active run at a time.
Turn stacking on when a location intentionally needs multiple versions of the campaign running simultaneously.
Launch: Workspace Opt-Ins
Let franchisees choose their approved schedule and budget for each run.
Creative:
Evergreen campaigns benefit from having a library of approved creative rather than relying on a single image or ad.
Consider providing multiple:
- Images
- Videos
- Headlines
- Offers
- Calls to action
- Customer or product-focused creative
Refreshing creative periodically can help prevent the campaign from becoming repetitive.
Choosing the Right Campaign for Each Stage
Use the campaign type that matches the location's current needs.
Before Opening
Grand Opening Playbook
Focus on introducing the location and building awareness in the surrounding community.
Opening Period
Grand Opening Playbook
Shift messaging toward the location being open, the grand opening event, or a specific opening offer.
After Opening
Seasonal / Limited Offer Playbook
Use timely promotions to give customers a reason to visit, book, or purchase.
Ongoing
Evergreen Playbook
Maintain consistent local advertising around the location's core products, services, or customer acquisition goals.
Throughout the Year
Seasonal + Evergreen
Use evergreen campaigns as the foundation, then layer in limited-time campaigns when there is a specific promotion or seasonal opportunity.
Related Articles
Learn the core Playbook setup options and how to build reusable campaigns for your workspaces.
Monitor opt-ins, approve workspace creative, amend live runs, and track network performance.
Store location-specific information that can be used to personalize campaigns.
Click through the playbook opt-in flow step by step.