Launching a new franchise territory: the 90-day marketing plan

A new territory doesn't fail at month twelve. It fails in the first ninety days: usually because somebody bought leads before the foundation could catch them, or skipped the tracking that would have shown which dollars worked. Here's the launch plan we run, day by day, phase by phase.

Days 0–30: foundation (the unglamorous month)

Month one produces almost no leads, and that's by design. Everything in this phase either has a long lead time or makes every later dollar measurable.

Start the Google verifications on day one

The two longest lead times in any launch belong to Google:

• Google Business Profile. Create or claim the listing, owned by the franchise entity (never an agency's or employee's personal account), and start verification immediately: video verification is common for service-area businesses now, and re-dos cost weeks. Until GBP is verified, you can't reply to reviews, can't rank in Maps, and LSA has nothing to lean on.
• Local Services Ads. Background checks, insurance docs, and license verification where applicable run on Google's clock: plan on 2–6 weeks depending on market and trade. A launch that files LSA paperwork in week six spends its whole demand phase waiting. (More on how LSA ranking works in our LSA lead quality guide.)

Wire the infrastructure

• Data import from their FSM. Whether the location runs RealGreen, Service Autopilot, or Jobber, customer and job data comes in on day one. Even a brand-new territory usually inherits some accounts from a seller or a company-owned transition, and every completed job becomes a marketing trigger later.
• City landing pages. Every town in the territory gets its own page, generated from the system's brand template with local wording, not one "areas we serve" page trying to rank for twelve suburbs.
• Tracking on everything. Per-location tracking numbers, form tracking, and QR codes on any print. If a lead can't be attributed in month one, month three's budget meeting is guesswork.
• Review plumbing. Connect review requests to job completion in the FSM now, so the first customer of week five gets asked automatically.

Days 31–60: demand (turn the taps on)

With GBP verified and LSA cleared, or clearing, month two is about controlled ignition, not a spending spree.

• LSA + search live. Local Services Ads and templated search campaigns turn on with the territory's ZIPs and a starter budget. The campaigns aren't experiments; they're clones of what already works in sister territories, localized.
• Neighborhood blitz around the first jobs. The first completed jobs are marketing events. Each one triggers postcards to the surrounding homes: measured, priced for that specific address, QR-tracked. New trucks on a street make neighbors curious; a priced offer converts curiosity. (The full system is in the 9-Around Playbook.)
• Review velocity from day one. Ten reviews in the first sixty days beats two hundred someday. Google rewards recency, LSA ranking leans on ratings, and a 12-review profile with all of them from this month looks alive. Every completed job gets the ask, automatically.
• Rate every LSA lead. The habit that protects lead quality forever starts with lead one: rate, note, and dispute in the Lead Center so Google learns what a good lead looks like for this location.

Days 61–90: compounding (make it self-feeding)

• Content engine on. The system's editorial calendar starts publishing to the territory's pages: seasonal, local-ish content that builds organic and AI-search visibility while paid carries the load.
• Door-to-door territories drawn. With sixty days of customers and quotes on the map, knocking gets smart: reps work the streets around existing jobs, with current customers and open quotes visible so nobody knocks a customer's door.
• Budget rebalancing by CPL. Ninety days in, you have real cost-per-lead numbers by channel for this market. Shift budget toward whatever is cheapest per booked job here, not what worked in the founding market. Daily pacing catches drift before it eats a month.

What a launch budget actually looks like

Numbers below are an illustrative planning model for a residential outdoor-services territory in a mid-size market. Real budgets depend on market size, competition, and trade:

Channel	Days 0–30	Days 31–60	Days 61–90
Local Services Ads	$0 (verification in progress)	$1,200	$1,500
Google Search	$0–500 (brand terms only)	$1,500	$1,800
Neighborhood mail	$0	$400	$600
Setup: pages, tracking, GBP	$1,500–2,500 (one-time)	$0	$0
Monthly total	~$2,000–3,000	~$3,100	~$3,900

Illustrative model, not a quote. By day 90 the split should be re-weighted to this territory's actual cost per booked job.

The mistakes that kill launches

• Buying leads before GBP verification. Paid leads land on an unverified, review-less presence: you pay full freight for clicks that convert at half rate, and the reviews those first jobs should have generated have nowhere to live. Verification first, spend second.
• Skipping tracking to "move fast." A launch without per-channel tracking numbers and form attribution produces ninety days of anecdotes. Then the budget meeting is loudest-voice-wins, and the channel that actually booked jobs gets cut.
• One-size budgets. The founding market's $2,500/month does not transplant. A territory in a metro with three entrenched competitors needs a different mix and a different patience level than one in an underserved suburb. Budget to local CPL, rebalance monthly.
• Treating reviews as a later problem. The gap between "ask from job one" and "start asking in month four" is permanent: you never get those first sixty jobs back.

The takeaway: a 90-day launch is a sequencing problem. Verifications and tracking first, demand second, compounding third. Territories fail when they run the phases out of order: usually by spending on leads their foundation can't catch or count.

The 90-day launch checklist

1. Day 1: file GBP and LSA verification, import FSM data, provision tracking numbers.
2. Week 1–2: city pages live, forms and call tracking wired, review automation connected.
3. Day 31+: LSA and search on; postcards around every completed job.
4. Rate every LSA lead from lead one; ask for a review from job one.
5. Day 61+: content engine on, door-to-door territories drawn.
6. Day 90: rebalance the budget to this market's cost per booked job, and keep pacing daily.