Rules
Part of Franchise advertising fund: what Item 11 discloses and how to reconcile it
What a serious franchise advertising checklist covers
Franchise advertising checklist: verify objectives, fund authority, accounts, claims, local facts, creative, destinations, routing, capacity, and measurement.
What to take away
A franchise advertising checklist should stop preventable failures without turning review into theater.
- Use the checklist at approval, launch, daily control, and closeout.
- A passed media setup cannot excuse an inaccurate destination or broken response path.
- Keep evidence with the campaign record, not in private inboxes.
Assign every item to a named owner. Attach the source record, date, and exception.
Approval gate
Approval checklist
- State objective, audience, geography, dates, budget
- Confirm fund or local-spend authority
- Document account ownership and agency role
- Approve each claim with current evidence
- Clear talent, music, image, logo rights
- Record privacy, consent, disclosure, jurisdiction review
- Confirm who controls the franchise ad fund, who may approve spend, and what the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) requires. The FTC Franchise Rule (16 CFR Part 436) governs franchise advertising and earnings claims; Item 19 of the FDD carries any earnings claims.
- Check the state franchise registration/examiner instructions and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) franchise advertising guidelines that apply to the states where the ad will run. Some states require registration and may review advertising; confirm the specific state's requirements before launch.
- Check co-op rules for required participation, matching funds, approved vendors, creative approval, reimbursement windows, and local spend caps. Record the exact percentages, caps, and windows from the current franchise agreement or co-op fund rules.
- Substantiate every claim before use. Earnings, savings, rankings, and before-and-after claims need a reasonable basis, a source record, and legal review.
- Name the sign-offsbrand, legal, franchise development, local operator, media, finance, and one accountable campaign owner.
Destination and creative
Check the destination and creative against the ad platform policies that apply: Google Ads destination requirements, Meta advertising standards, Microsoft Advertising policies, and TikTok advertising policies. These platforms require functional, useful, easy-to-navigate destinations and disallow certain destination experiences. Platform rules are not a complete usability or legal review. Test the exact final URL, redirects, mobile page, form, call route, confirmation, tracking, and offer fulfillment.
- Match offer, location, proof, terms, and action from ad to destination
- Verify price, dates, hours, inventory, service area, phone, staff, and capacity
- Preview every placement, aspect ratio, device, language, and dynamic field
- Check spelling, pronunciation, captions, readable text, contrast, and focus order
- Meet WCAG 2.1 AA for the destination and any ad creative that carries text or interactive elements
- Fail safely when a feed or local value is blank, stale, or unavailable
Use the W3C alternative-text decision tree to decide whether each franchise ad image needs a brief description, functional alternative, equivalent information, or an empty alt attribute. Apply that decision to the owned destination and any ad placement that exposes an alternative-text field. Pair it with WCAG 2.1 AA for the full accessibility check.
Launch and control
| Moment | Verification |
|---|---|
| Before publish | Correct account, dates, zones, exclusions, budget, bid, and conversion |
| First delivery | Actual creative, destination, call, form, lead, and receipt |
| Daily | Spend, disapprovals, facts, routing, capacity, and anomalies |
| Weekly | Queries, placements, frequency, quality, outcomes, and overlap |
Measurement and reconciliation
Track spend, cost per lead, lead-to-booked-job rate, cost per booked job, and revenue after fees, discounts, labor, refunds, and waste.
Reconcile platform spend to invoices, deduplicate leads, map each lead to its final CRM disposition, and tie closed revenue back to the campaign. Record the matching rule and the date of each reconciliation.
Closeout
- Stop scheduled, automated, local, and partner delivery
- Capture spend, credits, invoices, versions, settings, and changes
- Reconcile leads through final disposition and customer outcome
- Calculate contribution after fees, discounts, labor, refunds, and waste
- Record what changed, what remains uncertain, and the next decision
- Expire creative, claims, audiences, access, and temporary data as required
Record the gate result
Map franchise advertising privacy duties: collect only data the ad or lead form needs, use it only for the stated purpose, secure the lead file, and honor deletion requests. Use the W3C Privacy Principles statement for shared privacy concepts, then review the governing law and configuration.
For franchise ad technology, ask the vendor how it handles lead data, tracking, and ad delivery, and confirm that platform policies and privacy duties are met. Use those answers in the vendor review, not as local approval.
For every checklist item, record pass, fail, not applicable, or accepted exception. Add the evidence location, reviewer, decision date, and next review. A checked box without proof cannot protect a release. Stop the work when a mandatory privacy, security, data-quality, accessibility, or correction condition fails, even if the remaining score looks favorable.
Checklist item record
- Approval gate
- result, evidence location, reviewer, decision date
- Destination and creative
- result, evidence location, reviewer, decision date
- Launch and control
- result, evidence location, reviewer, decision date
- Measurement and reconciliation
- result, evidence location, reviewer, decision date
- Closeout
- result, evidence location, reviewer, decision date
Set the next review date for the franchise advertising checklist and name the change that would trigger an earlier check.
Record rejected options and chosen path because the original constraint may later change. Use the same definitions in the interface, export, meeting note, and correction log.
Common questions
Who signs the checklist?
Use named owners for legal, brand, media, local facts, destination, routing, measurement, and finance, plus one accountable campaign owner.
Can software complete the checklist?
Software can test fields and rules, but people must judge claim meaning, rights, customer experience, source fit, and operational truth.
Should every campaign use the same checklist?
Keep common control gates, then add format, product, audience, jurisdiction, and location-specific requirements.
