How AI Search is Reshaping Marketing for Franchise Brands and What to Do About It
AI is rewriting the marketing playbook for franchise and multi-location brands in real time. AI is not just enhancing the way marketers work. It is fundamentally changing how brands engage with customers, analyze performance, and stay competitive.
Marchex recently sat down with Crystal Ware, Chief Strategy Officer at Location3, to explore how AI search is driving a new era of transformation across digital marketing. We uncovered how brands have more opportunities than ever, but they also face new challenges that demand faster decision-making and tighter integration of customer conversation data and solutions
Here are the key takeaways that every marketing leader should know right now:
Search Is No Longer Just About Keywords
Keyword-driven campaigns were once the foundation of search strategy. Today, intent is the real driver, and platforms like Google are leveraging AI to interpret what a user might really want rather than just what they type. “This is semantic search on steroids,” says Ware. “Google knows the what, but now it also knows the why.”
She shared a revealing example. A customer searched for “Mike’s Oil Change,” even though her client wasn’t bidding on that competitor’s name. Because Google recognized that the user was looking for a quick oil change service, it still served her client’s ad. That ad led to meaningful engagement, despite not targeting the specific phrase and illustrates why understanding intent, not just keywords, is critical for marketers today.
Marketers need to anticipate a wider set of customer needs and contexts. Creative and copy must be fluid enough to adjust dynamically. Ad formats must support real-time optimization. The days of set-it-and-forget-it campaigns are over.
Call Tracking Has Evolved into Call Intelligence
Call tracking once simply informed marketers that a call had occurred. Now, AI-driven call intelligence platforms can analyze what happened during that call. The technology can determine whether the caller is new or returning, if an appointment has been booked, and whether the lead is qualified. This transforms calls from a black box into an actionable source of insights.
“Call tracking has become call measurement,” Ware says. “And the insights are influencing both marketing and operations.”
The results were immediate. In one case, a brand discovered that front-line staff were unintentionally turning customers away by referring them to competitors. That insight led to the creation of a new training program and onboarding process, improving both conversion rates and customer experience. The operational feedback loop is just as important as the marketing one. AI-powered solutions like Marchex help brands surface insights from real conversations that would otherwise be missed.
The Most Common Trend? Confusion
Ware says many marketers are overwhelmed. Privacy rules are shifting, costs are rising, and campaign performance is harder to pin down. “We’re seeing a lot of knee-jerk reactions in the market,” she says. “It’s not surprising. Everything is changing so quickly.”
AI-generated overviews in search are pushing higher costs to bid on branded terms, Ware said For example, Meta is seeing competition as advertisers attempt to reach shrinking target audiences. Customer journeys are fragmented and increasingly unpredictable.
To make sense of it all, Ware recommends going back to basics. Build a clean, structured source of truth for your first-party data. Connect it to your ad platforms to automate the flow of insights “If your customer data is not connected to your ad tech, your competitors are already ahead of you,” she says.
What Metrics Still Matter (And What Doesn’t)
Ware is a performance marketer at heart, and she is clear about which metrics brands should prioritize today. Ware advises marketers to shift their focus from vanity metrics to revenue-linked KPIs.
Start tracking:
- Qualified leads, not just calls. Did the caller book an appointment? Were they new or returning?
- Incrementality. Did your marketing generate net new demand?
- Revenue per booked appointment. Don’t stop at cost per lead.
- Channel correlation. Understand how branding activity impacts store visits, revenue, or appointment volume.
The following outdated metrics leave marketers flying blind on actual business impact.
Stop relying on:
- Click-to-call. This only means someone tapped the button. It tells you nothing about the results.
- Last-click attribution. This oversimplifies the journey and overstates the role of bottom-funnel channels.
AI-powered attribution from companies like Marchex allow marketers to close the loop from the initial interaction to the final conversion. That clarity makes budget allocation easier and campaign optimization more effective.
Move at the Speed of Your Customer
AI-powered tech is not just about automation but is about real-time responsiveness. Ware says marketers should be optimizing campaigns daily, not monthly. “We used to have quarterly creative calendars,” she says. “That approach no longer works.”
She recommends building a culture that encourages experimentation and iteration. At Location3, her team dedicates one meeting per month solely for AI tools testing and knowledge sharing. They also maintain a modest testing budget to explore new solutions, many of which are affordable or even free of charge.
The most successful brands are embracing the idea that the first version of a test might fail. The key is learning fast and applying insights quickly.
Three Immediate Priorities
Ware recommends that franchise and multi-location brand leaders focus on three strategic priorities right now:
- Structure your first-party customer conversation data and make it usable:
Gather data from different systems and create a unified, structured source of truth. Then automate its connection to your ad platforms to improve optimization and bid strategies.
- Modernize your measurement strategy:
Move beyond channel-by-channel analysis. Use a media mix modeling and closed-loop reporting to understand how your efforts drive tangible business outcomes. Shift from measuring leads to measuring booked appointments and revenue.
- Elevate your content strategy:
Invest in video and creative that adapts to changing formats and behaviors. Use AI tools to speed up testing and personalization. Align content across paid, organic, and SEO efforts to respond to how search results are evolving.
Ware also points to diversification as a critical focus. Many brands are seeing costs rise without understanding why. Smarter data and a broader channel mix can help control costs and uncover new opportunities.
Final Advice: Don’t Let Data Disorganization Hold You Back
Many brands have disorganized data, siloed systems, or even multiple CRMs. Ware says this is a common and solvable issue. “It’s an investment of time and resources, but it shouldn’t stop you from starting,” she says. “There’s a crawl-walk-run strategy for everything.”
Marketers need to build from where they are. That might mean launching an AI call tracking solution, testing AI-generated ad creative, or finally connecting CRM data to ad platforms. What matters is taking action.
If your brand depends on customer conversations, your data strategy needs to be as smart as your media strategy. And if AI is not yet a core part of your marketing infrastructure, now is the time to make that change.
Success will not go to the brands with the biggest budgets. It will go to the ones that adapt the fastest.
What insights you might be missing?
Connect with a Marchex expert and see how other organizations take advantage of industry-specific conversation intelligence.