Where Franchise Ad Funds Actually Go (2026)
By Casey Slaughter Stanton, Founder & CEO, CMOx · Updated September 2026
Franchisees pay into the ad fund every month. Item 11 of the FDD has to say how last year's fund was spent. Across 718 franchise disclosure documents that report it, the average fund dollar went 39% to media and 18% to administration, and one fund in 4 spent a quarter or more running itself.
The average ad fund dollar
- Media placement 39%
- Production and creative 18%
- Administration 18%
- Website, software and technology 10%
- Other 14%
- Public relations 1%
Medians are lower than averages because a minority of funds spend heavily on one category: the median fund put 38% into media, 11% into production and 10% into administration.
How much goes to administration
- 26% of funds spent a quarter or more of the money on administration.
- 10% spent more than half on administration.
- 48% kept administration under 10%.
- 35% of funds spent less than a quarter on media placement; 38% spent half or more.
- 1.8% of funds list franchise sales as a use, though 22% of FDDs permit it.
Each figure is the share of the 718 FDDs with a spending breakdown. Administration includes salaries of the people who run the fund, management fees and overhead, as each FDD labels them.
By industry
| Industry | Media | Production | Administration | Admin 25%+ | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All franchises | 39% | 18% | 18% | 26% | n=718 |
| Beauty, Salon & Med Spa | 39% | 16% | 22% | 50% | n=30, small sample |
| Fitness | 26% | 23% | 22% | 32% | n=34, small sample |
| Business Services | 34% | 13% | 21% | 33% | n=36, small sample |
| Coffee, Beverage, Dessert & Bakery | 40% | 22% | 20% | 31% | n=70 |
| Full-Service Restaurants & Bars | 44% | 19% | 20% | 33% | n=27, small sample |
| Cleaning & Janitorial | 34% | 15% | 20% | 29% | n=31, small sample |
| Quick-Service & Fast-Casual Restaurants | 46% | 18% | 18% | 27% | n=98 |
| Repair, Remodel & Home Improvement | 45% | 19% | 18% | 26% | n=42, small sample |
| Pet Services | 37% | 20% | 16% | 24% | n=21, small sample |
| Automotive | 45% | 16% | 16% | 16% | n=25, small sample |
| Childcare, Education & Kids | 44% | 19% | 14% | 23% | n=47, small sample |
| Senior & Home Care | 37% | 15% | 14% | 12% | n=26, small sample |
| Retail | 23% | 46% | 11% | 10% | n=31, small sample |
| Hotels & Lodging | 41% | 11% | 8% | 2% | n=49, small sample |
| Real Estate, Insurance & Financial | 49% | 14% | 6% | 3% | n=29, small sample |
What it means
No figure here is a verdict on any one system. A fund needs people to run it, and some systems report their marketing team's salaries as administration. The question the numbers raise is simpler: can a franchisee see what their contribution bought in their market? In 54% of FDDs the franchisor has no obligation to spend it there. When nobody owns the answer, the fund becomes a cost of doing business rather than a marketing budget.
We found no clear link between how much a fund spends on administration and whether the system grew or shrank over three years. What separates growing systems is who directs local marketing, covered in the statistics report.
Frequently asked questions
How is a franchise ad fund spent?
Across 718 franchise disclosure documents that report last year's ad fund spending, the average fund dollar went 39% to media placement, 18% to production and creative, 18% to administration, 10% to website, software and technology, and 14% to other uses.
How much of a franchise ad fund goes to administration?
The median fund spent 10% on administration and the average 18%. 26% of funds spent a quarter or more on administration, and 10% spent more than half.
Do franchisors use the ad fund to sell franchises?
Few report doing so. 1.8% of funds with a spending breakdown list franchise sales as a use, although 22% of FDDs permit it.
How this was measured
Every one of the 1,244 FDDs was searched for its Item 11 disclosure of last year's fund spending. Readers recorded each FDD's own categories with a verbatim quote, and mapped them to seven groups. 718 FDDs report a breakdown that sums to 95–105% and passes a check against the source text; 44 more were excluded because their own figures did not add up or could not be matched to the text. Of the rest, 65 report that nothing was spent, 29 that the fund is not yet operating, and 385 give no usable breakdown. Most figures cover fiscal 2025. Shares are normalized so each fund sums to 100. No brand is named. Source: FDDs filed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. CC BY 4.0. More: Franchise Marketing Statistics (2026) · benchmarks by industry.
