---
title: "2018 AFDR Highlights: Where the Recruitment Budget Money Goes"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/2de210ac-0461-4888-ad91-78cd2cd6527f
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/articles/2018_afdr_highlights_where_the_recruitment_budget_money_goes.html
author: "Eddy Goldberg"
category: "Franchise Industry"
industry: "Franchise Industry"
published: 2017-12-31T08:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:11:19.104Z
image: https://imgs.franchising.com/art/articles/3710_plate.jpg
---

# 2018 AFDR Highlights: Where the Recruitment Budget Money Goes

**TL;DR:** The 2018 Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR) provides insights into recruitment and development practices, budgets, and strategies of franchisors. The report highlights where recruitment budget money goes, with 52% spent on overall digital spend.

*By Eddy Goldberg, originally published in Franchising.com on 2017-12-31. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/articles/2018_afdr_highlights_where_the_recruitment_budget_money_goes.html).*

## Story

This is the second in a series of highlights from the 2018 Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR). The 2018 AFDR, unveiled in mid-October at the annual Franchise Leadership & Development Conference, is based on responses from 142 franchisors representing 85,734 units (74,000 franchised and 11,734 company-owned). Participants in the survey consisted of franchisors that completed an extensive online questionnaire.

Responses were aggregated and analyzed to produce a detailed look into the recruitment and development practices, budgets, and strategies of a wide cross-section of franchisors. The data and accompanying commentary and analysis provide the basis of the 2018 AFDR. Ordering information is below.

Conference attendees received a complimentary copy. **This week: Recruitment budgets—where the money goes.** With the increased emphasis and steady shift to online recruitment methods, we did something new this year in the AFDR: we broke out spending on franchise websites and social media from the “digital” category.

Adding back spending on franchise websites (12 percent) and social media (10 percent) shows a total of 52 percent on overall digital spend, up slightly from previous years. We also added three new categories this year to provide finer granularity — direct mail, in-market meetings, and TV/radio — which subsequently reduced the “other” category. Spending on print (10 percent), trade shows (17 percent), and public relations (11 percent) has remained essentially the same over the past 6 years, with print showing a gradual decline as digital takes a greater share.

*Next time: Where the digital money goes, by category of spend.* ***Ordering Information** The complete 2018 AFDR, with analysis and benchmarks, is available for $350.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Franchise Industry (sector)
- franchise development (topic)
- Eddy Goldberg (person)
- digital marketing (topic)
- industry report (topic)
- recruitment budget (topic)

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Originally reported by Eddy Goldberg, Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/articles/2018_afdr_highlights_where_the_recruitment_budget_money_goes.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/2de210ac-0461-4888-ad91-78cd2cd6527f).