The short answer
We run AEO Labs, and it is on this list, so read it as a list written by one of the agencies on it. We do have proof in this area, though less than the two agencies above us. Our client work includes multi-location services, and our case study for Rec Nation, a multi-state RV and boat storage operator, includes a Gemini answer that names it the best specialized multi-location operator. We have no franchisor client among our published case studies. That is why we are third and not first.
Every fact about another agency below comes from that agency's own website, checked on November 2, 2026. We did not use third-party lists as a source. Where an agency does not publish something, we write "not published" and leave it there. For the wider field outside multi-location, see the main list of the best AEO agencies.
The right pick depends less on your industry than on how your locations are owned:
- Franchisor with a brand fund and many franchisee-owned units: Ignite Visibility for one managed program, Location3 or ChoiceLocal if you want an agency built around franchising.
- Franchisee competing in one territory: Forthea, whose franchise AI case study is a single franchisee territory.
- Corporate-owned chain or PE-backed platform: Ignite Visibility, which names both segments, or AEO Labs if you want location and product coverage built across many markets plus off-site citation work.
- Regional chain of 5 to 50 units, or a service-area network: Frostbite Marketing or RicketyRoo.
- Multi-location retail and restaurants: Location3, whose case clients include Mountain Mike's Pizza, Honey Baked Ham and Wild Birds Unlimited.
- Multi-site healthcare (DSOs, clinics, urgent care): Frostbite Marketing, the only one that states HIPAA-aware work.
- Franchise development (recruiting new franchisees): LinzEO.
- You want a search-only agency with AI Overview citation numbers: Victorious.
How we picked
We searched for "best aeo agencies for multi-location brands", "franchise geo agency" and "multi-location ai search agency" and read what came back. The results mix agencies with location-management software and with agency listicles that rank their own author first. That pattern is common. When we asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 450 best-agency questions, 1,504 of 3,192 web citations (47.1%) pointed to an agency's self-published list of agencies. One franchise list on the first page quotes monthly prices that we could not find on the agencies' own sites.
So we went to the agencies directly. We kept an agency only if its own site says it serves franchise or multi-location brands and sells AI search work. Six of the eight competitors meet that bar outright. Two are generalists, Forthea and Victorious, kept because Forthea has the only franchise AI case study with numbers that we found, and Victorious sells AEO on its multi-location page. For each we read the service page, the franchise or multi-location page, pricing, case studies and the about page.
We compared six things:
- Who it serves. Franchisor, franchisee, corporate-owned chain, PE roll-up, regional chain or healthcare group.
- Published price. Only two agencies publish one.
- Contract terms. Only three publish them.
- A named AI result. A client, an engine and a number.
- Location-level work. Whether the agency talks about each location being found, or only the brand.
- Engine coverage. Which AI engines the agency says it tracks.
A note on software. Yext, SOCi, Uberall, Birdeye, BrightLocal and Rio SEO keep appearing in these searches. They are listings and location-management products, not agencies, so they are out of scope here. We did not review or price them. Some agencies below run their own platform as part of the service, and we note where.
The nine agencies at a glance
| Agency | Best for | Who it serves | Published price | Contract terms | Named AI result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ignite Visibility | Large franchise and multi-location systems, one managed program | 400+ multi-location brands; franchise systems, company-owned networks, PE-backed platforms | AI SEO $2,000 to $10,000+/mo | No long-term contract | Neighborly, OMMA award, +458% AI Overview visibility |
| Forthea | Buyers who want a franchise AI result with numbers | 500+ brands across many industries; no franchise practice page | Not published | Not published | Paul Davis Milwaukee, 1 to 61 AI Overview appearances |
| AEO Labs | Company-owned multi-location operators across many markets | Growth-stage brands; multi-location services among them | Not published | 30-day sprint, then retainer | Rec Nation, Gemini's best specialized multi-location operator (logged-in) |
| Location3 | Franchisors that want a franchise-native agency with its own listings platform | Multi-location brands and franchise systems | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| ChoiceLocal | Franchisors that care about content governance | 60+ franchise systems; franchisors and franchisees | Not published, by stated policy | Not published | Not published |
| Frostbite Marketing | Regional chains, service-area networks, healthcare groups | Franchise systems, multi-unit operators, regional chains, dealer networks, healthcare groups | Not published, by stated policy | 90-day initial term, then month to month | Not published |
| RicketyRoo | Multi-location service brands that want a small local SEO shop | Local services, multi-location and franchise brands | Not published | Not published; quarterly roadmaps | Not published |
| LinzEO | Franchise development and a senior solo practitioner | Franchise brands (fitness, home services, construction) | $5,000 to $15,000/mo franchise engagements | 90-day minimum | Not published |
| Victorious | Search-only agency with AI Overview citation numbers | Healthcare, hospitality, retail and franchises, home services | Not published; contact form shows budget bands | Not published | Unnamed law firm in 35 states, 271 AI Overview citations |
1. Ignite Visibility: best for large franchise and multi-location systems
What it is. Ignite Visibility is a San Diego agency founded in 2013, with offices in Irvine, New York and Orlando and a team of 600+. Its multi-location page says it serves 400+ multi-location brands and manages 50,000+ franchise locations, and that it specializes in getting franchise and multi-location brands found and cited in AI search as well as Google. Entrepreneur ranked it number four among marketing agencies on its Top Franchise Suppliers 2026 list.
Who it serves. The page splits clients into three groups: company-owned networks, franchise systems and PE-backed platforms. For the corporate group it talks about portfolio performance, location-level cost of acquisition and same-store growth. No other agency here names PE-backed platforms.
What it does. Its AI SEO page lists seven surfaces: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude. Off-site work is the broadest on this list: digital PR, third-party best-of and review platforms such as Clutch, G2 and Capterra, Reddit and Quora, and entity accuracy on Wikipedia, Wikidata and directories. For franchises it also optimizes every location's page, listings and reviews through its Rallio AI platform.
Proof. Ignite was agency of record on Neighborly's 5,000+ blog AI-visibility program, which won a 2025 OMMA Award (Blogs). The page's results strip labels that campaign +458% AI Overview visibility. That figure comes as a label, not a full case write-up, so there is no baseline or timeframe beside it. Its other multi-location case, a 1,500-location fitness franchise, is a local SEO result.
Pricing and terms. AI SEO engagements typically run $2,000 to $10,000+ per month, custom-scoped, with no long-term contract. If an engagement ends, you keep ownership of your ad accounts, website, content and data.
Limit. This is a full-service agency of 600+ people with paid media, social, web and a software platform, so AEO is one part of a large program. Its one AI number is AI Overview visibility, with no ChatGPT or Perplexity figure published. A five-location regional chain may be a small account here.
2. Forthea: best for buyers who want a franchise AI result with numbers
What it is. Forthea is a Houston agency working since 2006 that says it has helped over 500 brands across B2B, ecommerce, legal, healthcare, SaaS and other industries. It has an AEO service page but no franchise or multi-location practice page. It made this list on the strength of one case study.
Proof. Paul Davis Milwaukee, a restoration franchise in "a high-urgency local service category", grew from 1 to 61 AI Overview appearances year over year. The same case reports 31 new AI Overview rankings in smoke and water damage cleanup alone, a 59% increase in call volume, a 17% rise in website clicks from localized search, and 40 tracked LLM sessions. It is the only franchise AI case study we found with numbers tied to calls.
What it does. The AEO page starts with a visibility map across ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, Google and Perplexity. It says it works on presence in the sources AI engines pull from, without naming them, and ties AEO visibility to leads and revenue in a proprietary Revenue Dashboard. On its about page it criticizes agencies that manage 50+ clients per specialist.
Pricing and terms. Not published.
Limit. There is no franchise practice, and the result is one franchisee territory (Milwaukee and Waukesha), not a whole system. The headline metric is Google AI Overviews. If you are a franchisor with 300 units, ask how this work scales across territories, because the case study does not say.
3. AEO Labs: best for company-owned multi-location operators across many markets
What we are. A small specialist agency. AEO and the SEO underneath it are all we do, and our client work covers DTC and ecommerce, B2B SaaS, healthcare and multi-location services. The full offer is on our answer engine optimization page.
Why third and not first. Ignite has scale and a named franchisor result. Forthea has a franchise AI case study with call numbers. Our multi-location proof is one company, and its AI evidence is one Gemini answer captured in a logged-in session. That evidence is real, and it is less than theirs.
What we did for a multi-location operator. Rec Nation runs RV and boat storage across dozens of states, and each state has its own competitors and its own buyer questions. A single national page cannot answer a question about storage in one metro. We built location and product pages programmatically across the full state footprint, using prompt research to decide what each page had to answer before it was built. Each state page got local entity work and structured data. We tracked per state, so a win in one market could be pushed into the rest.
Results you can check. The opening milestone was 23+ states ranked inside the first 60 days. The engagement has run since 2024 and is ongoing, and the case study reports roughly 5x growth since it began. For "best RV storage in Texas", Gemini gave RecNation its own section, second of the named operators: "Best Specialized Multi-Location Operator: RecNation RV & Boat Storage." The share link is on the case study, so you can open the answer on Gemini's own domain. One caveat: the capture was taken on August 8, 2026 in a logged-in US session, and a logged-in session can be shaped by chat memory and personalisation.
What we do. We run the questions your buyers ask across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews and log which sources each engine cites. Then we fix the site, including location pages, and spend most of the effort off it: listicle placement, digital PR and contributed expert content on the domains the engines already trust.
Pricing and terms. Not published. Every engagement starts with a 30-day sprint scoped to your brand, market and goals. It ends with a baseline, a plan and the first fixes shipped, and then the work continues as a retainer or your own team takes the plan forward.
Where we are the wrong choice. If you are a franchisor and the job is franchisee adoption, listings and reviews run for hundreds of franchisee-owned units, look at Ignite Visibility, Location3 or ChoiceLocal. All three are built around franchise systems and two run their own location platform. If you need a published price before a first call, Ignite and LinzEO publish one and we do not. If you need HIPAA-aware handling for a clinic group, Frostbite Marketing states it and we do not.
4. Location3: best for franchisors that want a franchise-native agency with a listings platform
What it is. Location3 calls itself "the digital marketing agency for franchise and multi-unit brands". It is based in Glendale, Colorado, has worked since 1999, and has been a member of the International Franchise Association since 2008, with several Certified Franchise Executives and IFA committee members on staff. Its about page says it is "purpose-built for multi-location brands."
Who it serves. Multi-location brands and franchise systems. Its navigation lists franchising, healthcare, education, retail, automotive, financial services, fitness, restaurants and service businesses. Case clients include Mountain Mike's Pizza, UFC Gym, Annex Brands, Honey Baked Ham and Wild Birds Unlimited, whose 350+ retail stores ran a CTV campaign with Location3. For a restaurant or retail franchisor, this is the most familiar client list here.
What it does. The GEO page describes three connected layers: the website as the source of truth, content other sources can reference, and Google Business Profiles as an input to AI Overviews, managed through its own LOCALACT platform for location data at scale.
Pricing and terms. Not published.
Limit. The GEO page is short, about 540 words, and Google-centric: it names AI Overviews and map results, and no ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini. None of the case studies mentions AI search, and no tracking method is published. You would be buying franchise depth and a data platform, with the AI method still to be shown.
5. ChoiceLocal: best for franchisors that care about content governance
What it is. ChoiceLocal was founded in 2014 to serve franchisees and franchisors and says it supports more than 60 franchise systems and thousands of businesses. Its AEO page is written for franchise systems and multi-location brands and comes with a 50-question FAQ learning center. It runs a proprietary AI layer it calls CLAI, and gives 10% of profits to the Benjamin Isaac Foundation.
Governance. This is what sets it apart. It says it builds AEO around approved sources, named subject matter reviewers, update dates, and escalation rules for claims that need legal, operational or industry review. It also describes the split of work inside a franchise system: corporate teams set standards for brand facts and services, and local teams confirm hours, territories, availability and market details. No other agency on this list writes about franchisee edits and legal review.
What it does. It treats AEO as "a disciplined extension of search strategy, not a shortcut or a promise of guaranteed inclusion." It measures query coverage, impressions, cited-page traffic, branded discovery, engagement, assisted conversions and qualified inquiries. Its FAQ titles name Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT; there is no full engine list.
Pricing and terms. Its own cost page opens with "There is no responsible one-price answer" and says the investment depends on the number of locations, competitive markets and implementation scope. Terms are not published. The about page claims an average return of $15.54 for every $1 invested in marketing with ChoiceLocal, which is a marketing-wide figure, not an AI one.
Limit. No AI result, no engine list and no price. The AEO subpages read as templated FAQ copy, so ask to see the governance process running on a real client.
6. Frostbite Marketing: best for regional chains, service-area networks and healthcare groups
What it is. Frostbite Marketing is an American-owned agency with a remote US team serving all 50 states. It works across twelve verticals, including home services, dental, legal and restaurants, and ships AEO and GEO foundations in every engagement by default. Its AI visibility page is tuned for franchise systems, multi-unit operators, regional brands and national chains.
Who it serves. The most detailed segment list here: franchise systems, multi-unit operators, regional chains (5 to 50 locations, often single-state), dealer networks, healthcare groups and service-area networks. For healthcare it lists DSOs, medical groups and urgent-care chains as "HIPAA-aware multi-location" work, the only compliance statement for clinic groups on this list.
What it does. Monthly citation tracking across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, brand plus per-location entity work, signals across third-party authority sites, and listings pushed to 70+ directories from one dashboard. Its page makes the location-level case directly: "Generic AEO playbooks that treat a 40-unit system like one website tend to make the brand visible while individual locations stay invisible in AI answers."
Pricing and terms. "We don't publish rate cards." Terms are a 90-day initial term, then month to month with 30-day notice. Listings cleanup at 12+ locations carries a setup line item, and you leave with full exports.
Limit. No founding year, team size, client names or AI results are published, and the page says results vary by market and will not be identical per location. It is also a software bundle (CRM, AI receptionist, reputation, listings), so check which parts you need.
7. RicketyRoo: best for multi-location service brands that want a small local SEO shop
What it is. RicketyRoo is a local SEO agency in Bend, Oregon, founded in 2009, that says it does not aim to be a massive agency with hundreds of employees. It has a multi-location businesses page and a GEO page that lists multi-location and franchise brands among its clients.
What it does. The GEO page names six surfaces: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini. The method is a visibility audit, prompt testing against real AI responses, semantic alignment with MarketMuse and Clearscope, and on-page, technical and off-page work. Its multi-location page covers the structural questions, such as subfolders against subdomains for location pages ("hint: it's not subdomains"), and Google Business Profile at scale. You get quarterly roadmaps.
Proof. Its multi-location case, CottageCare, covers 40+ locations' local listings and SEO. It has no AI result.
Pricing and terms. Neither is published.
Limit. The GEO page is generic across industries, and there is no AI case study or price. The strongest evidence is classic multi-location local SEO, which matters for AI Overviews but is not the same as proof of AI citations.
8. LinzEO: best for franchise development and a senior solo practitioner
What it is. LinzEO is a Dallas-Fort Worth practice founded in 2026 by Lindsey Osborne, who does the audit, the strategy and the work herself. The site positions it as franchise SEO and AEO, and its clients are mainly franchise brands in fitness, home services and construction, plus growth-stage local businesses. It also works white-label for agencies.
What it does. A 46-hour manual audit comes first. Reporting covers AI citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews, with share of voice scored against your top three competitors and a recorded monthly video. The entity work is schema, sameAs wiring, consistent brand facts and third-party corroboration. A separate franchise development service targets the searches prospective franchisees run.
Proof. No AI result is published. The flagship client is College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving, a national franchise with 370+ locations, and the result is a site rebuild on WordPress, not an AI metric.
Pricing and terms. The clearest prices on this list. Franchise engagements typically run $5,000 to $15,000 a month; franchise development SEO is $5k to $10k monthly; SEO-first web design runs $25,000 to $40,000. Retainers have a 90-day minimum. It says it cannot guarantee AI citations and that category questions take 90 to 180 days.
Limit. Founded in 2026 and run by one person; capacity limits for large systems, and no AI-specific result published yet.
9. Victorious: best for a search-only agency with AI Overview citation numbers
What it is. Victorious is a search agency founded in 2013 that says it has served 1,050 brands. Its multi-location SEO page includes AEO as a service, and its AEO page lists franchises and multi-location businesses as a fit.
Who it serves. The multi-location page names healthcare and insurance, hospitality, retail and franchises, and home services, and talks about starting with 10 locations or 50.
What it does. Its AEO service navigation lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot and Claude. Link building is listed; we found no Reddit or PR statement on the pages we checked.
Proof. An unnamed lemon law firm earned 271 AI Overview citations with state-specific content across 35 states, as local SEO helped it grow from 17 to 35 states. That is multi-state, though not a franchise or chain. A separate unnamed cybersecurity brand earned 5,856 AI Overview citations, which is not multi-location work.
Pricing and terms. Its contact form shows budget bands, not a published rate card. Terms are not published.
Limit. A generalist search agency. The multi-location AI proof is a multi-state law firm with no name, and every AI number is AI Overview citations.
Others we looked at
- Sterling Sky is a local SEO specialist with no AEO, GEO or AI search service page.
- Thrive Internet Marketing has franchise pages and a separate AI SEO page, but the franchise pages make no AI search statement.
- LOCALiQ has a multi-location page for franchise organizations and dealer groups, with no AEO or AI search offer on it.
- Hibu sells an AI-powered platform and a specialist per franchisee, with no AI search offer on the franchise page.
- Proven ROI has an "AI for Franchises" page about AI implementation, such as content generation and lead routing, not AI search visibility.
- Search Influence has a GEO page, with no franchise or multi-location statement on it.
- First Page Sage has no franchise or multi-location vertical page.
What multi-location brands should know before hiring
Brand visibility and location visibility are different jobs. An engine can name your brand for "best restoration company" and still send "water damage cleanup in Waukesha" to a local competitor. Ask whether the agency tracks AI answers per location or only at brand level. Frostbite says it does both; most pages do not say.
Someone owns the location data feed. Hours, addresses and services feed AI answers through listings and Google Business Profiles. Location3 runs that through LOCALACT, Ignite through Rallio AI, Frostbite through its own dashboard. If you already pay for listings software, ask the agency whether it will work with yours or replace it.
Franchise systems need a rule for who can edit what. ChoiceLocal's split, where corporate sets brand facts and local teams confirm hours and territories, is the model to ask every agency about. Without it, franchisee pages drift and engines repeat the wrong details.
Proof is thin across the field. Only Forthea and Ignite publish franchise AI results with numbers, and both measure Google AI Overviews. Nobody here publishes a franchise result in ChatGPT or Perplexity. Weigh that against any agency that promises system-wide results.
What to ask before you sign
- Will you track AI answers per location, or only for the brand? Ask to see a sample report with location rows.
- Who owns the listings and location data after we leave? Ignite says you keep your accounts, content and data. Frostbite offers full exports. Get it in writing from the others.
- How do franchisee edits and legal review work? ChoiceLocal publishes a process. Ask the rest to describe theirs.
- Which engines will you track, and can I see the baseline first? Ignite names seven surfaces, RicketyRoo and Victorious six, Frostbite, LinzEO, Forthea and AEO Labs four, and Location3 talks only about Google.
- Can I see a multi-location client with an AI result, the engine and the date? Forthea, Ignite and AEO Labs have one each. Ask whether captures were logged in or logged out.
- What does it cost at our number of locations? ChoiceLocal says the price depends on location count. So does everyone else; only Ignite and LinzEO put numbers on a page.
- What happens if we stop? Ignite has no long-term contract; Frostbite and LinzEO have 90-day minimums.
The full checklist, with strong and weak answers, is in how to choose an AEO agency. If you run a clinic group, the best AEO agencies for healthcare list covers agencies that work with providers. Large systems with a procurement process may also want the list of enterprise AEO agencies, and if your shortlist uses a different label, see the best GEO agencies.
Where to start
Pick five of your locations, one strong market and four weak ones. For each, run three questions through ChatGPT, Gemini and Google this week: "best [your category] in [city]", "[your category] near [neighborhood]" and "is [your brand] in [city] any good". Write down who gets named, which sources are cited, and whether your hours, address or services are wrong anywhere. That is the core of an AEO audit, and you can do it yourself.
If you want it run across every market with a competitor benchmark and a plan, that is our AI visibility audit. The full agency offer is on the answer engine optimization page, or you can book a call with Aidan.