Here is a hypothetical. A territory goes to deposit on Tuesday. On Friday, an ad promoting that territory is still live, the landing page still says “Available now”, and a nurture email still invites people to “claim” it. Three candidates inquire about it, and your rep spends the next week telling them no.
The cost is the wasted spend, plus three candidates who now have reason to doubt your brand knows what it’s selling.
The method below puts three things in place: one availability record, a defined list of statuses, and a checklist that runs on every status change. It includes a fully worked change.
One record, an owner and a backup
Territory status lives in one place: a spreadsheet, your CRM or your franchise management system. Everything else reads from it. One named owner changes it, with a named backup for absences. Every change records who approved it and when it takes effect.
| Field | Why |
|---|---|
| Territory ID | “TX-AUS-04” survives spelling arguments; “North Austin” doesn’t |
| Boundary | ZIP code list or map link, so everyone means the same area |
| Status | From the dictionary below |
| Approved by / approved at | Who decided, and when |
| Effective at | When the status takes effect (can differ from approval) |
| Reason | Deposit received, deposit lapsed, territory split… |
| Surfaces | Every ad set, page, form option and email that promotes this territory |
Keep deal details (names, deposit amounts, negotiations) in a separate internal file. The availability record has to be safe to share with marketing.
The status dictionary used in this example
These five statuses fit the example franchisor. Use your own if they differ, but write them down.
| Status | What marketing may say | Territory-specific promotion | Form option | Rep’s script |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | “Available now” | On | Shown | Full discussion |
| In discussion | “Available. Ask about current status” | On | Shown | Disclose that there’s active interest |
| Reserved | Nothing territory-specific | Off | Hidden | Offer Open alternatives; add to the waitlist |
| Sold | Nothing territory-specific | Off | Hidden | Open alternatives only |
| Not released | Nothing | Off | Hidden | “Not currently offered” |
Exceptions in this example’s policy:
- A reserved deposit lapses. The territory doesn’t reopen by itself. The owner records an approved change back to Open, and the waitlist is contacted first under the policy’s notice period.
- A candidate is mid-process when their territory goes to someone else. The rep calls with alternatives, within a response time your policy defines. They don’t get an automated email.
- A territory is split. Two new IDs are created and the old ID is retired, not reused.
Promoting a territory is not the same as targeting the people who live there
This is the step that’s easiest to get wrong. When a territory is reserved, stop the marketing that promotes that territory. Don’t automatically exclude everyone who lives there from all recruitment ads. A resident of TX-AUS-04 might want to run TX-AUS-05, and a blanket exclusion of the area would lose them.
Location targeting in ad platforms is also inferred, not exact. Google’s own documentation says it uses signals that can reflect someone’s physical location or their interest in a place, and that accuracy isn’t guaranteed. So treat location settings as a way to shape delivery, not as a way to enforce territory availability. That’s what the form question and the rep conversation are for.
Worked change: TX-AUS-04 goes from Open to Reserved
Fictional franchisor, Northfield Inspections.
- Approved by the availability owner, Priya, on 14 May 2026 at 10:50.
- Effective at 11:00.
- Reason: deposit received.
Each surface is a separate action with its own check:
| # | Surface | Action | Owner | Due | Completed | Check | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meta ad set “TX-AUS-04 owners” (promotes this territory only) | Pause | Luka (paid media) | 14 May 12:00 | 11:20 | Ads Manager status | Pass |
| 2 | Google Ads campaign promoting TX-AUS-04 | Pause the TX-AUS-04 ad group. The shared general recruitment campaign is reviewed, not excluded | Luka | 14 May 12:00 | 11:35 | Ad group status; general campaign copy checked for TX-AUS-04 mentions | Pass |
| 3 | Landing page /territories/north-austin | “Available now” badge removed; Open TX-AUS-05 promoted | Andrea (web) | 14 May 17:00 | 14:00 | Live page checked on mobile | Pass |
| 4 | Inquiry form territory dropdown | TX-AUS-04 hidden | Andrea | 14 May 17:00 | 14:05 | Marked test submission; option absent; test excluded from reporting | Pass |
| 5 | Nurture email “Your territory is open” | TX-AUS-04 contacts removed; rep alerted | Sam (CRM) | 14 May 17:00 | (pending) | Sequence enrollment list | Pending |
Item 5 is pending at the end of day one. That’s what the column is for. The change isn’t closed until all five checks pass. The nurture sequence is the one that’s easy to forget, because nobody remembers the email is still running.
Two candidates were already discussing TX-AUS-04. Sam calls both and offers TX-AUS-05.
Ask where they want to operate, not where they live
Ask on the form: “Which area would you like to operate in?” Keep that separate from their address, and route on the operating area. Ad targeting can’t tell you this.
When a territory deserves its own page
Build a territory page when you have something real to say about that area: current availability, local context you can source, a named local contact. Otherwise improve the main availability page. Pages that only swap the town name help nobody. Every territory page gets an owner and a review date.
Investigating mismatches
Add a CRM reason code: “inquired about an unavailable territory”. When one shows up, investigate before you assume a leak. Log:
- the observed source of the inquiry
- when the territory’s status changed, compared with when the candidate first saw it
- whether they’re asking to join the waitlist
The cause could be a missed surface on the checklist. It could also be an older message they remembered, a source you don’t control, or a deliberate waitlist request. The change log shows which surfaces were updated and when, which narrows down where to look.
Start here
Pick one territory that changed status in the last 90 days. List every surface that promoted it, and check each one against today’s status.
Download: territory-change-log.csv: the status dictionary, the exceptions and the five TX-AUS-04 actions as separate rows.
Related: Qualifying candidates · Inquiry form questions
Source: Google Ads: About targeting geographic locations, checked by Codex 28 Oct 2026.
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