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How Your Local Gym Ads Can Compete With Big Brands in 2021 (Part 2)

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In case you missed Part 1 of this series… read it here before you go any further! Once you’re done with that, we can continue to learn how your local gym ads can match the advertising of the big brands we all know and love.

First, let’s remember that we don’t need to be like Coca-Cola and saturate the entire world with our brand in order to win. We don’t have to saturate the country, either.  Hell, we don’t even have to saturate our entire state!

Don’t forget about that 5-mile radius we determined for gyms in Part 1. That’s where we’re going to just drench your brand name. When it’s decision time, you’ll be the no brainer.

Here are 6 ways to affordably do this:

#1: Retargeting Gym Ads

I have yet to meet a gym that retargeting is a bad option for. EVERY gym should be doing this! It allows you to stay in front of your prospective members over and over again.

How it Works:

  1. You set up a retargeting campaign on all of your advertising platforms
  2. Have a designer create a variety of creatives you can use in your gym ads
  3. Your ad platform will provide you with a tracking code that you’ll place on your website and landing page
  4. When someone visits your page, that tracking code tags them
  5. Next time they’re on Facebook or similar websites, your gym ads get in front of them!

What it Costs:

On average, 91% of ads don’t get clicked on. How is this beneficial? You only pay if your ads get clicked on. On average, we see that retargeting ad clicks cost around $1. So, let’s break that down:

  • If 1,000 targeted people see your ad, 910 of them will choose not to click on it.
  • You will pay for the remaining 90 that do click.
  • At $1/click, you’ve paid $90 to stay in front of 1,000 targeted people and have 90 of them come back to your site!

These numbers will grow each month as you’ll have more and more people who visit your website and get tagged.

However, you set the budget. If you want to cap it at $50/month, $250/month, or $1,000/mo, that’s entirely up to you.

Just remember, it’s a pay-to-play ROI source. The more you put in, the greater your potential returns are.

#2: Facebook Gym Ads

There’s no other place in the world where people give up SO much information about themselves than Facebook. Oh, and so much of their time (roughly 40 minutes per day).

Facebook collects information like:

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Location
  • Relationship Status
  • Place of Work
  • Job Title
  • Favorite Music, Movies, Books
  • Interests
  • and so much more!

Facebook also allows you to set a budget if you’re concerned about going over a certain amount. Pick your targeted location and demographics that you want to advertise to and saturate the hell out of them.

Also pay-to-play, so the higher the spend, the bigger potential return!

Facebook also allows you to set up retargeting. Now, if someone visits your website, webpage, or landing page, they’ll see your ads all over Facebook.

Your Loud Rumor Account Manager will actually help simplify this process.

How it Works:

I’ll admit that setting up Facebook isn’t as easy as setting up retargeting, but it is easy to learn. In fact, we did a full course on it here: Loud Rumor Store

facebook gym ads training

Once you learn this, practice it, and get good at it, your gym ads will be unstoppable.

What it Costs:

This is also a little tricky. If you design your campaigns well, you’ll notice that Facebook will help you get in front of TONS of potential members at a very low price. I’m talking less than a fraction of a penny per ad view.

#3: YouTube Advertising

If you know me well, you know that this has been a favorite of mine for quite a while. I LOVE YouTube Advertising, and it’s by far the best bang for your buck when it comes to getting in front of as many people possible for as little cost as possible.

How it Works:

  1. You create a video and upload it to your YouTube channel. Make the most out of the first 5 seconds, as it’s mandatory to watch. I always recommend showing your logo, saying your company name, what you do, and where you do it in the first 5 seconds. Yes, this is possible. Here’s an example: Hey Chicago Ladies! Are you looking to get in great shape? You have to see what LadyStrong Fitness is doing… (that’s about 5 seconds right there).
  2. You set up a YouTube campaign through Google AdWords.
  3. Within AdWords, you’ll be allowed to set the location, demographics, and interests that you’d like to target.
  4. Your potential customer goes to watch a video (any video), and your ad appears.

What it Costs:

This part is awesome! You only pay if a True View occurs. What’s a true view?

The viewer of the ad needs to watch at least 30 seconds of the video, or the entirety of the video – whichever comes first. Or, they need to click through to view the landing page of the ad.

94% of ads don’t get clicked. This means, if your ad is shown 10,000 times, you won’t pay for approximately 9,400 of that exposure.

The best part?

The 600 that you DO pay for are VERY affordable! Gym owners we work with average about $0.07 per True View.

If you’ve done that math already, you’ll notice that you can get your ad in front of 10,000 targeted people, in which 600 will watch at least 30 seconds of your video (or the whole thing, or click through to the landing page), and it only cost you about $42! Not bad.

Bonus: YouTube also offers retargeting.

This means that if you apply a YouTube retargeting tag on a particular landing page or website, you can tag that visitor.

Now, when they go to YouTube to watch a video, or watch an embedded video, your ad is more likely to pop up.

We LOVE YouTube retargeting. Virtually all the stats are better than the regular campaign and it’s more affordable per TrueView typically.

#4: Content Marketing for Gyms

Content marketing includes things like:

  • Blogs
  • Press Releases
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • E-books
  • Guides
  • And more…

Many people ask me, “Why should I blog? I never go to websites and visit their blog.”

That’s not the point.

We don’t want them to visit your site and then go to your blog. We want to send them to articles directly, give them valuable information, tag them for retargeting, and have them call or fill out a form.

Your Blog Is Like A Warm-Up Set

The blog isn’t the final destination. The blog is the entry. We encourage gyms to write interesting, useful blogs with intriguing titles that can continuously be shared with an email list, social media followers, and other outlets that get content in front of your target audience.

You want your follows to be up-to-date on your gym. More importantly, your ability to help them, NOT what you can sell or promote to them.

Now that they’re on your blog, they’re on your site.

You can have call-to-actions (CTA) on your blog or pop-ups that encourage opt-ins to receive updated blogs as time goes on, but you want your “give” or “value” to outweigh your ask.

Getting them there is the important part.

Also, if you’ve set up retargeting correctly, they’re now tagged. Everywhere that person goes now, they will be followed with your ads and videos as a constant reminder of your brand.

You can use your ads to promote upcoming events or special offers now that they’re more familiar with you.

#5: Display Ads

Display Ads look exactly like retargeting ads to the viewer, but the strategy is different.

When you set up a Display campaign, you’re putting your gym ads in front of a specific audience that you’ve chosen in the Google AdWords platform.

You can decide the age, location, gender, and interests of the audience you wish to target and place your ads in front of them.

What it Costs:

Be careful here.

Display Advertising can cost quite a bit if you don’t set a budget you’re ok with.

The average click is about $1 or so, and the click through rate is about the same as retargeting. But, because you’re targeting everybody in that set of demographics, and not necessarily people that visited your website, it’s pretty easy to rack up a TON of impressions and clicks.

#6: Email Campaigns

You should have a plan to email your prospects and members frequently. It’s also a good idea to separate your database into lists.

Depending on how big your database is, you can build your lists manually, as you know the contact and what they’re interested in, or use programs like ClickFunnels or Hubspot.

These programs allow you to build landing pages, forms, and automated drip campaigns based on the form your prospective member filled out.

The more segmented with your lists that you can get, the better. You want to get the right content in front of the right person.

For example, if somebody filled out a form on your Free Workout landing page, send them emails that include blogs, events, or promotions regarding your workouts.

If they filled out a form for a promotional event like “Hell Week,” then just send them information about that.

Final Thought on Local Gym Ads

To become a bigger brand, you should think and act like a bigger brand. When you think small, you’ll stay small. Whether you’re an independent fitness studio or part of a big brand franchise, stand your ground and own your 5-mile radius.

Saturate your potential customers as much as you can.

They may not need you now, but they will soon. And when they do, the so-called big brands won’t exist to them. They won’t pick Jared, they’ll pick you. Because they know you.

You’re THEE gym in their local area.

Remember, familiarity creates comfort. An uncomfortable mind doesn’t buy. So, become a familiar brand to your audience to start increasing memberships.

Plus, it’s always a good idea to turn one into many members at the point of sale. Learn how to do that here: 8 Ways to Drastically Increase Gym Referrals.

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