4 Target Audience Ideas for Gym & Fitness Advertising

There are many reasons why targeted display ads (TDAs) are a necessary part of your marketing mix, but one of the main reasons is the targeting capabilities. Once you’ve decided to incorporate TDAs into your marketing, it’s important to make sure you are targeting the right people. Our goal is not to simply help you reach as many people as possible, but to reach the ones most likely to join your gym. We’ll guide you through the endless possibilities of people you can target to make sure you choose the ones that are best for your club!

Every club is different, so we would never suggest that everyone utilize the same targeting. However, there are some tried and true audiences that are optimal for most health clubs.

Here are our top four favorite types of people to target:

1. People who are looking to join Gyms & Athletic Clubs

   This one might seem a little obvious, but it’s a perfect example of how targeted the audience can be. This audience group takes out the guessing game of “who’s looking to join a gym?” and cuts straight to the point. The average click through rate on a fitness TDA is normally around .30% and we’ve had up to a 2% click through rate targeting people who are looking to join gyms & athletic clubs.Unfortunately, the network of people actively looking for gyms isn’t super high, so we have to combine this audience group with a few others to make sure that you are getting as many impressions and clicks as possible. Plus, people don’t always know what they want, and you have to give them a little nudge, which is the great thing about targeted ads.

2. People who are looking for Fitness Classes & Personal Training Services

   This targeting option is great for boutique gyms and clubs who are offering group fitness classes or 1-on-1 training services. This is another audience group that takes out the guessing game and gets straight to the point. This targeting might not be relevant to everyone based on what your facility offers, but this is an example of how targeting for clubs should vary because no two clubs are alike.

3. People who Crave Fast Food

   I’m not sure if we should be proud or ashamed of this one, but the internet knows everything, and they even know the people who are most enticed by a McDonald’s Big Mac commercial. You may be thinking “what does someone’s cravings for a Big Mac have to do with wanting to join my gym?” I don’t know about you, but after I finish a huge fast food meal, the first thing I think is “I’ve got to go to the gym,” and that’s where your ad comes in.While browsing the internet, the fast food cravers see your ads and all of a sudden, they find themselves signing up for a 7-day free trial at your club to try to burn off at least a quarter of that Big Mac.By targeting this group, we are able to anticipate who Is most likely to be searching for a gym to join, and grab their attention before another club can.

4. People who are shopping for Workout Clothes

   This audience group is by far the one with the highest click through rate. I’ve seen up to a 4% click through rate; that’s 13x the industry average!One day, a friend of mine was talking about how she needed to get back into the gym, but she just couldn’t motivate herself to go. She ended up buying new workout clothes, and the next week she signed up for a three-month membership with a Pilates studio.We’ve noticed that a lot of people will actually buy workout clothes before even researching a gym to join. By targeting people who are shopping for activewear, we cut out the middle man of the audience having to do research by showing them ads to your club first.

Targeting people who are looking to join a club like yours, whether that’s a full fitness center or a boutique studio, is easy to do by targeting audiences who are either looking to join gyms and athletic clubs or looking for fitness classes and personal training. You can find unexpected audiences through targeting people who are shopping for workout clothes or even people who crave a good burger now and then. The best marketing is marketing that anticipates your prospects’ wants and needs before they do.

Targeted display ads are amazing because the targeting possibilities are endless. Well, maybe not endless, but you can target so many different types of people. It’s never been easier to send your marketing directly to the digital devices of the members that you want. We’ve only listed some of our favorite audience groups, but there are so many more out there that have constantly brought in new members for clubs we’ve worked with. Contact us today to figure out what audiences you should be targeting in your next digital marketing campaign.