PPC - First stop for Fitness

Background

It may come as a surprise to learn that the world’s largest operator of health and fitness clubs is not an American company, or German or Japanese, but British.
But, in just 15 years, what started out as a single health club in Bournemouth on Britain’s south coast has grown to become the largest gym, health and fitness club group in the entire world.

Today, Fitness First welcomes 1.4 million members through the doors of more than 500 health clubs in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Pacific Rim regions. The company shows no signs of slowing down either, planning to extend its reach yet further in the months and years ahead.
First and foremost, it’s a success story that’s been built on people. “Our management and executive staff, gym instructors, fitness instructors and personal trainers are our single biggest asset and are what have most helped us to achieve our position as the top gym, health and fitness club operator in world,” says a Fitness First spokesman.
Recently, a key factor in Fitness First’s growth has been its use of search. Paid and organic search marketing has become a cornerstone of Fitness First’s business strategy, with the company enjoying steady growth in search-inspired enquiries, downloads of free day passes, and membership applications.

The challenge
Even so, by mid-2006 the group found itself looking at a sharp decline in its return on investment in search marketing, and decided to revamp its search marketing.
Invitations to pitch went out to several agencies for its paid search business. Right at the top of the company’s list of objectives for a renewed search marketing effort was a drastic reduction in the average cost of search-derived memberships.
The group also wanted to improve the quality of downloaded applications, with a corresponding improvement in the rate of conversion of downloaded one-day passes into full paid memberships, as well as increased awareness, recognition and recall of the Fitness First brand.

The solution
Latitude was naturally delighted to be invited to pitch for the Fitness First account, and even more so when news arrived that we were to be their new search marketing partner.
Our first action was to undertake a root and branch review of the health club group’s strategic and tactical use of search. From this we determined that what was needed first was an expansion of the reach of Fitness First’s search campaign through the deployment of additional search functionality.
This meant expanding keyword reach, rewriting creatives for Fitness First’s ads and landing pages to improve targeting, and introducing Fitness First to Google’s map functionality. With the location of every club in the UK now just a roll-over away, the feature has helped to boost Fitness First’s reputation for service and helpfulness.

The results
The steps described above quickly brought a sharp reduction in Fitness First’s average cost-per-click. Further reductions in c-p-c were made possible by leveraging Fitness First’s brand equity against more expensive keywords and terms.
At the same time, these measures helped to slash the average cost of downloaded membership applications.
Fitness First summed up the progress of their revamped search campaign: “In a recent review of Latitude’s performance, we found that search had made a substantial contribution to new memberships. In one quarter alone in 2007 we enjoyed a fourteen-fold return on our investment.”