Fitness FirstFitness First

Fitness First

Holistic Digital Campaign delivers 26% increase in leads and 37% cost reduction

The Challenge

Fitness First is the world’s largest operator of health and fitness clubs, with over 500 sites spread throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Started 15 years ago as a single health club in Bournemouth, the group now has over 1.4 million members, and they have ambitious plans to grow the membership further.

Search is a key element of Fitness First’s strategy for attracting new members. They offer prospective members a free one-day pass for their local Fitness First, and the success of the campaign is measured on how many downloads can be achieved for a set budget. We have worked with them since 2006, helping to reduce the cost per download (CPD).

Building on the success paid and organic campaigns, Fitness First wanted to develop a holistic digital marketing campaign, including display advertising and affiliate marketing. Their aim was to reduce their CPD to £5.00.

The Solution

In Q1 2009, when we planned the holistic campaign, the initial aim was to increase the number of downloads. As well as launching an affiliate campaign and display ads on Facebook, we also ran targeted display ads on Adjug, used behavioural targeting on portals and increased PPC spend on the iPhone, Google Maps and Google Placements. Downloads increased significantly.

In Q2, we worked on growing Fitness First’s online presence whilst maintaining the CPD at the same level. We optimised the PPC campaign, launched the SEO campaign, added new partners to the affiliates network, trialled ads on MySpace, and expanded our display activity including running ads on Weightwatches, Marie Claire and Good to Know. Downloads increased further and CPD was now below £5, but we knew there was more we could do.

In Q3, we focused completely on controlling the spend and bringing the CPD down even further. We saw natural growth from the SEO campaign, and we refreshed the PPC campaign to include summer focused ad text. We changed affiliate networks to improve performance and re-introduced Facebook to the Social Media campaign.

The Result

• Downloads of free one-day passes increased from 17,329 in Q1 to 21,901 in Q3, and increase of 26%
• CPD fell from £5.48 in Q1 to £3.47 in Q3, a reduction of 37%, and £1.53 below our target CPD (£5.00)

 

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