You need to be careful with Ads as a personal trainer... In this article we share with you how you can skyrocket your personal training business using ads.
This article is proposed by Gymkee, the personal trainer software that allows you to deliver the best coaching experience to your clients while saving time and growing your personal training business.
Try Gymkee for free for 14 days
This…
This is the $1 million question.
I really have a big problem with Ads for personal trainers.
Not that I don’t think that they work…
Nope.
But because some personal trainer gurus have sold the dream that you just have to set up ads like Facebook Ads to become an overnight millionaire personal trainer.
Many personal trainers think now that ads are magic.
They think that if they want to succeed… they just need to give some dollars to Mark to skyrocket their personal training business.
They really think that they just have to build a funnel, add a fake countdown timer (to add some FOMO), burn some cash on Facebook Ads, and just wait for the sales.
Spoiler Alert: that’s not how it works. 😅
Today we’re blessed to work with thousands of personal trainers worldwide with Gymkee.
Some of them really managed to grow their business using ads, and in this article, I’ll share with you how you can skyrocket your personal training using ads too.
Let’s dive in. 👇
Don’t be in a rush.
Business is not a sprint… it’s a marathon, and you have to get this.
When you just start out as a personal trainer… this is clearly not the right time to make paid marketing campaigns like Facebook Ads.
Why?
Because you’ll just burn your cash for nothing.
No matter what you’ve heard or what you’ve read…
It’s too soon.
You don’t even know who are your clients.
You don’t even know what they really looking for.
And you don’t even know how to talk to them.
You’ll miss your ADS EVERY TIME.
On the internet… you’ll read that anyone can build Ads like Facebook Ads.
It’s not true.
It’s not true because building good ad campaigns that work is not easy.
They are people in the world who are paid full-time jobs to find the right way to build amazing ads, and you, you think that you can do the same because your favorite gurus said so?
You know it… that’s not how it works.
Now, I'm not saying you CAN'T make good Facebook ads... I'm just saying that in the beginning, it's not the best strategy.
So... you may be wondering when is the right time?
The right time is when you’ll know more about your clients, when you’ll understand what they really looking to accomplish, and when you’ll really understand how to talk to them.
For this… you’ll have to start communicating with them.
The best way to start communicating with your clients and start understanding them is to create organic content on the social networks they’re on.
First… what do we call “Organic Content”?
Organic content is simply content that you create without promoting it in a paid way.
It’s for example, your Instagram posts, your Tweets, your blog articles, your YouTube videos, etc.
As long as you don't pay to spread your content to more people, the content stays organic.
Organic because it grows by itself thanks to the different interactions.
The thing is, organic content takes time... a lot of time, and that's why no one will sell you a dream on that type of marketing.
Yet this is what works best.
Even if we are far from the quick results sold by the best gurus, in the long run the results will be present and especially more important than paid campaigns.
This is possible for 2 main reasons:
The first is that it will allow you to have content on social networks.
So... it looks very obvious like this but it is still neglected even though it is terribly effective.
To understand why this is so effective, you need to step into the shoes of your target.
You're casually browsing Instagram when suddenly you see a great ad campaign.
(yes, it's yours).
The sponsored content managed to grab your attention and make you stop scrolling... so you read the description.
Now, the description is very well written... the post resonates with you because the coach (you) chose the right words…
The thing is, you don't know who it is…
This is the first time you've seen any of this content.
The first thing you do... is go to the coach's profile to find out who he is.
On his profile, there are over 200 pretty cool posts that provide value or show the results he was able to get for his clients.
Now you're reassured.
You go back to the sponsored post and click on the call-to-action button to go to the landing page.
Once on it, the site is well organized and it feels trustworthy.
Even if you don't buy right away, if he does a good job of retargeting (we'll talk about that later), you'll probably buy from him in the next few weeks.
To summarize the 1st reason: making posts helps build authority and show that you don't come out of nowhere.
The best thing is to have at least 50 posts on your networks before starting to create ad campaigns for your personal training business in order to have some substance.
The 2nd main reason is that feeding your networks will allow you to test your posts.
To understand your target and know how to talk to them, you have no choice but to test on several things.
One of the first things you'll be able to test is the type of content your target wants.
Today, there is an infinite amount of content you can create.
The platforms are fighting each other to offer you more and more possibilities and different types of content to share with your audience.
Now... the choice of the type of content you will use is not totally up to you... but to your target.
What is your target audience looking for when they are on the platform?
Is she looking for a fun format... or a more serious format?
Does she prefer video, carousels or stories?
Of course, you can't know all this in advance.
You can only find out by running tests.
Next, you'll be able to test the tone & words you should use to best resonate with your audience.
What tone will you give to your publications?
Are you going to give a serious tone and take this posture or instead give a much more fun tone?
For words, which ones resonate most with your target? What words should you use to make them want to take action and take coaching with you?
The choice of words is essential to the success of your ad campaigns for your personal trainings.
By posting regularly and organically, you can test and find the right words.
Finally, creating organic content will allow you to become an authority in your field.
Your goal is to be perceived by your target as an expert in your field.
They need to be confident that you are the coach that will help them achieve their goals.
For that, you need to create quality content that brings real value to your target.
Once you understand that and understand your target a little more, you can start looking at ad campaigns for your fitness coaching.
The third thing to do if you want to create successful ad campaigns is to stop talking about your processes and start talking about the end result you will bring to your target.
It's great that your program is only 6 weeks long and has great exercises that work multiple muscles at once...but who cares?
You're talking about the wrong things... that's not the most important thing.
People really don't care how long a program lasts or what exercises are in it.
That's not what they're looking for.
They seek to achieve concrete fitness results…
So tell them you're going to bring them these concrete fitness results and make sure you keep your word.
The details of your coaching or program are not that important, really.
You could sell a 42 week program composed of nothing but squats and deadlifts if you put the results you generate in the right words to your target.
When your target audience reads your ad campaign for your fitness coaching, they are going to want to know WHY they should take this coaching or program.
What results can they expect to have?
To help you see more clearly, we will take a practical example.
Let's say you're looking to sell a 12-week program to entrepreneurs…
The first question you will ask yourself is: what are the benefits of this program for an entrepreneur? What will it bring them?
An entrepreneur works hard to grow his business, is often stressed and has very little time.
OK.
You will be able to highlight that the program is made for entrepreneurs because it will allow them to be in better physical shape, in better mental shape which will allow them to have more energy to manage their business & grow their revenue.
Before I move on to the next part, I'd like to share with you a rule in marketing.
This rule is the 40/40/20 rule.
This rule says that the success of a good marketing campaign is linked to 3 key points:
In the rest, there is the distribution platform, your calls to action, all kinds of things but above all one very important thing: your copywriting.
The 4th thing to do if you want to be successful with your ad campaigns as a personal trainer... is to write them well.
I'm sure this isn't the first time you heard about copywriting... but let me give you a quick reminder anyway:
Copywriting... is the art of selling with words.
That's it.
To sell with words, you can use a basic rule of copywriting: the AIDA method.
A for Attention,
I for Interest,
D for Desire,
A for Action.
This method is quite easy to use... once you understand it and have used it a lot of times.
Once implemented, the results will be there.
And maybe you didn't know the name and were already using it without knowing it.
To make a successful ad campaign and sell your fitness trainings, you will have to start by getting the attention of your target.
A for Attention: the goal is to get your target's attention to read the entire publication.
For this, you can use the multimedia content of your post as a photo or video that will act as a stop scroller.
You can also use the first words of your publication to attract the attention of your target.
Then, I for Interest: to keep your target reading your publication, you must arouse his interest. Choose the right words to give them before they read the rest.
D for Desire: once you have grabbed your target's attention and generated interest, you need to make them want to take action by sharing the incredible benefits they will get by taking action.
Finally, A for Action: you have to share with your target HOW to take action in the simplest way possible on SHOWING them how.
There's no need to make it more difficult for yourself.
Apply this method in your next posts, test things and you will see the first results.
The 5th tip I can give you if you want to succeed with your ad campaigns as a personal trainer is to use retargeting.
The most difficult thing is to get people to visit your website.
Then, the 2nd most complicated thing is to convert them into customers.
The thing is that it is more and more hard to convert customers from their first visit on our website.
Yet, the ads that we see most often are ads for one-shots.
There is another rule in marketing that you must take into account to avoid frustration: the rule of 7.
Yeah, there are a lot of rules in marketing and this one is really interesting.
This rule says that a potential customer must see us AT LEAST 7 TIMES before he/she will want to take action.
Crazy, huh?
Repetition plays an important role in the desire to take action.
That's why the brands that work best are the ones you see most often.
This is why you have to create posts very often on the social networks, as I wrote a little earlier.
But here, we are not in the organic, we are in the paying.
What can you do to get seen as many times as possible by your target audience to make them want to take action?
You have to use retargeting.
Retargeting is simply creating ad campaigns for your fitness trainings that target an audience you've already had contact with.
For Facebook for example, If the Facebook pixel has been set up on your website, all the people who have visited your website will be associated with this same pixel.
Knowing that the pixel retrieves all the information of a person's visits, you will be able to create ad campaigns for your coaching by segmenting your audience.
You can create multiple custom audiences with this pixel to create different retargeting campaigns.
For example, you can create these audiences:
and many others.
For each of these audiences, you will be able to create different publications with different content & words.
For example, you can create ads to highlight the benefits of your fitness coaching, share customer reviews or show your clients' fitness results.
Again, to know what works best, you need to run some tests... and that's fitting, this is the last chapter of this blog post.
The last piece of advice I can give you if you want to succeed with your ads as a personal trainer to sell your fitness trainings is to run a lot of tests!
By the time you read this article, everything I've shared with you above may be out of date.
Not because I wrote bullsi, but because things change very quickly.
People's expectations constantly evolve, and social networks have no choice but to adapt to them.
As a result, we have no choice but to adapt too.
To adapt... you have to be aware of what works and what doesn't.
For that, you need to run tests... lots of tests.
You can read a lot of things on the internet... but the best thing you can do is to make your own judgment thanks to the different tests you will run.
If you want to make good ads as a personal trainer and develop your personal training business, you have to invest in yourself to test.
So yeah... that's not what the gurus shared... but that's the reality.
The reality is that you're going to have to invest time and money to really understand how it works before you can make ad campaigns that work.
Personally, I prefer to invest more time and money to make my campaigns successful rather than burning my cash for 0 results.
It's up to you how you want to play it 🙂
That's it for this article on ads for personal trainers.
If you want to avoid burning your money for nothing and make good ads as a personal trainer that work to sell your fitness coachings, here's what you need to do:
First, please take the time.
Take the time to understand your target before launching into paid campaigns that will not always perform as you wish.
Also take the time to feed your social networks with good content... it will increase your chances of success for your ads as a personal trainer to sell your fitness coaching or your fitness programs.
In your campaigns, highlight the benefits of your coaching or the programs you sell. Describe the results your clients can expect instead of dwelling on meaningless details such as the length of the program and the type of exercises.
To properly highlight the benefits of what you bring to the table and increase your chances of success with your ads as a personal trainer, use copywriting... especially the AIDA method.
The AIDA method is A for attention, I for interest, D for desire and A for action. It is quite simple to apply and will allow you to see results quite quickly.
Also, understands that it is more and more complicated to convert new customers from the 1st contact.
You will need at least 7 contacts for your target to decide to take action and buy your fitness coaching or your fitness program.
In conclusion... don't be afraid to run tests, it's the only way to go.
To know what works, you have to run a lot of tests and pay attention to everything you read (yes, even this article) because things change very quickly.
The best opinion you can have is your own.
For that, do some tests and make your own opinion.
That’s all.
Hope that this article helped you understand how you can run great ads as a personal trainer.
To complete this article… you can give a look at this one to find your niche as a personal trainer:
👉 Find a niche as a personal trainer
This article is proposed by Gymkee, the personal trainer software that allows you to deliver the best coaching experience to your clients while saving time and growing your personal training business.
Start for free
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