Martial Arts Gym Lead Generation Case Study

About the Client

Tessa owns a boutique martial arts gym in an ultra-competitive urban market. She reached out after noticing a steady drop in leads, something that was starting to hit her bottom line. 

She’s no rookie though. Tessa understands SEO and PPC basics, but after spending serious cash on underwhelming Google Ads campaigns, she started to doubt the entire strategy and execution.

Her goals for Google Ads were crystal clear:

  • More lead form submissions for adult and kids classes
  • Fewer phone calls, especially the spammy kind
  • Do more with less, make her small budget stretch without sacrificing results

“Olivia made the whole process super easy to follow and organized the information in a way where it was really easy to go back and find any information I needed. As a busy mom and small business owner, this was a huge plus for me!”
– Tessa, Local Gym Owner

The Challenge: Getting Quality Leads without Bleeding Cash

Running Google Ads in fitness, especially in big cities, can be a minefield. If you’re not targeting high-intent keywords and ruthlessly filtering out junk traffic, you’re burning cash.

Here’s what we were up against before our work together:

  • Low Lead Volume: Around 1 lead per month—not even close to sustainable
  • Low Lead Quality: Most were tire-kickers, calling to ask general questions
  • Tiny Budget: No wiggle room to waste ad spend
  • Limited Resources: No fancy sales team, no call center—just a small & mighty team needing smart systems

The Solution: Google Ads Tune Up Magic ✨

With her budget constraints, bringing on a full-blown ads manager didn’t make sense. But Tessa was willing to put in some sweat equity, with the right guidance. 

Enter my Google Ads Tune + Coaching package: where I deliver the best of both worlds—expert strategy, setup and a big dose of optimization, without a monthly retainer fee.

Here’s how we used our time together to address the big challenges:

Accurate Conversion Tracking

Turns out, the only tracked conversions were phone calls. None of the lead types she actually wanted, which were form submissions. 

I implemented precise conversion tracking to capture: 

  • General Lead Form submissions
  • Kid-Specific Lead Form submissions
  • Phone Calls from ads directly
  • Phone Calls from the website

Now every valuable lead action was accounted for and feeding Google’s algorithm the right signals.

Strategic Campaign Structure & Targeting

Originally, campaigns were split by class type. Not a terrible idea, but not ideal when working with a small budget. Google’s machine learning thrives on consolidated data, not fragmentation.

The keywords were also way too top-of-funnel. Googling “what is kickboxing” isn’t the same as searching “kickboxing gym for kids”. One is curious. The other is ready to buy.

Here’s how I revamped the campaigns for top performance:

  • Consolidated campaign, structured keywords by intent
  • Refined keyword targeting to focus on high-intent searches
  • Cut irrelevant traffic by cutting out broad, vague terms and weak audience segments

Lead Management Process That Closes Sales

Getting leads is step one. Turning them into paying customers? That’s the real win but you need a process to get there.

During my discovery process, I asked:

  • How many leads came in over the last 90 days?
  • How many showed up for consults?
  • Who’s following up, and how often?
  • How many leads turned into customers?

Tessa didn’t have those answers, so we built a simple system to track and follow up on every lead. The result? Fewer lost opportunities and better ROI from every marketing dollar spent.

Cost Controlling Like a Pro

Part of our together included training on how to keep costs in check. Specifically, negative keyword management.

I handled the heavy-lifting of techy setup and strategy. Tessa committed to weekly check-ins to review the search terms and block irrelevant traffic. That’s how she’s kept her results strong without paying a monthly retainer.

“For someone who is super busy and juggling a million things, everything was organized for me, with reminders, emails, recorded videos, etc! Not having to actually go in and do any of the technical setup was huge!!”
– Tessa, Local Gym Owner

The Results: Small Budget but Mighty Performance

Here’s how the numbers shook out after our time together:

Leads increased by 1,288% and the cost per lead dropped by 82%!

Here are a few of the standout wins:

  • From 24 leads a year to 333 legit inquiries—a 1,288% increase in leads made a big positive impact on their growth
  • Cost per lead from $230 down to $19 —an 82% decrease in CPA
  • Memberships have exploded in the best ways, providing the owners some much desired revenue and peace of mind.
  • Consistent and reliable lead source, their small budget is working smarter and harder honey!

“Olivia took our un-optimized Google Ads set up and gave it revamp making it more efficient and organized! She truly is an expert in her field and has helped our small business not only with Google Ads, but with our entire leads process which is helping us increase our conversion rates across all lead sources!”
– Tessa, Gym Owner & Bad A$$ Mama

The TL;DR

After reworking her conversion tracking, implementing a strategic ad approach and optimizing for performance, here’s what happened:

  • Leads increased by 1,288%
  • Cost per lead dropped from $230 to $19 ????

Ready to get more from your Google Ads?

If you’re tired of wasting budget on clicks that go nowhere, it’s time for a smarter approach. Bringing in a seasoned Google Ads Strategist gives you expert strategy and set up, minus the monthly retainer.

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