Integrated Program
Health Club
DIGITAL MARKETING: A PERSONAL BEST FOR HEALTH CLUB CHAIN. CONVERSION RATES INCREASED 745% AND COSTS DECREASED 452%.
Case Descriptions
Client
- Type: 75-location health club chain
- Geographical Coverage: West central and East coast Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, California, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas
- Target Audience: General Population
- Value Proposition: Low monthly price, no-gimmicks, new and clean equipment for the average, non-fitness geek
Situation
A health club focused on what matters, health. The company’s goal is to increase membership joins and free trials while at the same time building their brand presence. The cost-per-join must be low since they are a budget health club. In addition, they are growing rapidly, from three locations four years ago to over 75 health clubs in the major markets in Florida, Arizona, California, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, so we must achieve results quickly to meet join goals as each new location opens.
OBJECTIVES
- Deliver and individualized high-performing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) program for each club location.
- Deliver a high-performing, ongoing search Engine Optimization (SEO) program for the website and for each individual location.
- Develop and manage optimized local directories for all clubs so each shows up in local map results and for a larger share-of – page for all general searches.
- Achieve ROI, join and cost-per-join goals, as well as impression-share targets.
KEY PAID SEARCH SUMMARY POINTS
In the last 4 years, from June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2014:
- The cost per Direct Conversion decreased from $29.38 to $5.32 (452.35% improvement).
- The conversion rate increased from 1.84% to 15.55% (745.11% improvement).
- The conversion rate for non-branded keywords increased from 1.30% to 9.97% (666.92% improvement).
In the last 5 years, the average CPC decreased from $1.12 to $0.82 (26.79% improvement).
- During the same time period, on average, CPC increased by up to 12% annually for Google advertisers.
During the past year, direct paid search conversions increased by 34,010 (387.45% improvement) compared to the previous year.
6,331 of the past year’s conversion were for free passes.
36,457 of the past year’s conversion were for new memberships joins.
During the past year, paid search traffic to the website increased by 90.23% compared to the previous year.
KEY SEO SUMMARY POINTS
In the first half of 2014, from January 1, 2014 through May 31, 2014 compared to the same time period the previous year when no SEO was being performed.
- The number of visits to the website increased from 270,106 to 451,790 (67.40% Improvement)
- The conversion rate increased from 5.92% to 16.43% (177.57% improvement).
- The Conversion rate for non-branded keywords increased from 3.21% to 16.09% (401.25% Improvement).
During the 5 months Local Directive executed SEO, from January 1, 2014 through May 31, 2014
- The average Cost per Organic Conversion was $0.40
- The average Cost per Organic website visit was $0.07.
Results
The following charts present year-over-year performance for the health clubs. The top section describes the Search Engine Marketing program and the bottom section, the Search Engine Optimization program.
Solution
As locations grew from a few to nearly 75, we focused on optimization of all locations within a geographic metro, as well as launching location level campaigns. The location-based campaigns allowed us to achieve target results per location by managing radius and spend to achieve company business objectives. All campaigns used the most advanced Google extensions and bid management tools for maximum exposure and results. Additionally, Grand Opening programs were devised and utilized to gain rapid traction for new clubs.
In our fourth year, we’ve launched a search Engine Optimization component to the program, which includes On page/On-site Optimization and Ongoing Off-Site SEO. This plan was put into place to drive non-paid traffic to the website to attain a higher number of conversions (joins) and to increase organic search rankings in the major search engines. On-Site SEO was completed and then Off-Site activities were initiated to increase page popularity. This was done by driving traffic to them and by providing numerous incoming links from content – laden sources, (articles and news releases), that are looked upon very favorably by prospective customers and search engines alike.
Additional local SEO activities have also been executed, including optimization of local directories for each location to help build a greater share of the page when someone is searching for gyms, health clubs and fitness centers in their local markets.