You’re probably seeing more and more ads for gym marketing agencies.
There’s a reason for that—and it’s not a good one:
The marketing agencies are failing fast.
In the last six months alone, three different marketing agencies have approached me asking if I’d buy them out. Dozens of others have simply vanished. Some have even started rebranding themselves as “mentorship” companies, hoping to borrow credibility from people who actually know what they’re doing.
The truth is simple: Most gym marketing agencies don’t last 18 months. They can’t get clients. They can’t keep clients. And they definitely can’t help you get and keep clients.
It’s time we had an honest conversation about why these agencies keep failing—and what you should be doing instead.
The Pattern of Failure: A Brief History
Gym marketing agencies have been around forever. But not the same ones. That’s the key.
Let me take you back through the genealogy of gym marketing. It reads like the Old Testament:
In the beginning, there were direct-mail campaigns in the 1980s and early 1990s. Companies such as American Mailers and Val-Pak begat the coupon-book era, promising gym owners floods of new members through mailbox saturation.
And the coupon books begat the Yellow Pages advertisers of the mid-1990s, who begat the early Internet marketing companies of the late 1990s and early 2000s, who promised to “put your gym online” for thousands of dollars.
And the web design companies begat the SEO agencies of the mid-2000s, who begat the social-media marketing agencies when Facebook arrived, who begat the Groupon wave of 2010-2012 (which nearly destroyed the industry with unsustainable discounting).
And Groupon begat the “challenge” model—six-week fitness challenges designed to fill gyms with bargain hunters. The New You Challenge and similar programs dominated from 2012-2015.
And the challenge programs begat GymLaunch in 2017, which begat ClickFunnels copycats, which begat the “agency in a box” franchises, which begat the current wave of TikTok and Instagram marketing agencies promising 30 leads in 30 days.
And here we are, reading the same book with different characters, watching the same story play out with new names.
The names change every 18-24 months. The tactics evolve with each new social platform. But the fundamental problem never does:
These agencies can’t sustain their own businesses, let alone yours.
Think about that. If they were actually good at marketing, why would they need to constantly rebrand and relaunch? Why would three of them approach me in one year asking for a buyout because they can’t maintain their client bases?
Why would I have to kick two “professional marketers” out of GymOwnersUnited.com every week for lying about being gym owners so they can try to sell you marketing?
The irony is staggering. They’re selling you expertise in growth while their own businesses are collapsing.
Why They Prey on Your Ignorance
These agencies survive—temporarily—because there’s always a fresh crop of gym owners who don’t understand marketing.
And I’m not saying that to be condescending. Most of us didn’t get into this business because we love marketing. We opened gyms because we love coaching. We love seeing transformations. We love building community.
Marketing feels complicated. Technical. Like something you need an “expert” for.
And these agencies know it. They exploit it.
They throw around impressive-sounding metrics: “We’ll get you 30 leads in 30 days!” or “20 guaranteed appointments!” or “10 new clients or your money back!”
But here’s what they don’t tell you: Those metrics are meaningless. Especially if your funnel is broken.
The Data Tells the Truth
Let me show you some numbers from our “2025 State of the Industry” report, compiled from thousands of gyms using platforms such as Kilo and Wodify.
Here’s a shocking stat: 14.6% of gym owners don’t call their leads at all. Nearly one in six gym owners pays for leads and then never picks up the phone.
For those who do call, the median “set rate”—the percentage of leads who actually book an appointment—is just 33.3. One in three.
And for those appointments that actually happen, the median close rate is 62.5%.
Let’s do the math on those “30 leads in 30 days”:
- 30 leads come in.
- You call all of them (already better than 14.6% of gyms).
- 10 book appointments (33.3% set rate).
- 6 become clients (62.5% close rate).
Six clients. From 30 leads.
Now, if those six clients stay for years and refer their friends, that might work. But they usually won’t—because they were attracted by a special offer that doesn’t represent your actual business. They’re bargain hunters, not committed clients.
The problem isn’t that you need more leads. The problem is that your process is broken—or nonexistent.
You need to fix your sales process first. Learn to respond to leads within minutes, not hours. Learn to conduct appointments that actually close. Learn to present your value properly.
Then you need to fix your lead nurture because most leads aren’t ready to buy immediately.
Only then should you pour more leads into the top of your funnel.
But agencies don’t want you to hear this—because they make money selling you leads, not fixing your business.
The Four Problems with Agency Dependency
Let’s say you hire one of these agencies and somehow—somehow—it actually works in the short term. You get leads. You get appointments. You get new clients.
You’re still facing four critical problems:
Problem 1: Low-Quality Leads
When an agency is racing to hit a number—”30 leads in 30 days!”—they’re optimizing for quantity, not quality.
I’ve seen agencies deliver leads from people who live three hours away. Leads from people who thought they were entering a contest for a free gym membership. Leads who were bored and clicking around Facebook with zero intention of ever joining a gym. I’m sure you’ve seen these, too—am I right?
Those aren’t leads. Those are names in a spreadsheet that make the agency’s dashboard look good.
Problem 2: Appointments That Don’t Convert
Sometimes, you’ll get leads that were attracted by an offer: “6 weeks for $99” or “free trial” or “50% off your first month.”
They’re not coming because they love your gym. They’re coming for the deal.
So when you try to transition them to your regular $175 a month membership, they balk. Or they complete the trial and ghost you. Or they stay for the promotional period and cancel immediately after.
According to our data, the median monthly gross revenue for big-group gyms is $18,750. The median number of clients is 129. That’s an average revenue per member (ARM) of just $145.
But how many of those clients are on promotional rates that are dragging down your ARM and killing your profitability?
Problem #3: Unsustainable Offers
Let’s say they do sign up. Great. But they signed up at $99 a month when your standard rate is $175.
Now you have a two-tier pricing system. Or you have to attempt an uncomfortable upsell conversation. Or you’re stuck honoring that rate forever. Or other clients ask for the same deal.
And even if you successfully upsell them, they’re still not your ideal client. They were attracted by a discount. Our data shows these clients have significantly shorter length of engagement (LEG) than clients who came through referrals or organic channels.
The median LEG across all U.S. gyms is 19 months. But discount-driven clients? Often half that.
They don’t stay. They don’t refer. They don’t become evangelists for your brand.
Problem #4: Complete Dependency
This is the big one.
Even if everything works—quality leads, good conversions, strong retention—you still have a massive problem:
You still don’t know how to market for yourself!
Your entire business is now dependent on this agency. And remember, the average agency lifespan is 18 months.
What happens when they disappear? When they raise their rates 300%? When they start working with your competitor down the street?
You’re screwed.
You’ve spent all this time and money building their business, not yours. You have no marketing system. No processes. No skills.
You’re a passenger in your own business.
The Four Funnels You Need to Own
Enough problems. Let’s talk solutions.
Every gym needs to build—not rent, not outsource, but build—four marketing funnels:
Funnel #1: Referrals
This is your lowest-cost, highest-quality source of new clients. Period.
I’m not talking about hoping your clients refer their friends. I’m talking about a systematic process for generating referrals on a predictable schedule.
Why referrals matter:
- They cost almost nothing to acquire.
- They come in pre-sold on your value.
- They trust you from Day 1.
- They stay longer than any people from any other client source.
- They refer more friends, creating a multiplication effect.
You should be running formal referral campaigns quarterly at minimum. These aren’t passive “please refer your friends” requests. These are events—bring-a-friend days, member-appreciation events, “biggest winner” challenges where current members partner with non-members.
We teach the complete system here.
According to our data, referrals account for 28.6% of leads for the average gym. But for Two-Brain gyms who run systematic referral campaigns? That number jumps to 45-50%.
That’s the difference between having a plan and hoping for the best.
Funnel 2: Organic Social Media
Notice I said organic. Not paid. Not boosted posts. Not ads.
You need to build an audience on social media—people who know you, like you and trust you.
This isn’t about posting random workout videos or motivational quotes. This is about building authority in your market. Sharing client success stories (with permission). Educating your community. Being genuinely helpful.
When someone in your area thinks “I need to get in shape,” you want them to think of you. Not because they saw your ad but because they’ve been following you for months and you’ve been providing value for free.
The organic social media funnel works because:
- It builds trust before asking for money.
- It establishes you as the local expert.
- It gives you permission to sell later.
- It provides social proof (nothing sells like transformation stories).
- It costs nothing but time.
Our complete guide is here.
Our data shows that 28.9% of leads come from social media on average. But here’s what’s interesting: Gyms that post consistently (five-plus times per week) and focus on client stories rather than workout content see three to four times higher conversion rates from social leads.
Why? Because those leads have been nurtured. They already believe you can help them.
Funnel 3: Content Marketing
This is where the multiplication really starts.
Content means blogs, podcasts, videos, email newsletters—whatever format works for you and reaches your audience.
But here’s the key: You’re creating valuable content that establishes you as the expert in your area. And you’re using that content to drive people into your other funnels.
Here’s how it works:
Someone searches “how to lose weight in [your city]” and finds your blog post. That blog post has a call to action to download your free “5-Day Fat Loss Jumpstart” guide. They join your email list. Your email sequence nurtures them over weeks or months, sharing more valuable content, client stories and your philosophy.
Eventually, they:
- Become a social-media follower.
- See your paid ads (and actually pay attention because they recognize you).
- Get referred by a friend (and say, “Oh yeah, I’ve been following them!”).
- Simply reach out and sign up.
See how this works? Each funnel feeds the others.
Content accounts for about 10.7% of leads on average. But its real value isn’t in direct lead generation—it’s in amplifying everything else.
When someone clicks your ad and then Googles your gym name, what do they find? If they find a robust blog with 50+ articles demonstrating your expertise, your ad conversion rate skyrockets.
Our content marketing starter kit is here.
Funnel 4: Paid Advertising
Notice this comes last. It doesn’t replace the other three funnels. It just adds gasoline to the fire.
You should absolutely be running paid ads. But only after the other three funnels are working.
Here’s why:
Paid ads are the most expensive way to acquire clients. Our data shows the median cost per lead from paid ads is $15-$30, depending on your market.
If your funnel is broken—if you’re not calling leads back quickly, if your set rate is below 50%, if your close rate is below 70%—you’re just burning money.
But once you know your sales process works, once you’re getting referrals regularly, once you’ve built an audience, then you layer on the paid ads.
And here’s the beautiful thing: When you run paid ads to people who’ve already been following you on social media, who’ve read your content, who were referred by a friend, those ads work exponentially better.
Your cost per acquisition drops. Your close rate climbs. Your LEG increases.
That’s the multiplication effect in action.
On average, 31.8% of leads come from paid ads. But Two-Brain gyms with all four funnels working see their cost per acquisition drop by 40-60% compared to gyms running only paid ads.
Why? Because the other funnels have pre-sold these leads. They’re not cold traffic. They’re warm or even hot.
Insight into the paid ads funnel is here.
The Multiplication Effect
Here’s what most gym owners miss: These four funnels don’t just add to each other. They multiply.
When you run a referral campaign, you create content about it (social posts, blog articles, emails). That content attracts new followers who see your strong community. Some of those followers click your paid ads. Those ad leads convert better because they recognize your brand.
The new clients from your ads eventually refer their friends. Those referred friends were already following you on social media. They book immediately because they’re pre-sold.
See how it spirals upward?
According to our data:
- Gyms with one active funnel grow by an average of two net clients per month.
- Gyms with two active funnels grow by five net clients per month.
- Gyms with three active funnels grow by eight-10 net clients per month.
- Gyms with four active funnels grow by 12-15 net clients per month.
That’s not addition (2+2+2+2=8). That’s multiplication (2×2×2×2=16).
And most importantly: You own it.
No agency can take it away. No vendor can raise prices on you. No platform change can destroy your business overnight.
You’ve built real equity in your business. You’ve developed actual skills. You’re in control.
The New Testament of Gym Marketing
At the beginning of this article, I walked you through the Old Testament of gym marketing agencies.
“And the direct mailers begat the coupon books, who begat the Yellow Pages, who begat the SEO agencies, who begat the social media marketers, who begat GymLaunch, who begat the current wave of TikTok agencies.”
The names change every 18 months. The tactics shift with every new platform. But the cycle of dependency and failure continues.
It’s time for the New Testament.
It’s time for a more enlightened era—an era where gym owners actually understand marketing. Where you’re not at the mercy of agencies that will be gone before your annual lease renewal.
You don’t need another agency making big promises. You need systems. You need skills. You need to own your marketing.
This is what we do at Two-Brain Business.
We don’t run ads for you. We set them up for you and teach you how to keep them up to date.
We don’t get you leads. We teach you how to get leads—and, more importantly, how to turn those leads into clients and those clients into evangelists.
We don’t build our business on your back. We build your business.
In our mentorship program, we walk you through building all four funnels, step by step. We show you what to do, when to do it, how to measure it and how to optimize it. We even do it with you so that you can do it yourself, forever.
We turn your marketing from a mystery into a science.
The Choice Is Yours
You have two paths forward:
Path 1: Keep hoping the next agency will be different. Keep chasing the promise of 30 leads in 30 days. Keep depending on external vendors who come and go like seasonal allergies.
Path 2: Build systems you own. Develop skills that last. Create marketing funnels that work for you 24/7, whether you’re sleeping, coaching or on vacation with your family.
One path leads to perpetual dependency and stress. The other leads to freedom and growth.
I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’ve watched the agencies come and go. I’ve seen the patterns repeat. I’ve had three of them ask me to buy them out in just the last year.
But I’ve also watched thousands of gym owners take control of their marketing, build these four funnels and create thriving, profitable businesses that serve their communities for decades.
The choice is yours.
If you’re ready to own your marketing instead of renting it, book a call with us.
We’ll show you exactly where you are, where you need to go and how to get there.
No big promises. No magic bullets. Just proven systems, step-by-step guidance and the support of mentors who’ve actually built air-tight marketing funnels themselves.
Stop reading the Old Testament of gym marketing. Start writing your own New Testament.
Resources
