Do you know that 1/7th of the world's population is on Facebook? The average American spends more time on Facebook than they do with their pets!
What's more is that half of all average adult Facebook users have over 200 “Facebook friends”
You can easily see that by recruiting one fan of your Facebook Business page fans and persuading them to share a post, you can potentially receive exposure to another 200+ people. Powerful fitness marketing!
You can easily see that by recruiting one fan of your Facebook Business page fans and persuading them to share a post, you can potentially receive exposure to another 200+ people. Powerful fitness marketing!
Why Should Personal Trainers Use Facebook Ads
The answer is simple. You go where your clients go. The days of opening up a little shop and expecting walk-by traffic and word of mouth to bring you business are over. We are living in the digital age.
Even if you're not a social media user, your clients most probably are.
In order to grow your business, personal trainers must master one of the most powerful forms of advertising available...
Facebook Ads.
Even if you don't become a master, you should become aware of the strategies that can be implemented for your business so you don't get left behind.
Even if you're so bad at Facebook Ads that you can need to outsource someone to create ads for you, it's important to understand (at least some of the basics) to protect you from getting ripped off from a "Facebook ads guru" as you’ll already know what to look for.
Even if you're not a social media user, your clients most probably are.
In order to grow your business, personal trainers must master one of the most powerful forms of advertising available...
Facebook Ads.
Even if you don't become a master, you should become aware of the strategies that can be implemented for your business so you don't get left behind.
Even if you're so bad at Facebook Ads that you can need to outsource someone to create ads for you, it's important to understand (at least some of the basics) to protect you from getting ripped off from a "Facebook ads guru" as you’ll already know what to look for.
1. Develop The Right Mindset
Before we get into the nitty gritty of Facebook ads, we must first develop the right mindset. Facebook should be seen as an investment that you have to spend time and money on to see real results.
There's a saying in the fitness marketing industry that goes like this:
The company that is willing to spend the most money to acquire a single client will win.
That doesn't mean you have to spend thousands of dollars trying to acquire a single client (especially at the start).
However, you should be aware that the fitness company that does spend more will usually have an advantage over the fitness business that spends less. Facebook Ads are an investment to you and your company and they should be treated as such.
Generally, you can think of this relationship with advertising as the more money you are spending on one customer, the chances are that you have gone beyond the call of duty or have done something different to your competitors as opposed to just going for the cheapest clicks possible.
2. Set Clear Goals
You're a personal trainer so you give your clients goals right? So why, when it comes to your fitness marketing strategy, would you not set goals? Set clear goals on what you want to accomplish. For most business owners, this means more sales.
Although you shouldn't technically be "selling" on Facebook (I'll get into this more later), you can develop relationships and generate leads for your training business that will eventually turn into sales.
There are many metrics and analytics that you can measure to track results for your business. These are often better than just measuring sales as a number of factors can come into WHY you are getting these sales.
Metrics like conversion rates (person doing what the call to action on the ad is asking them to do) and ACoS (% of money spent per sale) for example, if it costs $20 to get one sale from an ad and the cost of the product bought was $100, the ACoS rate would be 20% as you are only paying 20% of what the product costs to get the sale from ads.
3. Install a Facebook Pixel
The best personal trainers track and measure their client's progress. You should do the same with your Facebook campaigns.
In order to track and measure accurately you must install Facebook pixels in the following places: Your website, landing page, and thank you page.
There's a tool that helps us see if this was done correctly. It's called the FB Pixel Helper
It's a Google Chrome extension. If you don't have Google Chrome you can download it here.
Once you've downloaded Google Chrome you can download the Fb Pixel helper
In order to track and measure accurately you must install Facebook pixels in the following places: Your website, landing page, and thank you page.
There's a tool that helps us see if this was done correctly. It's called the FB Pixel Helper
It's a Google Chrome extension. If you don't have Google Chrome you can download it here.
Once you've downloaded Google Chrome you can download the Fb Pixel helper
This pixel allows you to see if you your tracking and custom audience pixel were loaded correctly. As you can see below I have two pixels loaded. One is the conversion tracking pixel and the other is the custom audience pixel.
Note: you only get one Custom Audience pixel per Facebook Ad account. You can have as many tracking pixels as you want but you’ll be using the same custom audience pixel on all your pages.
Installing a Facebook Pixel properly is essential if you're serious about tracking your ads and should be checked before you start investing serious money into FB ads. If not installed correctly, metrics like “Conversions” can go completely wrong.
4. Understand Facebook's Mentality
Facebook doesn’t care about you, the advertiser. Even though we’re their customers, Facebook only cares about serving and improving the user experience. After all, if there are no users, there is no Facebook.
This means as a Personal Trainer you can’t promote ideal body images, before/after pictures, and negative language.
A lot of fitness professionals get in trouble because they don’t follow these Facebook Ad guidelines. I know this doesn’t make sense to us but we must obey Facebook’s rules if we're to be successful with Facebook advertising.
Pictures of unrealistic transformations whether they are real or fake will get rejected by the Facebook ads team. Facebook will say that this is unrealistic even if it’s true.
If you're a female trainer and want to promote a picture of yourself, if too much skin is showing you can get called up for that as well.
This means as a Personal Trainer you can’t promote ideal body images, before/after pictures, and negative language.
A lot of fitness professionals get in trouble because they don’t follow these Facebook Ad guidelines. I know this doesn’t make sense to us but we must obey Facebook’s rules if we're to be successful with Facebook advertising.
Pictures of unrealistic transformations whether they are real or fake will get rejected by the Facebook ads team. Facebook will say that this is unrealistic even if it’s true.
If you're a female trainer and want to promote a picture of yourself, if too much skin is showing you can get called up for that as well.
5. Choose Your Avatar
Who do you want to work with the most?
For most trainers, this is the clients they’re working with now.
Before we start any Facebook campaign we should get a clear picture of our ideal client. Try to learn their aspirations, goals, and like/dislikes.
Let’s say you want work with post natal women who want to get back in shape. You must ask yourself why they want to get back in shape?
Learn to get into the minds of your ideal client. Ask the right questions and you’ll have the info you need. Once you have this information you’ll use it to create the copy of your ad.
If you have a client that makes you think “I wish every client could be like this one” try to learn more about them… what makes them your favourite client? (I hope it’s not because you think they're attractive…) but seriously… Facebook ads is extremely customizable.
You have 1/7th of the world's population to choose from... you can afford to be picky… especially with online training!
This is important information that you need to create a successful campaign.
For most trainers, this is the clients they’re working with now.
Before we start any Facebook campaign we should get a clear picture of our ideal client. Try to learn their aspirations, goals, and like/dislikes.
Let’s say you want work with post natal women who want to get back in shape. You must ask yourself why they want to get back in shape?
Learn to get into the minds of your ideal client. Ask the right questions and you’ll have the info you need. Once you have this information you’ll use it to create the copy of your ad.
If you have a client that makes you think “I wish every client could be like this one” try to learn more about them… what makes them your favourite client? (I hope it’s not because you think they're attractive…) but seriously… Facebook ads is extremely customizable.
You have 1/7th of the world's population to choose from... you can afford to be picky… especially with online training!
This is important information that you need to create a successful campaign.
6. Supercharge Your Facebook Ads
Facebook’s Power Editor is an advanced user interface that allows you more control and customization of your Facebook Ads.
It can only be used with the Google chrome browser. It recently had a facelift and Facebook is always making changes but it’s always for the better.
It can only be used with the Google chrome browser. It recently had a facelift and Facebook is always making changes but it’s always for the better.
The more customizable your Facebook ads, the better. The more thing you can change, the better! The more custom they will be, the more targeted to your ideal client/target audience they will be. This is where the Power Editor helps.
7. Let Facebook Optimise Your Pricing
A lot of advertisers try to complicate things when it comes to pricing your bids but I’ve found that letting Facebook optimize for our objective is the best route.
Facebook is smarter than us. They have so much information on their users they know who will likely behave in a certain way. It’s actually creepy how much information they have. Plus, Facebook want you to succeed with your ads so you keep on spending with them.
Facebook is smarter than us. They have so much information on their users they know who will likely behave in a certain way. It’s actually creepy how much information they have. Plus, Facebook want you to succeed with your ads so you keep on spending with them.
8. Create a Successful Fitness Ad
What are the fundamentals of a great Facebook Ad? They all consist of the same thing. An attention grabbing headline, a powerful image, great copy, and a call to action.
For fitness ads I’ve found that short headlines that ask a question work best. Some examples include:
For the images you must careful not violate any Facebook Ad guidelines. Images of real people in your gym work the best. The higher the quality the more effective the image will be. You should hire a professional photographer to take pictures of your gym, your clients, and you if possible.
Remember Facebook is an investment and the more you invest in your campaign the bigger return you’ll receive.
Another thing to remember is that a professional photo of yourself is a lot more personal, on a more 1-1 level which is a great way to make the first impression when training local clients.
For the Facebook Ad make sure to highlight the benefits your clients will be receiving. It doesn’t have to be long, since most Facebook users will be on mobile but it should highlight a couple of benefits that they’ll receive by opting in.
For fitness ads I’ve found that short headlines that ask a question work best. Some examples include:
- Do you make these training mistakes?
- Why you aren’t going to lose fat this summer
- The solution to your fitness problem
For the images you must careful not violate any Facebook Ad guidelines. Images of real people in your gym work the best. The higher the quality the more effective the image will be. You should hire a professional photographer to take pictures of your gym, your clients, and you if possible.
Remember Facebook is an investment and the more you invest in your campaign the bigger return you’ll receive.
Another thing to remember is that a professional photo of yourself is a lot more personal, on a more 1-1 level which is a great way to make the first impression when training local clients.
For the Facebook Ad make sure to highlight the benefits your clients will be receiving. It doesn’t have to be long, since most Facebook users will be on mobile but it should highlight a couple of benefits that they’ll receive by opting in.
9. Use Facebook Ads to Build An Email List
Have you ever tried to sell something at a party? This sounds strange, right? Facebook is like a party. You don’t sell at a party. Instead you tell stories and have conversations. You have FUN.
If you’re targeting users that may not know, like, and trust you yet, it will be challenging to sell anything to them. Especially if it's expensive!
Instead, you should develop relationships with them by offering them something valuable first.
“I’m paying for ads just to give somebody something valuable for free?!”
That’s right.
This is what's called a Lead Magnet. For trainers, the most effective lead magnets are workout videos, meal plans, grocery shopping lists etc.
Make sure that the gift you’re offering them has value . This should be a product that you and most people would generally be happy to pay (at least a small amount) for.
Once you have people opting into your list then through email marketing you can develop relationships that will lead to sales.
Email marketing is where you really build the trust, relationship and make the sales.
10. Retarget
All Facebook campaigns should be retargeting. What’s retargeting? It’s when ads are shown to people that have already shown an interest.
“Interest” can be someone clicking on your ad previously, visiting your website or commenting on an ad.
You use a custom audience pixel to build your audience. You can create as many audiences as you like but the most important ones are website visitors.
Once somebody has taken an interest and visited your site, Facebook tracks them with a pixel. You can then create an ad based on only people that have visited your site. These ads are much more targeted and the most effective part of any campaign.
Bonus Tip: The most effective retargeting ads are video testimonials. Make sure they follow the SSS model which is Star. Story. Solution
Star- Have your client introduce themselves with their name and occupation.
Story- Talk about the problem they had before they found you. It could be weight loss, nutrition, accountability, or muscle gain. Let them talk about themselves and their problem
Solution- This demonstrates how the star used your service to that solved their problem.
Recent studies have shown how people need to be reminded up to 7 times of a service before they go ahead and invest in it. You need to make the most of this by re targeting.
“Interest” can be someone clicking on your ad previously, visiting your website or commenting on an ad.
You use a custom audience pixel to build your audience. You can create as many audiences as you like but the most important ones are website visitors.
Once somebody has taken an interest and visited your site, Facebook tracks them with a pixel. You can then create an ad based on only people that have visited your site. These ads are much more targeted and the most effective part of any campaign.
Bonus Tip: The most effective retargeting ads are video testimonials. Make sure they follow the SSS model which is Star. Story. Solution
Star- Have your client introduce themselves with their name and occupation.
Story- Talk about the problem they had before they found you. It could be weight loss, nutrition, accountability, or muscle gain. Let them talk about themselves and their problem
Solution- This demonstrates how the star used your service to that solved their problem.
Recent studies have shown how people need to be reminded up to 7 times of a service before they go ahead and invest in it. You need to make the most of this by re targeting.
Summing Up
By now you should have realized the power of Facebook Ads.
I sincerely hope these tips will allow you to master this marketing channel and provide you with more sales, email sign-ups and success.
I sincerely hope these tips will allow you to master this marketing channel and provide you with more sales, email sign-ups and success.
About the Author
 | Mauricio Cardenal is the creator of The PT Advisor. He helps Fitness Entrepreneurs grow their business online and fitness professionals take their personal training business to the next level. |
