As a personal trainer, you probably rely heavily on referrals from clients. But what if you need another method for getting new customers? This is where Facebook ads for personal trainers could help take your fitness business to a whole new level. 

Personal trainers have to get… personal. You are meeting with potential clients on a daily basis, having deep conversations about nutrition and fitness goals, and engaging with people as they’re learning to improve their overall health.

To do all the things a personal trainer does requires a human connection. People have to hear about you, see your results from other clients, and talk to you in order to feel comfortable moving forward.

Facebook ads are an ideal way to help you make this connection and get conversations started. You can tailor the ads with virtually any message and run different offers for people who are at various stages of their fitness journey. 

You can even simply drive people to like your Facebook page so they are up to date on everything you’re up to with personal training.

Facebook may be in the headlines for numerous reasons, but the popularity and power of the company is not likely to disappear anytime soon. As massive as the social media giant is, it gives personal trainers the unique opportunity to find potential customers at the local level.

The Basics of Personal Training Facebook Ads

Once you decide you’re ready to start running a Facebook ad campaign, there are a few strategies to set yourself up for success. 

Here are some best practices each campaign should implement.

Have a Clear Goal

What is the goal of your Facebook ad campaign? Is it to drive likes to your FB page? Perhaps it’s to advertise your specialty or package promotions. 

Define your goal before you set up your ads so you’ll know how to shape your ads.

Target the Right Audience

When selecting your target audience for your ads, not only do you choose the zip code, but you should also select people with interests that align with personal training. People who are interested in activities such as wellness, yoga, or fitness are more likely to engage with your ad. 

Use Quality Images or Videos

Remember, your ad has to stop people from getting their daily Facebook fix or tear them away from the travel pics in their Instagram feed. Make sure your ads are visually appealing and support your goal.

Focus on Clear Copy

You don’t have to be an award-winning writer to write a great ad. Instead, focus on making your offer or message as clear and understandable as possible. 

All you need to do is keep it simple and straightforward.

Strong Call to Action

The ad should make it clear what you want people to do next. Do they need to sign up, call you for an appointment, learn more by downloading something, claim an offer, or enter an email address?

A strong call to action gets people to do exactly what it is you want them to do when they see your ad.

Types of Facebook Ads for Personal Trainers

You have the framework to create an ad campaign, but bringing these ads to life is the next step. 

There are a variety of personal training Facebook ads available. On the one hand, this is great for marketing, but on the other, it can be overwhelming. 

Let’s take a closer look at various campaign goals and examples of ads a personal trainer might use for a particular objective. 

Lead Generation

Many personal trainers offer free lessons or a trial period to drum up warm leads and eventually get a paid client. 

You will see numerous personal trainer ads where the trainers are looking for a specific number of people to participate in a challenge or makeover. Putting the details about the challenge in an ad is another effective strategy to generate leads.

To participate in the challenge — or whatever your offer is — the goal is to get the email address or have someone sign up. Make sure your call to action is crystal clear.

Clicking on “learn more” in the ad above takes a potential client to a landing page where they can read additional information or sign up for the project. If someone makes it to the landing page, then this is generating a lead for the personal trainer.

Promote a Time-Sensitive Offer

As a personal trainer, you may offer specials throughout the year that are only good for a certain amount of time. Facebook ads are ideal for this scenario because you can easily adapt the message and create a sense of urgency. 

Whether you’re offering a promotional price if you bring a friend along or a package of sessions at a discounted price, Facebook ads can help you articulate this offer and guide the audience to the next steps.

Create Engagement

Personal trainers could use ads to engage with potential clients and request their email addresses. A popular method is to offer a free download, such as a how-to guide or a short e-book. 

This serves two purposes. You can engage with someone and possibly earn more of their trust once they receive your information, and it gives you another warm lead once you have their email address. 

Get People to “Like” Your Page

As a personal trainer, having a base of potential clients you can immediately send specials to or engage with is one way to continuously build your business. 

If you have a Facebook page for your personal training business, then running a campaign promoting your page is a great strategy.

By having a business page and growing your followers, you can build on this and provide valuable information on a consistent basis. When your potential clients are ready to act, they’ll know exactly where to go to find your information on Facebook.

Other Tools for Facebook Ads

If you’ve received positive engagement or feedback from any of the Facebook ads you’ve started running, then it’s important to build on this success. Fortunately, Facebook has tools to help you from the start or to build on your ad campaigns.

Facebook Pixel

There is a tool offered called the Facebook Pixel. To activate it, you place a code on your website. This gives Facebook access to both your ads as well as your website and tells you how people engage with both.

When you have the pixel installed, you receive a wealth of information. It will give you insight into various actions, such as what ads are sending people to your website, what pages people are interacting with, or if someone signed up for your newsletter.

These insights become critical to helping you make decisions about your ads. If you see that something is working, you stick with it and build on it. If the insights tell you something is falling flat, you know what you need to work on.

It’s quick and free to install. And once it’s installed, it’s always running in the background collecting and gathering the information. 

Conduct Testing

Facebook ads also allow you to conduct A/B testing. This is where you can test two ads with the same goal, but each ad has a slightly different variable. For example, one ad may have a contrasting headline or use a video instead of a graphic. 

With A/B testing, you want to select one variable to change to ensure you’re really comparing apples to apples. Once you see the results of the ads, then you’ll know immediately if one headline or graphic resonates better than another.

Personal trainers might be quite interested in this feature since language is such an important part of the overall message of the ads. They have to be careful with phrases around weight loss and dieting, and testing is one way to ensure your message is getting conveyed correctly. 

The Final Word on Facebook Ads for Personal Trainers

Personal trainers have to work hard to build up their clientele. Facebook ads can be an essential part of the process so a trainer isn’t relying on word of mouth or referrals alone. 

Fortunately, there are a variety of examples of effective Facebook ads for personal trainers to help get your name out there and get your client roster built up to its fullest potential.