[Case Study] How Gold’s Gym Achieved 11,428% ROI

Trilce Jirón is the Founder and CEO of TBS Marketing, a Chat Marketing agency and ManyChat Agency Partner based out of Costa Rica. Her mission is to help local businesses from restaurants to gyms better connect with potential customers and drive sales.

For Trilce, finding new ways to apply neuropsychology to her Messenger bots has continually lowered return on ad spend and boost ROI for her clients. This insightful approach earned her the attention of the international gym franchise, Gold’s Gym.

Gold’s Gym, an American chain with fitness centers around the world, is known for its variety of cardio and strength training equipment and group exercise programs. The gym wanted to attract new local customers to three locations in Costa Rica by promoting a free week’s membership through Messenger. 

Trilce and her team ran JSON Ads connected to the Walletly integration to deliver free week coupons to potential members on their phone. By using Walletly and ManyChat together, the team was able to redeem 280 coupons, generate 117 membership sign-ups, and see an 11,428% ROI in 21 days.  

Trilce explains:

Here’s how it worked. 

Manually redeeming coupons received in Messenger

Before using ManyChat and Walletly together, the gym relied on ManyChat and click-to-Messenger ads via Facebook posts to promote a free three-day trial for the gym. The post was attached to a flow where interested people would provide the following information:

• Preferred gym location
• Cédula de Identidad (Costa Rican ID card)
• Fitness goals and interests 

User information was gathered via Messenger and stored in a separate Google sheet per each gym location. To redeem the coupon, recipients were asked to present their ID at the gym, where staff then manually cross-referenced the IDs with their corresponding Google Sheet. The process was time-consuming and, to put it bluntly, a little tedious for the potential member. 

And though the tactic was helpful in driving sign-ups (with 380 coupons redeemed over a 9-month period), the gym still faced three challenges: 

1. They couldn’t track coupon users who signed up for a paid membership.
2. Redeeming the free trial took multiple steps, which caused potential members to drop off. 
3. The lack of physical or digital coupon didn’t drive an emotional reward for potential members.

Taking membership-trial passes to the mobile wallet

Getting people to redeem digital coupons can typically pose a challenge for digital advertisers. You can send follow-up text messages or emails, retargeted ads on Facebook — but sometimes users can miss these messages. So Trilce and her team added what they considered to be the missing piece: They placed the coupon into the user’s mobile wallet for them. And they used Walletly to create and deliver the passes.

Walletly gives digital advertisers another channel to connect with customers: the mobile wallet. You can design custom coupons for any online or brick-and-mortar location, and send push notifications to create a sense of urgency and skirt around the 24-hour messaging window on Messenger.

Trilce adds: 

Driving membership sign-ups with the Walletly and ManyChat integration

After adding Walletly to their campaign, Trilce served JSON ads to two different audiences in the local area: 

1. A custom audience of people who requested personal training and membership prices in Gold Gym’s ManyChat bot
2. A lookalike audience with 3% variance

Shown: Image used for the ad.

The team also readjusted the messaging in the flow attached to the ad. Rather than asking people for their info immediately when entering the chat window, the bot didn’t ask any questions; it simply offered the option to claim a coupon for a free week at Gold’s Gym. 

Users who clicked a “Get My Coupon” were sent to a Walletly landing page. The only information people now had to enter was their first and last name, phone number, and email address. And in return, a professionally-designed coupon was sent into their phones’ mobile wallet. 

The redemption process was also simplified. Free trial members simply brought their phone to Gold’s Gym and staff scanned the coupon. For those who received a coupon but didn’t start the trial, the gym’s staff followed up via WhatsApp to help answer questions and encourage people to come down and use their free trial.

A spike in ROI for Gold’s Gym

Gold Gym’s campaign, which ran for 21 days in October, brought a rush of membership sign-ups for the fitness center. Combined with TBS Marketing’s neuromarketing tactics, the efforts generated: 

• 11,428% return on investment for the gym
• 280 free week trial redemptions
• 117 membership sign-ups with $70 in ad spend
• 42% conversion rate

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