Integrated marketing for a fitness studio chain in St Petersburg, Russia
NewFit asked us to bring more new customers into its studios. We combined several integrated marketing channels. We wanted to generate more trial-class enquiries and find out which channels reached people ready to book.
Increase in the conversion rate from clicks to unique leads
Reduction in cost per unique lead
Reduction in cost per click
Yandex Direct campaigns, from testing neighbourhood demand to lowering the cost of enquiries.
Tracking enquiries and analysing the funnel by channel.
Technical SEO, search-led site structure and individual studio pages.
Social media communications and ad production.
Audience segmentation, ad offers and response measurement.
Class-for-content partnerships and placements in local social media communities.
We started with two studios near Vasileostrovskaya and Elektrosila metro stations. Indoor cycling was one of our priorities.
Our goal for paid search advertising was to generate more enquiries through Yandex Direct, the paid search platform we used in Russia, at a target cost. We measured results using Calltouch's Unique Leads conversion goal.
We compared which classes other studios advertised, what they highlighted and how they encouraged first visits. These findings shaped NewFit's ad messaging.
Competitors promoted gym access, group classes and personal training.
They highlighted their facilities, experienced trainers and premium experience.
They used discounts, membership deals and trial classes to attract new customers.
Before launching the ads, we followed the customer journey from choosing a class to submitting an enquiry. Toimprove the site's conversion rate, we recommended simplifying bookings and callback requests, making timetables and offers easier to find and fixing mobile layout issues.
Group classes into clear categories and link to the timetable.
Offer one form for trial classes and a separate way to request a callback.
Confirm submission and link to the timetable.
| What we reviewed | What we found | What we recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile experience | Some elements did not display correctly on certain devices or in narrow browser windows. | Test and fix the layout at different screen widths. |
| Homepage and class discovery | The site listed class types together and hid some of them. The workout video played in the background, where visitors could miss it. | Show all class types near the top of the homepage, grouped into cardio, strength and mind–body. Use a carousel for the overview and open the video separately. |
| Timetable | Visitors could not return to the main site from the timetable page. | Add a bookable timetable and studio selector to the homepage, with a nearby link to studio photos and locations. Add a link back to the homepage on the standalone timetable page. |
| Bookings and callback requests | The homepage had separate buttons for one or two trial classes, with no separate callback option. | Use separate “Book a trial class” and “Request a callback” buttons. Let visitors choose the number of classes in the trial booking form. |
| Enquiry confirmation | The fields cleared on submission and a confirmation appeared at the bottom of the page, where visitors could easily miss it. | Show a confirmation message with a link to the timetable. |
| Promotions | The summer sale discount appeared at checkout but was missing from the promotions page. | List all active offers and create dedicated landing pages for ads. |
| Indoor cycling page | The site described indoor cycling in both the class overview and a dedicated page. | If both describe the same class, link to the full description. If they describe different formats, give them distinct names. |
| Children's fitness | The “Learn more” button led to an enquiry form, studio locations were not clickable and membership options were far from the timetable. The mobile page lacked an introductory section. | Rename the button “Send an enquiry”, link to studio pages, add a heading above the timetable and put membership options immediately after it. Add a mobile introduction with the offer and a button. |
| Other forms and site elements | The franchise enquiry form asked visitors to choose a number of workouts. Buying a gift voucher was unclear and buttons were duplicated at the bottom of the site. | Ask only for a name and contact details on the franchise form. Let visitors buy their selected voucher directly and remove duplicate buttons. Add the city code to the phone number and fix a typo in the trainer education section. |
We grouped initial searches by general gym terms, personal and group training, and specific classes such as indoor cycling, TRX suspension training, yoga and stretching. We included location-based queries and added negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic.
Negative keywords help filter out irrelevant searches.
For trial-class and near-metro searches, we considered both the class people wanted and the studio's location. Our competitor review showed what people could use to compare studios: trainers, class formats and trial terms. We used these findings to draft headlines and ads for testing.
The trial-class ad named the offer, listed the nearest metro stations, described the studio and invited people to book. Readers could quickly judge whether the class suited them and whether the studio was easy to reach.
Recreated from the original ad copy with part of a NewFit campaign visual.
We launched around Vasileostrovskaya and Elektrosila first to see whether local demand could generate enough enquiries at our target cost.
We expected people to choose a studio close to home or work, so we targeted each studio's surrounding area with search campaigns and Yandex Direct's Campaign Wizard.
Search campaigns covered gyms, fitness, personal training and specific classes. In Campaign Wizard, we tested setups with and without keywords. We also used retargeting to reach previous site visitors.
When ad reach near the studios proved too limited to generate enough enquiries, we tested campaigns across St Petersburg. We kept nearby neighbourhoods a priority and named metro stations and classes in the ads so readers could assess both the workout and the journey.
Alongside campaigns for individual class types, we tested fitness club audiences, interest-based targeting anddirect competitors' audiences. We showed these audiences offers for trial classes and class packs.
We ran branded search ads for people already looking for NewFit and used promotional retargeting to reach previous visitors.
Bars show how far each campaign's cost per lead was below the account average. Shares of unique leads and spend appear where available.
From August 2024 to January 2025, cost per unique lead fell every month, dropping 71% overall. The conversion rate from clicks to enquiries roughly tripled and cost per click fell 12.5%. December brought the most unique leads, 86% more than August.
August 2024 = 100%. Rounded values from Yandex Direct using the Calltouch Unique Leads goal and automatic attribution.
To bring more people into the studios, we expanded across the city while keeping nearby areas a priority through higher bid adjustments.
Promotions and limited-time offers helped bring down the cost of enquiries, as did retargeting people who had already shown interest in NewFit.
Website enquiries, messages and purchases came through different channels. We needed to see where enquiries began and what happened afterwards. We tracked these separately as part of our end-to-end analytics.
We counted unique enquiries in Calltouch and flagged qualified leads separately in the report.
We counted new conversations in the VK community separately from website enquiries.
We tracked trial-class attendance and membership sales as separate funnel stages.
In December 2023, website traffic was similar to November but the site conversion rate fell by 26.5%. Comparing channels pointed to organic search. We then checked branded search impressions to see whether lower interest in NewFit might explain part of the decline.
We tracked two spellings separately: NewFit in Latin script and its Russian transliteration. The Latin spelling had two peaks in spring 2022 and fewer impressions in 2023 than in those peak months. Impressions for the Russian spelling varied month to month.
The channel comparison narrowed the drop to organic search. Branded impressions helped us test the lower-demand hypothesis, but did not establish why conversion fell.
The site needed to answer searches about specific classes, nearby studios and how to book. SEO started with a technical audit and a review of the site structure.
After the technical site audit, we prepared a sitemap and robots.txt file for indexing, added the site to Yandex Webmaster, implemented structured data, fixed broken links and created an error page.
We researched keywords and wrote titles and descriptions for search results.
We recommended dedicated pages for individual class types and studio pages for neighbourhood searches.
We grouped queries separately for Elektrosila and Kupchino and prepared briefs for updating their pages. For third-party placements, we selected topics tied to NewFit classes, including indoor cycling, aerial yoga and barre.
We compared the first halves of 2022 and 2023. With the first half of 2022 set to 100, the index reached 129.8 in the same period of 2023.
Growth in search traffic
Pages per visit
NewFit already had social accounts. It wanted to stand out from other studios and give followers a reason to return between workouts. We reviewed engagement with existing posts. The audit did not identify a clear best time to post, so we recommended testing different times.
We developed a social media strategy and defined what to publish on each platform. We also developed ads for different classes, promotions and placements.
We researched competitors and audiences, set the tone of voice and visual direction, and prepared content themes, a publishing plan and YouTube recommendations. NewFit's team ran the accounts afterwards.
We planned three posts a week introducing class types, demonstrating exercises and explaining common technique mistakes.
We proposed short podcasts answering follower questions, circular video clips from classes and studio updates. For creator placements, we suggested posts built around a specific offer.
We suggested trainer interviews, behind-the-scenes vlogs and videos about preparing for events and workouts.
NewFit chose two directions from the moodboard: geometric shapes to distinguish class types and close-up photography focused on faces. We prepared static banners, carousels and for individual classes. We made sure the offers in our ad briefs matched the terms on the booking page.
Original Russian-language campaign artwork. The ads introduce NewFit’s premium group and personal training, highlight boxing and stretching, promote a children’s membership and announce the Komendantsky studio opening.
Through paid social ads on VK, a Russian social network, we reached people who were not already searching for a studio. For each audience, we tested a different introduction to NewFit.
We offered people living near a studio a trial class close to home. People already interested in fitness saw specific programmes and class formats. We introduced followers of competing studios to NewFit classes and offers.
September = 100%.
In October, new VK conversations increased while website enquiries fell compared with September. Tracking them separately showed how people's first contact with the studio changed and helped us identify two things to test independently: the ad offer and the website booking journey.
By January, both figures were above September levels. Ad delivery also varied, so the figures describe the overall trend rather than the effect of a specific change.
We tested two ways to introduce the studios: firsthand reviews from creators and posts about classes in local social communities.
As part of our creator partnerships, we invited local creators to a class in exchange for a story or short video. We gave them promo codes and collected the first 24 hours of performance data.
Integrations
Creators
For St Petersburg communities, we picked specific reasons to try a class: Cycle Start, an introduction to indoor cycling, and rooftop workouts. We could see visits from the posts but had no purchase data for this channel, so we recommended using it to build awareness.
