Questions to ask before an agency markets your gym

April is when a gym owner finds out what January bought. Placer.ai calls January the industry’s peak sign-up season, with sign-ups typically running through much of the first quarter, and that quarter has just closed. The members who joined in the rush are in their third or fourth month, and the ones who were going to drift have mostly started drifting.

It is also when agencies call. Earlier this month the Health & Fitness Association reported that 81 million Americans belonged to a gym, studio or other fitness facility in 2025, an all-time high, 26.1% of everyone aged six and older and 5.2% more than in 2024. A growing market attracts marketing pitches, and most of them could be about any business with a front door.

Here is what we would want a gym owner to ask any agency, us included, before handing over the ad accounts.

How will you count a member, not a lead?

The Health & Fitness Association’s benchmarking report, published last October, put member retention at 66.4% for 2024. In plain terms, roughly one member in three is gone within a year, so an agency that reports leads, clicks or even joins is reporting the easy part.

A good answer sounds like this: the join source is captured at signup, every source is tracked through to cancellations, and the number that matters is members still billing 90 days after they join, broken out by where they came from. If the agency cannot connect its reports to your membership software, ask how it will learn which campaigns bring people who stay.

What will our ads and pages say about canceling?

Cancellation law moved again this winter. The FTC’s amended Negative Option Rule took effect in January 2025 and was vacated by the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2025. On February 12 the FTC put the older rule text back, and on March 13 it opened a new rulemaking with an advance notice, the earliest stage; the comment period closed on April 13. No federal click-to-cancel rule is in force while that runs.

That is not a green light. The FTC’s lawsuit against the operators of LA Fitness, filed in August 2025 under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, gained an amended complaint on January 26 and is still pending. Meanwhile state law applies now:

• California’s AB 2863, for contracts entered into, amended or extended since July 1, 2025, requires express affirmative consent, an annual reminder, cancellation in the same medium the member used to join, and covers free trials that convert to paid.
• New York, per the Attorney General’s summary of its Health Club Services Act, caps contracts at 36 months and $3,600 a year and requires that members can cancel through the club’s website, email, phone, mail or in person.

Ask the agency to show you a trial offer it has written and point to where the conversion terms and the cancellation steps sit. “No commitment” in a headline with a 12-month agreement behind it is the kind of copy that ends up in a complaint. We would rather advertise easy cancellation as a reason to join; it answers the shopper’s biggest worry before it is raised.

What changes on our Google profile in the first month?

Whitespark’s 2026 ranking factors survey puts the primary category first among map pack factors, distance from the searcher second and being open at the time of the search fifth. A good agency will name the gym version of that work without prompting: the primary category, staffed hours and any keycard access hours, the map pin, photos of the floor and the classes, a schedule link and prices on the site.

It matters beyond Google’s map. BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey found 45% of consumers had used ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations. Those tools can only repeat what is written down about you, so hours, prices and a current class list on your own site do double duty.

Are you going to sell us Local Services Ads?

If the pitch includes Local Services Ads for memberships, the agency has not checked. Google has no gym or fitness center category. The nearest is Personal trainer, which carries the Google Verified badge and needs business and owner background checks, state licenses where local law requires them and a verified Business Profile, with screening averaging three to four weeks. It can bring calls and bookings for a training studio, and Google lists MindBody and Vagaro among its booking partners. It will not sell a monthly membership.

How will you get us more reviews?

BrightLocal’s 2026 survey sets the bar: 47% of consumers will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, 74% only care about reviews from the last three months, and 89% expect the owner to respond. A gym whose newest review is a year old fails that middle test.

Ask who sends the request, when and how. The right answer is every member, by text, around the end of their first month, with replies written by someone who knows the gym. The wrong answers are a discount for a five-star review, which the FTC’s 2024 rule on fake reviews prohibits, or asking only the members the front desk likes.

What will the first 90 days and the monthly report show?

A sensible spring plan:

• Weeks 1 and 2. Call, message and form tracking, and the join source recorded at signup.
• Weeks 1 to 4. Profile categories, hours, photos and pin fixed; prices, trial terms and cancellation steps put on the site.
• Weeks 4 to 8. Review requests running, and campaigns built for the next join window after Labor Day.
• Weeks 8 to 12. A first-month sequence for new members and an alert when someone stops checking in.

The monthly report should show joins by source, the share of trials that became members, cost per join, members still billing at 90 days by source, cancellations with reasons, and reviews added. If an agency quotes a cost per lead, ask what it is comparing against. WordStream by LocaliQ’s 2025 benchmarks, the most recent published, put the Health & Fitness median at $62.80 per lead on Google search and $52.98 for Facebook ads run for leads.

What we are telling clients

• Agree one definition of success before any money is spent: members still billing 90 days after joining.
• Have someone read every offer, trial and renewal line against your state’s rules, starting with California and New York if you operate there.
• Ask for the Google profile changes in writing, with dates.
• Turn down any proposal that puts gym memberships in Local Services Ads.
• Ask to see the review request message and who will write the replies.
• Get a sample monthly report before you sign, and check that it reports members, not just leads.

Spring is a good time to switch, because the next join window is months away. What we build for clubs and studios is on our page for gyms and fitness studios, and how we handle the profile work is on our Google Business Profile page. For the review process itself, see reviews and reputation.