Winning Facebook Ads for Martial Arts Schools

The 7 Elements of Winning Facebook Ads for Martial Arts Schools

If this is your first Facebook ad, follow these steps and tips to get more leads and watch the video on this page for a detailed walkthrough of how to run ads.

What You Need to Get Started:

• A Meta Business Manager

• A Facebook page (aka a business page)

• An Instagram page (optional)

• A Facebook Ads Account

• Facebook Pixel (optional for retargeting)

• Some images or videos of your students (examples below)

• Text for the ad (starter copy/text provided below)

• A small budget ($10 to $30 per day recommended)

Once these items are in place, you are ready to run Facebook ads to get more students. Open your ad account, and let’s get started with the tips below.

1. Target Your Ads

Targeting is identifying the target audience you want your ads delivered to, focusing on a target demographic and behaviors to ensure the ad is relevant to the wants and needs of the audience. Typically, parents within a certain radius around your academy or gym, or you could target specific zip codes.

In this winning Facebook ad, we went broad for our target audience. Going broad means we let Facebook do some of the heavy lifting and find the target audience for us. We just told them to target everyone living in a 10-mile radius around the academy between the ages of 24 and 55, which is the age range for most parents at this academy.

2. AD PLACEMENT

Placements are where you want the paid ads delivered throughout the Meta social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram). There are a lot of options. In this example, we selected “Manual Placements” and then specifically chose:

• • Facebook feed
  • Instagram feed
  • Facebook stories
  • Instagram stories

I recommend trying these ad placements and also testing other options to see what works best for your academy. “Reels” is an emerging video placement option so be sure to test that out if you have videos, as well!

3. Ad Images

When it comes to martial arts Facebook Ads, the image you use is the most important part of the ad. The right image makes people stop scrolling. It’s the first thing to grab their attention. So, a boring, confusing, or poor-quality graphic can prevent your ad from generating any leads.

In this campaign, we tested three high quality images to start. One did amazing, and we turned off the ones that weren’t performing. Then, we added two additional images. One of the new images performed very well, so we let the two ads that were performing best continue to run. Having great graphics will save you money by reducing your cost per lead, but you won’t always know which will perform best with your audience until you test them. Here are the best-performing ad images for the tests we ran:

4. The Offer

Next to the images used, the offer is the next most important element of your ads to get more leads. People won’t take action without a great offer for your martial arts school, even if your graphics catch their attention and make them stop scrolling.

For most academies, we recommend trying the Free Class offer. It beats a free month or free week because it’s a lower commitment and gets more people in the door. It typically beats a paid trial offer, too, because it brings in more people who are curious. As long as you have a solid sales process and someone who can give the leads the time and attention they need to convert, then more sales opportunities are exactly what you need to grow your academy or gym. This free class offer will bring them in.

If you don’t have a solid sales process for your martial arts school, then consider this one: 

1. Bring in leads for a free class (private class is best, but group is ok too).

2. Knock the socks off the parent and the child with their first experience.

3. After the class, offer them your Enrollment Special. This is what it will cost to enroll with a bonus for signing up today. The bonus is typically a free uniform, gloves, or equipment package. You want it to be something tangible they can touch and take home with them.

4. If they aren’t ready to enroll yet, then down-sell to your trial offer. 2 weeks for $29, 4 weeks for $49, or $6 weeks for $69 are the most common for kids’ martial arts classes.

This process allows you to collect cash quickly with the full enrollment but still allows you to catch the tire kickers with the trial. It will also buy you more time to sell them on the benefits of your full program over the coming weeks.

5. Ad Copy

You want your ad copy to connect with the right person, explain the benefits of your programs, and include some scarcity so they have to get off the couch and act now. This is why we limit it to 10 to 20 spots, depending on the room you have in your programs. You can always add more spots if you have room but start small so you don’t overwhelm your academy.

If you don’t want to write your own copy or spend time to create it using AI, then use the box below to steal our copy so you can focus on getting your ads up right away.

If you create your copy, then be sure to include these things:

1. Callout (who are you talking to? This is usually something like “Parents in [YOUR CITY]”).

2. Benefits of your class (always talk about benefits over features).

3. Include your business name, address, phone number, and link to your website.

One last tip for creating good copy is to remember that this is not a blog or social media post with your latest content. It is persuasive copy focused on getting the lead in the door to meet you and check out your program. Don’t try to sell your entire program; just focus on promoting one thing: getting them in for the intro or first class. If you struggle with writing copy, recording a video of you talking directly to the audience works well, too. Test both and see which performs best for your business.