From wasted spend to +212% trial signups in 90 days.
Forge Athletic Club, a premium independent gym in Canada, was burning Google Ads budget on a misconfigured account. We rebuilt it from scratch — clean campaigns, real conversion goals, dedicated landing pages — and tripled signups inside a quarter.
Same budget. Triple the signups.
A great gym, with ad spend going nowhere.
Forge had everything a premium independent gym needs: a great floor, great trainers, and a city that wanted what they were selling. What they didn't have was a working acquisition channel.
Their Google Ads account had been set up by an in-house team eighteen months earlier and barely touched since. Spend was leaking on broad-match keywords with zero intent, conversions were defined as pageviews, and every ad pointed at the homepage. The team thought ads "didn't work for fitness."
The brief landed in our inbox short and direct: look at this account, tell us if there's anything left to save.
Six issues, ~80% of the waste.
Most underperforming Google Ads accounts share the same handful of problems. Forge's account had all of them. We documented every issue against its before/after state — so the GM could see exactly what was changing and why.
Three pillars. One clean rebuild.
We don't patch broken Google Ads accounts. We rebuild them — once, properly — then run a tight optimization cadence on top of solid foundations.
Account diagnostic
We started where every Google Ads engagement should start: in the data the previous setup ignored.
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Keyword waste audit Found 38% of spend going to broad-match terms with zero conversion intent.
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Conversion definition fix Old account counted pageviews as 'conversions'. Replaced with verified trial + tour signups.
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Landing page audit Single homepage receiving every click. Built 5 dedicated landing pages keyed to ad intent.
Campaign rebuild
We rebuilt the account from scratch — five campaigns, clean intent splits, and ad copy that matched the actual offer.
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Intent-split campaigns Trial-seeker, tour-seeker, competitor, brand, and remarketing — separated and budgeted.
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Negative keyword list Built a 480-term negative list. Eliminated waste in 14 days.
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Creative refresh Three ad variants per group + full extension stack. CTR climbed from 1.2% to 5.05%.
Conversion + reporting
Real conversions, attributed properly, reported to the front desk in language they could act on.
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True conversion goals Trial signups and tour bookings — not pageviews. tCPA bidding became viable.
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Front-desk reporting Weekly dashboard tying every paid signup to its keyword, ad, and landing page.
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Membership attribution 46.4% of paid trials converting to full membership — visible end-to-end.
From impression to paid membership.
Once the account was rebuilt, the funnel became visible end-to-end. Every stage measurable, every drop-off addressable. The GM stopped asking "do ads work" and started asking "where do we add budget next."
Search impression
82K/ mo at scale
Qualified click
4,1405.05% CTR
Landing page view
3,850Sub-2s LCP
Trial / tour signup
61215.9% conv.
Paid membership
28446.4% close
From audit to attribution in 6 weeks.
The account rebuild front-loaded the work. Once the foundation was clean, optimization became a weekly cadence — not an emergency.
Audit + diagnostic
Pulled 12 months of account history. Identified 6 structural issues responsible for ~80% of the waste.
Week 1Account rebuild
5 new campaigns, clean intent splits, 480-term negative list, and 5 dedicated landing pages.
Weeks 2–3Bid + creative
tCPA bidding rolled out as conversion signals stabilized. Ad copy and extensions tested in parallel.
Weeks 3–6Optimize + scale
Weekly optimization cadence, budget reallocation toward winning campaigns. Membership attribution reviewed monthly.
Weeks 6+We thought Google Ads didn't work for gyms. Turns out they didn't work for our previous setup. Durant rebuilt the account in three weeks — we tripled signups in three months on the same budget.
Forge Athletic Club
General ManagerTangible deliverables.
A rebuilt account, a working funnel, and a reporting system the front desk actually uses. Forge owns and operates everything.
Rebuilt Google Ads account
5 campaigns, intent-split, with a 480-term negative keyword list and tCPA bidding live.
5 dedicated landing pages
One per ad intent, sub-2s LCP, with a single primary CTA optimized for the trial signup.
Conversion tracking system
Verified trial + tour signups as true conversions — feeding tCPA + the front-desk dashboard.
Front-desk weekly report
Plain-language dashboard tying every paid signup to its source. Owned by the GM, not the agency.
Membership attribution model
Full path from impression → click → trial → paid membership, reviewed monthly.
Optimization playbook
Documented decision tree for bid, budget, and creative rotation — repeatable in-house.
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