Looking at fitness advertising examples from successful brands can be a great way to inspire your own marketing ideas. They’ll often spark creative concepts or innovative approaches you might not have thought of. You can also pick up advertising tips and best practices by looking at what they’ve done well and where they could improve.
In this guide, we share creative fitness advertising examples, ideas, and best practices to help inspire your own ad campaigns.
We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We’ve helped gyms, fitness studios, and personal trainers to successfully promote their businesses, so our marketing strategies are tried and tested.
Let’s look at some examples of fitness advertisements to see how the leading health and gym companies approach things…
Anytime Fitness Ad Example
This Anytime Fitness advert has a clear headline, a call to action (try 7 days free), and contact details. The central image is unexpected which is likely to catch people’s attention and make them look twice. The minimal amount of text (no sub-header or body copy) means that it’s easy to read at a glance.
It’s also a great example of how fitness companies don’t need to use negativity in their advertising. This one doesn’t fat-shame or make people feel bad about how they look in order to sell gym memberships. It just conveys a persuasive benefit that’ll appeal to busy people – that they can access they gym anytime between their other commitments.
Fitness Marketing Ideas Mini-Guide
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Davina McCall Online Fitness Ad
This online fitness advert example from Davina McCall’s ‘Own Your Goals’ platform is a Facebook ads masterclass. It uses an engaging picture with clear callouts that highlight the most appealing benefits (quick, long-term results, from home). Including a coupon code is a tried and tested strategy for driving immediate action and getting better results from adverts.
You might also like… The personal trainer’s guide to Google Ads or how to write copy for adverts.
Apple Fitness Advert Example
This Apple fitness ad takes a completely different approach to most product adverts. It doesn’t include product info, close-up photos, or a call-to-action. There is no mention of the features or benefits.
Instead, it features a group of diverse people in a range of different activewear, all wearing Apple watches. There’s someone in the lineup who will resonate with everyone, whatever their background or sporting interests.
Arguably, this type of minimalist fitness ad is something that only a huge brand like Apple could get away with. After all, they already have a huge level of public awareness and range of distribution channels. There’s no need to include a location or website address of where to buy from because Apple products are available everywhere.
In Apple’s case, their advertising objective was probably to drive awareness and a positive image, rather than encouraging immediate purchases. So in this case, the ad doesn’t need contact info or product details.
Fitness Supplement Instagram Ad
This Instagram advert from fitness supplement company Form Nutrition is a classic ‘top of the funnel’ format. It’s targeted at accounts that aren’t already following the brand as a way of raising awareness and building an audience.
People who don’t know a product are unlikely to purchase it immediately, so Form Nutrition doesn’t try to get them to. They don’t list the benefits, offer a coupon, or encourage people to ‘buy now’ in the ad.
Instead, they provide social proof that they make a high-quality product, by showcasing recent awards and logos from other trusted brands like Women’s Health. The ‘learn more’ call-to-action encourages people to take an interest and follow the account. From here, the brand can nurture the relationship and drive people along a sales funnel until they’re ready to purchase.
Gold’s Gym Ad Example
This Gold’s Gym ad showcases another novel approach. It doesn’t feature a single element you’d expect on an advert – not even a headline. There’s no call to action or contact info. But it gets the message across.
You might also like… 10 effective ways to advertise your gym or Gym ad examples with practical design tips.
Equinox Advert Example
This Equinox example is bold and a bit shocking, something the brand is well-known for. The woman’s hands are bleeding, likely from playing or practicing the harp to the point of damaging her skin. Paired with the headline ‘Commit To Something’ it’s a clear message about giving your all to achieve a goal.
Like the Apple Fitness ad, it doesn’t feature much text either. There’s a striking headline, but no body copy or contact details.
It’s probably designed to increase brand awareness rather than generate leads directly, so doesn’t include any superfluous info. If your brand is as well-known as Equinox, then you can get away with it. But it probably wouldn’t be effective for smaller brands.
Classic Fitness Ad Examples
With our final fitness advertising example, you actually get three for the price of one! These advert templates take a classic approach and incorporate the essential elements for success.
They have clear headlines, body copy, a call to action (call us), and contact details. Color blocks have been used to help distinguish each section and make it stand out from surrounding adverts. You could use these formats for print ads, posters, leaflets, or flyers and they’d work for every use case.
Using Fitness Advert Examples As Inspiration
We hope these fitness advert examples help you come up with some creative ideas of your own. Ask yourself what you like about each of the ads? What draws your attention and how? Why is it appealing? Then think about how you can apply these aspects in your advertising.
Following the tips and best practices we’ve highlighted will help make your ad campaigns even more impactful and successful. Think about what’s likely to appeal to your target audience (rather than what you want to promote) and go from there. If you create fitness ads with your customers in mind, then you’re on the right track.
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