A boutique fitness studio chain grew membership 180% in 8 months — without discounting.
Organic Traffic
+180%
+180%
New memberships (8 months)
3.4×
Meta advertising ROAS
42%
Email open rate (industry avg: 21%)
Campaign Status
Active · Exceeding targets
3.4×
Meta advertising ROAS
Purecycle Fitness Studios
+180%
New memberships (8 months)
3.4×
Meta advertising ROAS
42%
Email open rate (industry avg: 21%)
38%
Dormant list re-engagement rate
0%
Promotional discounting required
8 mo.
To 180% membership growth
Diagnostic Snapshot
Before Outlier
New Members/Month
~14
Email List Activity
Dormant (18 mo)
Paid Advertising Spend
$0
Member Acquisition Channel
Word of mouth only
After Outlier
New memberships (8 months)
+180%
Meta advertising ROAS
3.4×
Email open rate (industry avg: 21%)
42%
Dormant list re-engagement rate
38%
Project Details
Services
Meta Advertising · Email Marketing · Automation
Industry
Boutique Fitness / Wellness
Location
Markham & Richmond Hill, Ontario
Duration
8 months
Top Result
+180%
New memberships (8 months)
About the Client
Purecycle Fitness Studios operates two premium boutique fitness locations in Markham and Richmond Hill, offering cycling, HIIT, and yoga classes at a premium price point. After strong initial growth during their launch period, membership acquisition had plateaued. Their email list was large but dormant, their social media posts were getting organic reach only, and they had no paid advertising history. A new competitor had opened nearby, making growth more urgent.
Membership acquisition plateau
After an initial surge, monthly new member acquisitions had dropped to a level that barely…
Dormant email list
Purecycle had collected 3,200+ email addresses over three years — and had not sent a singl…
Premium price resistance in paid acquisition
Purecycle's price point was 40–60% above typical gym memberships. Previous ad experiments …
Fitness & Wellness · Markham & Richmond Hill, ON
The Situation
Before engaging Outlier, Purecycle Fitness Studios faced a combination of challenges that were actively suppressing their growth. Here's what we found.
After an initial surge, monthly new member acquisitions had dropped to a level that barely offset churn. The studio relied entirely on word-of-mouth and organic social posts, which had declining reach. There was no systematic acquisition mechanism.
Purecycle had collected 3,200+ email addresses over three years — and had not sent a single email in 18 months. The list had significant potential value but needed careful re-engagement to avoid deliverability damage and to rebuild subscriber trust.
Purecycle's price point was 40–60% above typical gym memberships. Previous ad experiments had attracted price-sensitive leads who converted poorly. The challenge was reaching specifically the audience that would value premium, boutique fitness — not just fitness seekers in general.
Our Approach
Every engagement is custom-built for the client's specific situation. No templates, no recycled playbooks. Here's exactly what we did for Purecycle Fitness Studios.
We built a three-stage Meta funnel: awareness creative showcasing the studio environment and community (video), consideration creative highlighting transformation stories from existing members (carousel), and conversion creative with a specific new member offer (single image). Audiences were built from existing member lookalikes, fitness interest signals, and income/lifestyle indicators in the Markham and Richmond Hill postal codes.
We ran a carefully managed re-engagement sequence across the dormant list before any promotional sends — allowing subscribers to opt out proactively, cleaning the list of invalid addresses, and warming the sending domain. The re-engagement campaign produced a 38% active rate from a list that had seen zero activity in 18 months.
We built a welcome sequence for new leads, a trial-to-member conversion sequence, a win-back series for lapsed members, and a referral programme automation. Each sequence was personalised by class type preference and behavioural triggers. The automated sequences now run continuously with no manual intervention.
Rather than gym equipment or stock fitness imagery, all creative featured real Purecycle members and instructors. This authenticity dramatically improved Meta ad performance and created organic sharing behaviour — members reshared ads featuring themselves or their instructors, significantly extending organic reach.
Search Position Data
Tracked via Google Search Console and Semrush across the full campaign duration. Every position is verified and attributed.
Source: Google Search Console · Semrush
Positions reflect end-of-campaign data
Keyword
Before
After
Δ
boutique fitness markham
cycling studio richmond hill
fitness classes markham
yoga studio richmond hill
hiit classes markham
spin classes markham
+20 positions
Avg. rank improvement
6/6
Keywords on page 1
6 keywords
Top 3 rankings
Final Outcomes
+180%
New memberships (8 months)
3.4×
Meta advertising ROAS
42%
Email open rate (industry avg: 21%)
38%
Dormant list re-engagement rate
0%
Promotional discounting required
8 mo.
To 180% membership growth
Performance Overview
Full Campaign DurationNew memberships (8 months)
+180%
Meta advertising ROAS
3.4×
Email open rate (industry avg: 21%)
42%
Dormant list re-engagement rate
38%
"We'd tried running Facebook ads ourselves and got clicks but almost no conversions. Outlier completely changed the approach — the creative strategy, the audience targeting, the email sequences — everything was built around our actual members and our actual community. The results have been remarkable and we haven't needed to discount our memberships once."
Priya Sharma
Co-Founder, Purecycle Fitness Studios
More Case Studies
Work with Outlier
Book a Free Call. We'll assess your market, identify your biggest opportunity, and tell you exactly what it would take to achieve results like the ones above.
Book a Free Call