Whilst traffic volume varies by gym chain, with PureGym receiving the most traffic (at c. 400K visits per week), there is consistent growth in traffic volume of about 30% in the weeks following Christmas, with David Lloyd seeing the greatest proportional increase in traffic at +40% compared to levels seen in October.

Across gyms this substantial increase in traffic volume has been driven primarily through organic means with both organic search and direct channels accounting for almost all of the traffic uplift, paid channels on the other hand show little growth during the post Christmas period, suggesting that brands have relied upon organic channels as the main driver of awareness during peak. It is also possible that any increase in paid marketing investment was ineffective and therefore failed to deliver any substantial traffic increase.

Although traffic volume has increase during peak, this is not necessarily associated with an improvement in customer engagement; bounce rate is consistent at c. 40% across gyms with average session duration being less than 2 minutes and pageviews per visit being approximately 3. This would suggest that gyms have failed to capitalise on the increase in traffic volume and customer awareness with a landing page experience that builds interest and engagement.

Comparing customer experience across factors associated with conversion and those associated with engagement suggests that many gyms are missing the opportunity to better communicate their value proposition and build customer engagement, but also failing to effective convert potential customers into members through an experience that presents little de-risking and does not build trust and credibility in the brand.

This benchmarking analysis highlights a significant opportunity for gyms to capture a competitive advantage through strategic activity in paid marketing but also to present a customer experience that better prioritises building customer engagement alongside encouraging conversion.