International Fitness Academy
More Enrolments.
Less Wasted Spend.
Your account is generating leads at a viable cost — but four structural issues are preventing it from performing at its full potential. Here’s exactly what we found, and the precise fixes that will lower your cost-per-enrolment and grow your pipeline.
What the Data Shows Right Now
Pulled directly from Google Ads account 155-103-1020 for the 30-day period ending 19 June 2026. Two campaigns are running: a Search campaign targeting Cert III & IV enrolments, and a Display Remarketing campaign. Here’s the full picture.
Campaign Breakdown
| Campaign | Type | Bid Strategy | Impressions | Clicks | Spend | Conv. | CTR | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | Search | Maximise Conversions | 1,486 | 155 | $670.02 | 23.0 | 11.9% | Live |
| Display — Remarketing | Display | Target Spend | 22,641 | 227 | $273.50 | 1.99 | 1.1% | Needs Fix |
Top Keywords (Last 30 Days)
| Keyword | Match | QS | Clicks | Spend | Conv. | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| personal trainer course | Phrase | 4/10 | 38 | $215.17 | 1.0 | High spend, low conv. — QS needs work |
| fitness trainer certification | Phrase | 3/10 | 28 | $124.01 | 3.0 | Low QS, improve ad relevance |
| personal training certification | Phrase | 6/10 | 16 | $76.72 | 0.0 | Zero conv. — review landing page |
| australia personal trainer certification | Exact | 8/10 | 21 | $61.23 | 7.5 | Strong performer — scale budget |
| cert 3 and 4 in fitness | Phrase | 7/10 | 2 | $12.44 | 4.0 | Excellent conv. rate — increase bids |
| become a personal trainer | Phrase | 3/10 | 5 | $19.93 | 1.0 | Low QS, improve creative relevance |
| online health & fitness coach | Phrase | 0/10 | 1 | $5.80 | 5.0 | High conv. rate — investigate further |
Quality scores pulled from keyword_performance table. Conv. = attributed conversions in the 30-day window.
Conversion Action Breakdown
Five conversion actions are firing — but as your own notes flag, the tracking setup warrants a careful health check before you trust these numbers at face value.
| Conversion Action | Category | Conv. | All Conv. | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| contact_email_lead | Submit Lead Form | 18.0 | 18.0 | Primary — highest value |
| call_click (Search) | Contact | 2.0 | 2.0 | Valid intent signal |
| Download Course Guide | Submit Lead Form | 2.0 | 2.0 | High-intent TOFU action |
| demo_outbound | Submit Lead Form | 1.0 | 1.0 | Valuable — free demo requests |
| Contact (Page load /contact) | Contact | 0.0 | 3.0 | Discrepancy — check tag firing |
| download_course_guide | Submit Lead Form | 0.0 | 2.0 | Duplicate of “Download Course Guide”? |
| Add to cart (/cart page load) | Add to Cart | 0.0 | 2.0 | Not a strong intent signal — exclude? |
Geographic Performance
Traffic is split between Australia (country_id 2036) and Canada (country_id 2554). This is a significant finding — the account is currently bidding country-wide with no state-level segmentation, meaning Google is allocating budget across all Australian states without you being able to optimise toward your highest-converting geographies.
| Country | Location Type | Campaign | Clicks | Spend | Conv. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Area of Interest | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 94 | $333.20 | 10.0 |
| Australia | Location of Presence | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 28 | $202.73 | 10.0 |
| Australia | Location of Presence | Display — Remarketing | 119 | $188.30 | 1.0 |
| Canada | Area of Interest | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 24 | $101.63 | 3.0 |
| Canada | Location of Presence | Display — Remarketing | 108 | $85.20 | 0.99 |
| Canada | Location of Presence | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 9 | $32.45 | 0.0 |
Search term data also surfaced clicks from New Zealand (“nz certificate in exercise”, “personal trainer course nz”) and UK (“personal training courses uk”) indicating broader geo targeting than intended.
Device Performance
| Device | Campaign | Impressions | Clicks | Spend | Conv. | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 1,044 | 116 | $478.50 | 23.0 | Primary converter — protect budget |
| Desktop | Cert 3 & 4 Fitness | 413 | 37 | $187.05 | 0.0 | Zero conv. on desktop — bid down |
| Mobile | Display — Remarketing | 18,725 | 212 | $257.33 | 1.99 | Dominant display device |
| Tablet | Display — Remarketing | 2,128 | 14 | $13.64 | 0.0 | Low engagement — monitor |
| Desktop | Display — Remarketing | 1,788 | 1 | $2.53 | 0.0 | Negligible — exclude or bid down |
Ad Creative Overview
All three search ad groups have Excellent ad strength — great headlines and descriptions are in place. The RSAs are well-built with 15 headlines each. One potential issue worth testing: some ads contain descriptions mentioning “Transform Lives” language which sits close to benefit-of-the-doubt territory for your audience.
Ad Groups Running
- Cert III in Fitness — landing page: /product/sis30321… • Excellent strength
- Cert III & IV in Fitness (Combined) — landing page: combined product page • Excellent strength
- Cert IV in Fitness — landing page: /product/sis40221… • Excellent strength
Key ad copy assets used: “0% Interest Payment Plans”, “Over 33,000 Students Globally”, “#1 Recognised Fitness Provider”, “Free Demo Course”, “Study Online At Your Own Pace”. These are strong proof points — confirm they’re pinned to headline positions 1 or 2 for maximum visibility.
Four Issues. Four Fixes. Clear Priority Order.
These findings are drawn from your own account notes and confirmed by the live data pull. Addressing all four in the first 30 days will reduce wasted spend and improve conversion volume simultaneously.
Priority 0 — Complete Immediately
Account verification & policy steps are outstanding — EU Political Ads and Ad Payment Disclosure Policy remain incomplete. Google can impose ad serving limitations at any time while these are unresolved. These take minutes to complete and should be done before any campaign optimisation work begins.
The account is reporting 5 separate conversion events, but the data suggests duplication. “Download Course Guide” and “download_course_guide” appear to be the same action firing twice. “Add to cart” (cart page load) is a weak intent signal that should likely be excluded from primary conversions, or set to “Not primary”. The Contact page load discrepancy (0 primary vs 3 all-conversions) also needs investigation.
Why it matters: Maximise Conversions bidding optimises toward whatever you tell it is a conversion. If 40% of your reported conversions are duplicates or low-intent signals, your Smart Bidding is optimising toward the wrong goal — and budget decisions are being made on inflated conversion counts.
Action: Audit each conversion action in Google Tag Manager. Confirm only high-intent actions (email lead, phone click, course guide download, demo request) are set as primary. Set add-to-cart and contact page load as secondary or remove entirely.
The account has approximately 60 negative keywords across the whole account — far too thin for a Cert III & IV campaign at this spend level. The search term report confirms significant irrelevant traffic: NZ qualification queries (“nz certificate in exercise”, “fitness courses in new zealand”), international education queries (“fitness courses for international students”), US-specific queries (“nasm certification”), and competitor brand terms (“fitness institute australia fia”, “australian institute of fitness”).
Action: Build a tiered negative keyword list: (1) competitor brands and institutions, (2) international/overseas queries, (3) job-seeking queries (“fitness instructor jobs”), (4) unrelated fitness verticals. Target 200–300 negatives. Separately, add IFA brand terms as negatives in the generic Cert 3 & 4 campaign so you stop bidding on your own brand there (create a dedicated Brand campaign for that traffic).
Brand terms are currently flowing through the generic Cert 3 & 4 campaign. This creates two problems: (1) you’re paying Maximise Conversions CPCs for branded searches that should be protected at a low cost, and (2) you have no data on how much branded vs non-branded traffic is driving conversions.
Action: Create a dedicated Brand Search campaign targeting “International Fitness Academy”, “IFA fitness”, and related brand variants. Budget: $5–$10/day maximum. Manual CPC or Target CPA bidding. This isolates branded intent, lowers average CPCs on branded terms, and protects against competitors bidding on your brand name. Add brand terms as negatives in the generic Cert 3 & 4 campaign simultaneously.
Both campaigns are targeting Australia (and apparently Canada and NZ based on the search term report) as a single geographic block. This means Google is spending budget across all states without you having any visibility or control over which states convert at what cost. Desktop search spend of $187 generated zero conversions — that budget could be reallocated to mobile in your highest-converting states.
Action: Break location targeting into individual Australian states (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA as first priority). This enables bid adjustments — if NSW converts at 2× the rate of WA, increase bids by 20–30% in NSW to capture more of that intent. Review Canada targeting: it returned some conversions but also substantial spend with unclear enrolment intent. Apply a bid adjustment of −30% on Canada initially while you monitor quality. Exclude NZ and UK explicitly.
The Display remarketing campaign is running static images that are blurry (sized for Meta, not Google Display placements) and carry no brand messaging or CTA. Non-responsive image ads in the smallest eligible sizes will serve in limited placements and render poorly across device types. The remarketing audience is the right audience — the creative is letting it down.
Action: Build proper Responsive Display Ads with messaging aligned to your strongest proof points: “0% Interest”, “Free Demo Course”, “#1 Recognised Fitness Provider”, “Over 33,000 Students”. Remove or pause all non-responsive static image ads. Separately, add a prospecting Display or Performance Max campaign to drive awareness beyond remarketing — currently the account has zero awareness-stage spend for new audiences.
Keyword Opportunities — Quick Wins
Based on 30-day performance data, the following actions on specific keywords will have the fastest impact on cost-per-enrolment:
Scale These Keywords
- australia personal trainer certification [Exact] — QS 8, 7.5 conv. for $61 spend. Excellent. Increase budget allocation.
- cert 3 and 4 in fitness [Phrase] — QS 7, 4.0 conv. for $12 spend. Best cost-per-enrolment in the account. Expand with exact match variant.
- certificate 3 & 4 in fitness [Phrase] — QS 7, good intent, low volume. Add more variations at this intent level.
Fix or Deprioritise
- personal trainer course [Phrase] — QS 4, $215 spent, 1 conversion. Review landing page relevance or pause.
- fitness trainer certification [Phrase] — QS 3, $124 spent, 3 conv. Poor quality score is inflating CPC. Fix ad copy relevance.
- personal training certification [Phrase] — QS 6, $77 spent, 0 conv. Zero returns after 16 clicks — pause and replace landing page.
Search Terms Warranting Immediate Action
The search term report surfaced these terms as active spend drains that should be negated immediately:
- fitness institute australia fia — Direct competitor brand query. Add as negative immediately.
- australian institute of fitness cert 3 and 4 — Competitor brand + qualification. Add as negative.
- nasm certification — US-specific certification body, not relevant to Australian RTO enrolment.
- nz certificate in exercise / new zealand certificate in exercise level 5 — NZ qualification queries. Add NZ-specific exclusions.
- personal trainer courses uk / pt level 3 qualification — UK-market queries. Exclude UK location and add as negatives.
- fitness courses in australia for international students — International student intent, likely different eligibility and conversion path. Separate or exclude.
- strength and conditioning courses online — Adjacent category, not your RTO course. Add as negative unless you offer S&C.
- issa online training — Competitor international certification brand. Negative immediately.