Find an expert
Message Ryan

Naperville, IL · Gym · Local campaign

January classes timed to the train commute

Ryan Patel made social posts and ran Meta ads for Platform 9 Fitness, a gym in Naperville, IL (Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 31, 2026): 58 commuters signed up for a free week in January.

Client
Platform 9 FitnessGym
Where
Naperville, ILDowntown Naperville, Historic District, Cress Creek, and West Highlands
When
Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 31, 2026
Services
Social posts, Meta ads

Results

Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 31, 2026

  • 24,300People reached by the ads and posts
  • 1,106Clicks through to the free-week sign-up
  • 58Free-week sign-ups from train pass holders
  • $462Meta ad spend, $7.97 per sign-up
  • 12People in the average 5:45 a.m. class, up from 6
  • 23Trials who joined as members by Feb 1

The brief

Platform 9 is two blocks from the Naperville Metra station. Every January it signs up people who are gone by Valentine’s Day, and its 5:45 a.m. and 6:40 p.m. classes were running half full. The owner wanted January members who would keep coming, and we both thought the train was the way in: people who ride the BNSF line every day already have a fixed schedule. The limits: no discounts on memberships, one free week at most, and 14 people per class.

Goal
Sign up January’s new members for classes they can keep: before the morning train and after the evening one.
Who and where
Commuters aged 25 to 45 who walk to the downtown Naperville station, plus neighbors within a mile.

What the client gave me

The class schedule, check-in counts for every class in December, a few photos the coaches took on their phones, and a tour of the locker room, which the owner was sure nobody walking past knew about.

The 5:45 a.m. class in December, taken by a coach from the back. Six people.
The 5:45 a.m. class in December, taken by a coach from the back. Six people.
The locker room. Showers, lockers and towels, and almost nobody on the sidewalk knew it was there.
The locker room. Showers, lockers and towels, and almost nobody on the sidewalk knew it was there.

What I made

Class times named after the commute, a shower-and-locker post that answers the real objection, and a first-week-free offer for train pass holders.

  1. Train before your train
    Train before your trainTheir photo was taken inside under fluorescent light. I shot from the sidewalk at 5:40, so a commuter walking to the station sees the class through the glass.Caption Morning commuters want to know one thing: does it fit before the train? Naming the class after the commute answers it in five words.
  2. Off the train, into class
    Off the train, into classNamed the class after the evening train instead of a time slot, and put 6:40 and the days in the subhead.Caption Evening riders get off tired and hungry. A class that starts soon after the train arrives, close to the station, removes the “I’ll go tomorrow” excuse.
  3. Shower, change, catch the train
    Shower, change, catch the trainBuilt from the locker room tour. Three things a commuter needs before work, in the order they think of them.Caption The objection nobody says out loud is going to work after a workout. This answers it with the three things commuters need.
  4. First week free for commuters
    First week free for commutersThe owner’s free week, limited to people with a Metra pass. It reads like an offer made for them, because it was.Caption An offer that only applies to the people this campaign is for. Shared on Instagram, in downtown Naperville Facebook groups and on a flyer at the coffee shop by the station.

How it went out

Where it ran

  • Platform 9’s Instagram and Facebook page
  • Two downtown Naperville Facebook groups
  • Flyers at the coffee shop by the station
  • Google Business Profile
  1. Dec 29Flyers up at the coffee shop by the station
  2. Jan 2“Train before your train” on Instagram, Facebook and Google
  3. Jan 4Meta ads start: the morning post shown 5 to 8 a.m., the evening post 4 to 7 p.m.
  4. Jan 7“Shower, change, catch the train” in two downtown Naperville groups
  5. Jan 12“First week free for commuters” everywhere, and as a third ad
  6. Jan 20Morning ad paused: the 5:45 class was full four days a week
  7. Jan 31Ads end
Best ad: First week free for commuters

Meta ads

Audience
Adults 25 to 45 within 2 miles of the Naperville station, on a lifetime budget so each ad ran only at its train hours
Budget
$500 planned, $462 spent
Dates
Jan 4 – Jan 31

Three ads, each shown only at the hours it was about. The free-week ad brought the most sign-ups, 22 of the 34 that came through ads. Evening clicks were the cheapest ($0.31) but turned into the fewest trials: people tapped on the train home and forgot by the time they got off. I paused the morning ad on Jan 20 rather than sell a class that was already full.

What happened

Mornings filled first. By the third week the 5:45 class was full four days out of five, mostly with people who walked from class to the platform. The flyers at the coffee shop brought 9 of the 58 sign-ups for the price of printing. The evening class is what didn’t work. It filled in the first week and thinned out by the third, because people were tired after work, the very thing the post was meant to answer. Of 58 trials, 23 joined as members by February 1, and 19 of those came to the morning class.

What I’d do next

Put the flyers and the morning ad up on December 26, before the resolutions start. Swap the evening post for a midday class for people who work from home on Mondays and Fridays. And move every trial straight into the February team challenge, which became the next campaign.

More work by Ryan

Tell Ryan about your business

Share where you are and what you’d like more of. Ryan usually replies within a few hours.

Availability updated Oct 12, 2026.

Message Ryan