Marketing ROI for a sports club is the revenue your marketing brought in, minus what it cost, divided by what it cost. For a club or academy, that means counting registrations, not likes, and knowing what one registered athlete is worth to you over time.
If you can't count registrations, you can't count ROI. So that's where we start.
What is marketing ROI for a sports club?
It's a simple question: for every dollar you spend on marketing, how many dollars come back in registrations, memberships and camp fees? The formula is revenue from marketing minus marketing cost, divided by marketing cost. A result of 3 means every dollar brought back three dollars on top of the dollar you spent.
The formula:
- Revenue from marketing: the registrations, memberships and camp fees that came from your campaigns.
- Marketing cost: ad spend, agency or staff time, content and tools.
- ROI = (revenue minus cost) divided by cost.
Which numbers should a club track?
Five numbers tell you almost everything: inquiries, registrations, cost per registration, the lifetime value of a family and your re-registration rate. Reach and engagement don't belong on the list. They might help explain the five, but they aren't the result.
| Number | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Inquiries | Whether people want what you're selling |
| Registrations | Whether your page, price and follow-up work |
| Cost per registration | What each new athlete cost you to win |
| Lifetime value | What a family is worth over the seasons they stay |
| Re-registration rate | Whether you keep the families you win |
How do you work out what a family is worth?
Multiply what a family pays you each season by the number of seasons they usually stay. If a family pays for two programs a year and stays three years, they're worth six programs, not one. That's why retention changes the maths so much. A family that stays is worth far more than the cost of winning them.
Families are spending more on sport, which raises what each one is worth. The Aspen Institute's Project Play survey found US families spent an average of $1,016 on a child's primary sport in 2024, up 46% from 2019. In Canada, the 2026 Jumpstart report put the median annual cost of hockey at $1,938 and soccer at $450.
What does a worked example look like?
Here's an illustrative example, not a client result. A camp spends $3,000 on ads and $2,000 on content and management for its spring break week, $5,000 in total. It gets 120 inquiries and 60 registrations at $300 each, so $18,000 in revenue. ROI is ($18,000 minus $5,000) divided by $5,000, which is 2.6.
| Line | Example |
|---|---|
| Marketing cost (ads plus content and management) | $5,000 |
| Inquiries | 120 |
| Registrations | 60 |
| Revenue (60 × $300) | $18,000 |
| Cost per registration ($5,000 ÷ 60) | about $83 |
| ROI (($18,000 − $5,000) ÷ $5,000) | 2.6 |
Now add retention. If a third of those families come back for summer camp, the same $5,000 keeps paying. That's the number most clubs never count.
Why do most clubs get ROI wrong?
Because they measure the wrong thing, or nothing at all. The most common mistakes are counting reach instead of registrations, ignoring the cost of staff time and content, and losing track of where each registration came from. The fix is boring but it works: one form per program, a source question on every form, and one spreadsheet.
What I'd set up this month:
- Ask "How did you hear about us?" on every registration form.
- Give every campaign its own page or link, so you know which one worked.
- Count every cost, including staff hours and content.
- Review monthly: inquiries, registrations, cost per registration.
How do you improve marketing ROI?
Fix the leaks before you spend more. The biggest one is usually follow-up: leads come in and nobody follows up, and that's usually the real leak, not the ad spend. After that, market each program 6 to 10 weeks before registration opens, and use your own footage, which tends to make each lead cheaper.
For a real example of cheap leads: our work with BC Prep brought in 400 leads in 6 months at under $7 a lead, because reels and posts were already doing the heavy lifting before the ads ran.
Want help working out your club's real ROI?
We're a sports marketing agency that fills tryouts, camps and memberships around each club's season. On a 30-minute call we'll look at your next window and tell you what we'd build first. If it's something you can do yourselves, we'll say so.
Questions, answered
How do you calculate marketing ROI for a sports club?
Take the revenue your marketing brought in (registrations, memberships, camp fees), subtract what the marketing cost, and divide by the cost. A result of 2 means every dollar brought back two dollars on top.
What's a good cost per registration?
One that's well below what a registered athlete is worth to you over the seasons they stay. Work out a family's lifetime value first, then judge the cost per registration against it.
Should reach and engagement count in ROI?
No. They can help explain results, but ROI is measured in registrations, memberships and revenue.
How can a club improve its marketing ROI?
Fix follow-up first, then market each program before registration opens, use your own footage, and track where every registration came from.
