March 10, 2026
What to Look for When Hiring a BJJ Gym Marketing Agency: A Practitioner's Guide
I built Grapple Growth because I was tired of seeing great gyms get burned by generic marketing agencies. You know the type. They promise you fifty leads next week, run a terrible Facebook ad with a stock photo of a kickboxer, and charge you two thousand dollars a month for the privilege.
Here are five questions I'd ask before hiring anyone, including me.
The 5 Questions to Ask
1. Do they specialize in gyms? If they are marketing a plumber on Monday, a dentist on Tuesday, and your gym on Wednesday, they do not understand your business model.
2. Do they build something you keep? Ads can be useful, but if the whole strategy is paid ads, the leads stop the day the budget does. Ask what they build that keeps working: your Google profile, reviews, website, and follow-up.
3. Can they show specific documented results? Do not accept vague promises. Ask for real numbers from a gym you can look up. For example, one of our client gyms in Georgia has generated 362 free trial signups through organic search over two years. Then ask to see that client talk about it in their own words. (More on that in how to verify an agency is real.)
4. Do they understand the BJJ community? Are they learning about the difference between gi and no-gi from you, or do they actually train? You want a practitioner, not a tourist.
5. What exactly is the deliverable? You need to know exactly what is a one-time build and what is ongoing. If they can't explain it in plain English, keep looking.
If you want to see exactly where your gym stands on your current marketing foundation, get a free audit of your gym. We pull up your gym on screen, go through everything, and tell you what to fix first. No pitch.
Follow @grapplegrowth on Instagram to see how we audit gyms, or watch the Grapple Growth Show on @bjjgymgrowth on YouTube.
