March 10, 2026
What to Look for When Hiring a BJJ Gym Marketing Agency — A Practitioner's Honest 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 the five questions you must ask before hiring anyone.
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 produce organic results? If their entire strategy depends on paid ads, what happens when you stop paying? You want someone who builds owned traffic, not rented traffic.
3. Can they show specific documented results? Do not accept vague promises. Ask for real numbers. For example, we have a client who generated 355 leads through organic search since 2023.
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. Transparency is non-negotiable.
If you want to see exactly where your gym stands on your current marketing foundation, get a free audit of your online presence at grapplegrowth.com/start. We pull up your gym on screen, go through everything, and tell you what to fix first. Takes about 20 minutes. No pitch.
Follow @grapplegrowth on Instagram to see how we audit gyms, or watch the Grapple Growth Show on @tannersullivantbjj on YouTube.
