How a Series A NYC fitness app got 12,600 first bookings at $14 each

A Series A New York fitness class booking app got 12,600 first bookings in 10 weeks at $14 each from NYC-geo Meta and TikTok ads, down from $31.00 per booking in the 4 weeks before. The decision that drove it: targeting only the ZIP codes within a 15-minute walk of the app's 140 partner studios, with videos New York instructors filmed in their own classes.

Written by Emma Park

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The company and program

Fact	Detail
Client	A Series A New York fitness class booking app
Stage	Series A
Industry	New York, consumer fitness app
Timeline	10 weeks, Aug 18 – Oct 26, 2026, against the 4 weeks before (Jul 21 – Aug 17)
Channels	Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok, geo-targeted to New York City ZIP clusters
Team	A dedicated Kiko growth lead plus agents for creative tagging, budget pacing and daily reporting. The client's head of growth approved budgets

The approach

Test	Hypothesis	Compared against	Decision rule
Walking-distance geo	New Yorkers book a class they can walk to, so ads aimed at ZIP codes within 15 minutes of a partner studio convert better than city-wide ads	NYC-wide broad targeting at the same daily budget	After $1,000 or 7 days per ad set, whichever comes first, keep the lower cost per first booking and cut the other
Instructor-filmed creative	A real instructor filming a class from the floor beats studio stock footage	Studio stock video and static schedule ads	Each concept gets $500–$1,000 or 7 days. Scale winners 20% every 3 days while cost per first booking stays under $16
$5 first class	A $5 first class lowers cost per booking enough to pay for the discount	Full-price first class	Judge on cost per first booking and second booking within 30 days, not bookings alone

What we changed

Weeks 1–2. Moved the optimization event from install to first class booked, sent server-side through Meta's Conversions API and TikTok's Events API, and grouped the 140 partner studios into four ZIP clusters: Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Flatiron and Union Square, the Upper West and Upper East Side, and Astoria and Long Island City. Signed 9 New York instructors with 90 days of paid usage, on written contracts as the city's Freelance Isn't Free Act requires for work of $800 or more.
Weeks 3–4. Ran the three tests side by side on both platforms.
Weeks 5–6. Paused NYC-wide broad targeting on both platforms, moved its budget into the four clusters, and added Meta retargeting for people who installed but had not booked.
Weeks 7–10. Raised budgets 20% every 3 days while cost per first booking held under $16, added 4 new instructor videos a week, and paused the $5 offer in week 7.

Meta campaign report for Aug 18 – Oct 26, 2026, showing spend, first bookings and cost per result. This view covers Meta campaigns only. Recreated from the case-study results; account details omitted. View full report

The results

Metric	Before (Jul 21 – Aug 17)	After (Aug 18 – Oct 26)	Change
Cost per first booking	$31.00	$14.00	−55%
First bookings per week	163	1,260 on average; 1,820 in week 10	7.7x
Install to first booking (7 days)	18.0%	27.0%	+9 pts
Click-through rate	0.8%	1.5%	+0.7 pts
Second booking within 30 days	41%	44% (installs from weeks 1–6)	+3 pts

Cost per first booking is media spend divided by first bookings. It leaves out creator fees and Kiko's fee.

Full-program results in PostHog’s dashboard layout, including the acquisition and conversion figures from the results table. Recreated from the case-study results; account details omitted. View full report

What didn't work

The $5 first class. It cost $14.01 per booking on TikTok, no cheaper than the full-price instructor ads at $13.70, and only 31% of those users booked a second class within 30 days, against 46% at full price. We paused it in week 7.
City-wide targeting. Broad NYC ads cost $20.91 per first booking on Meta and $23.55 on TikTok, and only 19.8% of those installs booked. We paused both in week 5.
Scaling past week 9. In week 10, after another budget raise, cost per first booking rose to $13.41 from $12.92 the week before. The four clusters were close to saturated. The next step is new neighborhoods, not more budget in the same ones.

What we learned

Target the walk, not the city: ZIP codes within 15 minutes of a partner studio.
Put real instructors on the studio floor with their own phones.
Optimize to the first booking from day one, not to installs.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to get a first class booking in New York with paid ads?

$14.00 in media per first booking here, $13.57 on Meta and $14.70 on TikTok, against $31.00 before. Creator fees for the instructors and Kiko's fee sit on top of that.

How fast can a local app scale spend before cost per booking rises?

Weekly spend roughly tripled over 10 weeks, raised 20% every 3 days. Costs started climbing in week 10, when the four ZIP clusters were close to saturated.

Would this work for a fitness app that sells nationally, not in one city?

Not this version. The 15-minute-walk targeting and instructor videos only pay off where partner studios are dense; the city-wide control cost $21.79 per booking. A national app would need a different geo plan.

Same industry, other angles:

Creator marketing: a pre-seed New York restaurant reservations app, 31,000 New York sign-ups in 6 weeks from 14 NYC food creators
Product growth: a seed-stage New York grocery delivery app, Second order within 30 days up from 38% to 57%
Full growth system: a seed-stage New York experiences marketplace became the top-grossing app in its category in New York in 6 months

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