Closing the gap on Wide Bay ads

The East Brisbane pilot showed what is possible. Between 2 and 8 March 2026, CAQ spent $91.43 on Facebook ads there and got 14 confirmed sign-ups.

This cost $6.53 per lead. It beat the original forecast of $17 to $33 per lead.

The most successful ad, using a hand-drawn illustration and a "Garden" message, took 82% of the spend and reached a click-through rate of 4.16%.

The copy focused on the feeling of living in a small unit. It offered a "new backyard" with no mowing required.

Notably, this winning ad never used the word "free". It simply stated that everything is provided.

Wide Bay has not matched these results yet. A recent pull of the data shows a gap in performance.

East Brisbane: 3.66% CTR | $0.31 cost per click Wide Bay: 2.08% CTR | $0.29 cost per click

Cost per click is close to the same in both places. The gap is not about paying more to reach people. It's about what happens once they've clicked, and they aren't putting their name down.

The Wide Bay sample only covers one to two days. This is a signal to watch, not a final verdict.

Configuration bugs also pulled the numbers down: some ads went live with no headline, body, or description at all.

The team is actively revising and retesting these ads to fix the gap.

The differences in wording were more than just a few words. Four specific changes were made to the competitive copy.

First, the word "FREE" was removed. Second, the "3-week Program" was shortened to a "session".

Changing a program to a session is a significant shift. It moves the offer from a commitment to a single visit.

Third, the pointing emoji was dropped. Finally, the call to action changed from "accept the invite" to "join for a session". That last one is going back to a personal invitation.

The audience in Wide Bay is also different, since the East Brisbane hook targeted unit-dwellers who missed having a garden.

Wide Bay has far fewer unit-dwellers. The "miss your garden" hook had nothing to catch on in that region.

The fix is to return to the winning Brisbane structure but change the theme deliberately. We are not guessing.

One new hook asks: "Need an excuse to get out of the house?"

A second, different angle asks: "Need to get off your phone?"

The word "need" replaces "want", because a need suggests something is missing right now, while a want is a soft wish.

The phrase "your phone" replaces "the phone", to speak directly to the reader rather than make a general statement.

Other ideas were rejected. "Tired of Mowing the Lawn?" did not work because Wide Bay homeowners still have lawns to mow.

These two new ads are not live yet. They are currently being reviewed for approval.

Once this wording has had a fair run, the next test begins. We will look at whether the drawn characters in the ads actually look like the people being spoken to.

This level of tweaking is not a sideshow. It is the core of the process.

Attracting people to a club is not automatic. Getting these small details right is what actually brings new people through a club's front door.