McFIT

Unified Lift Study Proves the Value of Upper Value Investment for German Fitness Brand

Objectives

Testing upper funnel strategy to support performance growth

By testing a strategy outside its traditional playbook, McFIT uncovered a new lever for growth. As one of the largest fitness studio chains in Germany, the brand had historically focused almost exclusively on lower funnel performance, measuring success through completed membership payments on its website.

In 2025, McFIT set out to test whether introducing an upper funnel layer could drive incremental performance gains while also strengthening brand perception on TikTok. Since upper funnel investment had not previously been part of the media strategy, a robust measurement framework was essential to clearly quantify impact and validate the value of this new approach.

Solutions

Building a measurable full funnel campaign powered by Smart+

McFIT implemented a measurable full funnel campaign built around both branding and performance. Multiple TikTok solutions were activated across the funnel, including In-Feed Ads, Top Feed, and Smart+.

The campaign structure centered on Smart+ as the primary performance driver, using AI-powered optimization to support website conversion goals. Through automated setup and ongoing optimization, Smart+ helps deliver the most relevant ads to the right audiences, improving efficiency across the funnel.

With the budget allocated to balance efficiency and reach, 64% of ad spend was assigned to Smart+, 30% to retargeting, 4% to reach, and 2% to Top Feed.

Supported by in-house production, McFIT's creative materials combined content assets from TikTok One Partner Connect and TikTok One Creator Content. This mixed approach delivered scale and fresh content, with creator and partner-produced videos consistently ranking among the top-performing assets throughout the campaign.

Crucially, the strategy paired full funnel activation with a TikTok Unified Lift Study, covering brand and conversion lifts, to objectively assess impact. This approach ensured that any performance uplift or brand improvement could be directly attributed to the new upper funnel investment.

Results

Strong gains across both brand and conversion metrics

Despite allocating only a small share of budget to upper funnel activity, the Unified Lift Study revealed clear incremental impact across both brand and conversion metrics. Smart+ remained the strongest lower funnel driver, while upper funnel exposure delivered measurable value beyond direct response alone.

As a result of upper funnel investment, ad recall increased by 35.7% in the exposed group, while brand consideration increased by 4.4% compared with other major gym brands in the industry. Awareness, meanwhile, increased by 4.6% despite McFIT already being a highly recognizable brand in Germany.

Conversion lift results reinforced these gains, with view content increasing by 15%, add-to-cart by 14.96%, and complete payment by 14.47%, proving that even modest upper funnel investment can significantly boost lower-funnel performance for fitness brands on TikTok.

To find out more about TikTok solutions including the Unified Lift Study, reach out to our team here.