Cambridge Gliding Club
Generating More Than 500 Membership Enquiries Through An Agile Digital Marketing Strategy
The Client
Founded in 1935, Cambridge Gliding Club is one of the UK's oldest and most respected gliding clubs. Operating from Gransden Lodge Airfield near Cambridge, the club provides trial lessons, structured flight training and full membership to people looking to experience the challenge and freedom of gliding.
Run predominantly by volunteers, the club has built an outstanding reputation within the aviation community over many decades. However, like many membership organisations, attracting new people into the sport had become increasingly challenging. Whilst awareness amongst existing aviation enthusiasts remained strong, reaching entirely new audiences and generating a consistent flow of prospective members required a different approach.
The Challenge
Cambridge Gliding Club approached Agilita Digital with a clear objective: recruit at least 20 new Full Flying Members over a six-month period.
Whilst trial lessons remain an important introduction to the sport, the club's longer-term ambition was to increase full membership by introducing gliding to people who may never previously have considered it, whilst also capturing those already searching online for flying lessons and experiences.
From the outset, it was clear that success wouldn't simply depend on launching a series of adverts. The campaign needed to be measurable, flexible and capable of evolving over time. Just as importantly, it needed to make the most of a finite advertising budget and work alongside a volunteer-led team responsible for following up every enquiry generated.
Before any advertising activity began, we therefore focused on understanding the club's existing digital presence, identifying opportunities for improvement and building the foundations needed to support a successful long-term campaign.
Building The Foundations
Although Paid Media would ultimately become the driving force behind the campaign, our work began long before the first advert went live.
We started by carrying out a comprehensive review of Cambridge Gliding Club's existing digital presence, including a full SEO audit, website assessment and analytics implementation. Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console and Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools were configured to ensure every stage of the customer journey could be measured accurately, whilst dedicated landing pages were developed to support future advertising activity.
Alongside the technical work, we also established the reporting and lead management processes that would underpin the campaign. A bespoke tracking dashboard was created to monitor advertising spend, enquiries and campaign performance across both Google Ads and Meta, giving complete visibility of how the campaign was performing from day one.
Just as importantly, we worked with the club to develop a clear process for managing new enquiries. Generating leads is only one part of a successful marketing campaign. Converting those enquiries into trial lessons and, ultimately, full flying members depends on responding quickly, tracking every interaction and continually reviewing where improvements can be made.
With the right foundations in place, the campaign could launch with confidence, supported by meaningful data rather than assumptions.
Letting Performance Drive Decisions
With the foundations in place, the campaign launched in January 2026 across both Google Ads and Meta, with each platform playing a different role within the wider strategy.
Google Search campaigns focused on people actively searching for gliding lessons, flying experiences and related terms, allowing Cambridge Gliding Club to capture existing demand. Alongside this, Meta Lead Ads introduced the club to entirely new audiences, generating enquiries directly through Facebook and Instagram. A third campaign encouraged prospective members to visit dedicated landing pages, helping build awareness and providing more information before they were ready to make an enquiry.
From the very beginning, however, the intention was never to follow a fixed plan for six months. The campaign was designed to evolve.
With the foundations in place, the campaign launched in January 2026 across both Google Ads and Meta, with each platform playing a different role within the wider strategy.
Google Search campaigns focused on people actively searching for gliding lessons, flying experiences and related terms, allowing Cambridge Gliding Club to capture existing demand. Alongside this, Meta Lead Ads introduced the club to entirely new audiences, generating enquiries directly through Facebook and Instagram. A third campaign encouraged prospective members to visit dedicated landing pages, helping build awareness and providing more information before they were ready to make an enquiry.
From the very beginning, however, the intention was never to follow a fixed plan for six months. The campaign was designed to evolve.
Every month, performance was reviewed in detail, analysing not only which platforms were generating the most enquiries, but also the quality of those enquiries, acquisition costs and the club's ability to manage the growing volume of interest. New creative was introduced, audiences were refined and budgets were adjusted as confidence in the data grew.
As the campaign matured, clear trends began to emerge. Whilst Google Ads continued to generate valuable high-intent enquiries from people actively searching for gliding, Meta Lead Ads consistently delivered significantly greater enquiry volumes at a lower acquisition cost. The Landing Page campaign, which had played an important role in the early stages of the project, gradually became less valuable as the Lead Ads campaign gathered momentum.
Rather than continuing to invest equally across all three campaign types simply because that had been the original strategy, advertising spend was continually redirected towards the activity delivering the strongest commercial return. By allowing the data to guide decision-making, the campaign that finished in June looked very different to the one that had launched in January, with every significant change driven by evidence rather than assumption.
The Results
The original objective of recruiting at least 20 new Full Flying Members quickly evolved into something much bigger.
Over the course of the initial six-month campaign, Cambridge Gliding Club generated more than 500 enquiries through a combination of Google Ads and Meta advertising, with the vast majority coming through highly targeted Meta Lead Ads. In total, the campaign generated more than 350,000 advert impressions, reached almost 200,000 people and delivered those enquiries at an average cost of less than £3.00.
Beyond The Numbers
Whilst the headline figures were undoubtedly impressive, the campaign's success was about far more than generating enquiries.
As performance data accumulated, the strategy continued to evolve. Budgets were redirected towards the strongest-performing campaign types, new creative was introduced and underperforming activity was paused, ensuring advertising spend was continually focused where it would deliver the greatest return.
The campaign also changed the conversations taking place with the club. As enquiry volumes increased, the focus naturally shifted away from generating more demand and towards ensuring every prospective member received a timely follow-up. Additional volunteers were brought in to help manage enquiries, lead handling processes were continually reviewed and, following the campaign's success, activity was extended beyond the original six-month agreement to capitalise on the peak flying season.
Ultimately, that was perhaps the strongest outcome of all. The challenge was no longer finding people interested in learning to fly. It was helping Cambridge Gliding Club manage the volume of opportunities the campaign was creating.
What The Client Said
“Alex’s approach has been excellent throughout.
From the initial proposal and strategy through to the monthly reporting and ongoing advice, we’ve always felt well informed and supported.
The campaign has generated an exceptional number of enquiries, and as it progressed our focus shifted from generating demand to keeping up with it.
Overall, our marketing efforts have been really successful and we’re delighted with what has been achieved.”
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