Help Growing Your Soccer Academy or Club: Your 4 Options

Want help growing your soccer academy or club? You’ve got 4 real options. Do it yourself with free resources. Hire one person. Hire a general marketing company. Or hire a company that only works with soccer coaches.

No option is right for everyone. It comes down to what you have more of: time or money.

Quick warning, I run one of these companies. So I’ll show you the downsides of mine too, and everything you need to do it yourself for free.

What are your options for growing a soccer academy or club?

Here’s all 4 side by side.

Option	Good	Bad	Best if
Do it yourself	Lowest cost. You learn a skill you keep.	Takes your hours. Slowest start. Your mistakes cost you ad money.	You've got more time than money.
Hire one person	Works only on your business. You stay in control.	You have to manage them. One person rarely covers ads, follow-up and design. If they leave, the know-how leaves too.	You already know what works and want it done.
General marketing company	A full team. Knows marketing well.	You may have to teach them your world. They may not have run ads for a local soccer program before.	You want more than player sign-ups, like a brand or website.
Soccer specialist	Already knows what parents respond to. Fast to set up.	Usually the same system for everyone, so less custom. You still need ad money. May not suit a one-off event.	You run an ongoing program and want it filled without learning marketing.

You might not know these as “agencies”, and you don’t need to. Marketing agency, consultant, done-for-you service. They all mean you pay someone to do the work. Don’t judge them on the label. Judge them on what they’ve done for coaches like you.

Option 1: How do you grow a soccer academy by yourself for free?

Split the work into 4 jobs. Learn them in this order, starting with the one that’s hurting most. You don’t need to master everything before you start.

Getting parents to ask

This is what people mean by marketing. Parents near you see your program, and some ask about it.

• How to get more players for your soccer academy
• How to set up Facebook ads for a soccer academy, or the free step-by-step setup guide
• 20 soccer academy Facebook ads, ranked, plus the ads you can copy
• How much to spend on Facebook ads
• Referral program ideas, for the parents you already have
• The soccer camp playbook, if you run camps

Turning parents into paying players

A parent asking isn’t a player. They still have to book a trial, show up and sign up.

• Find your 1 number shows where parents are dropping off, using your own numbers

Play the video

Keeping players longer

A player who stays longer pays you more, with no extra ad money.

• How to improve player retention

Getting your money right

Your price and your numbers decide how much you can spend to get each new player.

• How much to charge for soccer training
• What one player is worth
• How to grow a soccer academy from $10K to $50K, which also covers running out of room

Not sure which job comes first? The constraint analysis helps you find the one thing holding you back. All my free guides are on the free tools page.

I also post free lessons here:

The catch: free information doesn’t do the work. You still have to learn it, build it, test it and fix it, around a full coaching week.

Option 2: Should you hire someone to do your marketing?

Hiring one person works when you already know what to do and just don’t have the hours. That could be a freelancer, a part-time marketer or someone already at your club.

It’s harder when you don’t know what good looks like. You can’t manage work you can’t check. And ads, follow-up messages and design are 3 different skills.

If you go this way, give them the free guides above. Pick one job, and one number to judge them on. “Parents who booked a trial” beats “post more on Instagram”.

Option 3: Should you hire a marketing agency for your soccer academy?

A general marketing company gives you a full team. That’s a plus if you want a brand, a website and ads all from one place.

The risk is that soccer is new to them. Selling a free trial to a parent 10 minutes away isn’t the same as selling a product online. If they’ve never done it, you pay while they learn.

Good companies exist. Just check they’ve done your kind of work before.

Option 4: What companies help grow soccer clubs and academies?

Some companies only work with soccer or youth sports coaches. They’ve already run this playbook, so there’s less to teach them.

Onside is one of them. We only work with soccer coaching businesses: clubs, academies and private coaches. We make and run Facebook and Instagram ads to parents near you, and set up the follow-up that books them into trials. Your regular job is talking to parents after sessions and signing them up. The first couple of weeks take more of your time while we set things up.

Here’s what that has looked like for 3 clients:

45+new players in 60 days, Foundation Football

6new players in 6 days, Technical Soccer Coaching

28new players in 50 days, XMD Soccer Academy

Onside case studies: Foundation Football, Technical Soccer Coaching and XMD Soccer Academy

Here’s some of the real proof behind those numbers:

Those are good results, not a promise. Read the full stories in our case studies.

We’re not for everyone either. Skip us if you:

• Want to learn marketing yourself. The free guides above are the better route.
• Only run one-off events, with no ongoing program to fill.
• Have no room for new players and no plan to add sessions.

Is it worth paying someone to grow your academy?

It’s worth it if the new players pay back more than the help costs. Here’s the sum, using made-up numbers. Swap in your own.

Now do the sum for doing it yourself. Say you spend 8 hours a week on marketing, and each coached hour earns you $60. That’s 8 x $60 = $480 of coaching time a week, if you could fill those hours instead.

If you can’t fill those hours, your own time is the cheap option. So start there.

The growth calculator can help you run your own numbers.

What should you ask before you hire anyone?

Ask these, whoever you’re talking to:

1. Who have you helped that looks like me? Ask to see real results from coaches in programs like yours.
2. What exactly will you do, and what will I do? Get it in plain words.
3. What number will you be judged on? Look for booked trials or new players, not likes and views.
4. How much do I pay you, and how much goes to ads? They’re 2 separate costs.
5. Who owns the ad account and the list of parents if I leave? Know this before you sign.
6. How long am I locked in, and how do I get out? Read the contract.

Be careful with anyone who won’t show you results, or who can’t tell you what happens to a parent after they fill in a form. An ad only gets the parent to ask. Someone still has to get them to a session.

Which option should you pick?

Pick by your situation:

• Full, with no room for new players: don’t hire anyone for marketing. Add sessions or coaches first.
• Short on money, with time to spare: do it yourself. Start with the first free guide that fits your biggest problem.
• You know what works, but don’t have the hours: hire one person.
• You want a brand and website as well as players: look at a general marketing company with soccer or youth sports clients.
• You have room, an ongoing program and no wish to learn marketing: look at a soccer specialist, and book a call with us if you want to see if we fit.