4,266 padel courts in France. Hundreds of clubs opening every year. A player community that keeps exploding.
And yet: most clubs have empty weekday slots, an Instagram with 200 followers, and no strategy at all to bring in new players.
The problem isn’t your club. It’s your visibility.
At The Court we generated more than 310,000 views from a single activation for a partner, and turned that visibility into real people on real courts. This guide pulls together everything we have learned about digital marketing for padel clubs.
No empty theory. Just what works.
Why digital marketing became essential for padel clubs
Three years ago, opening a padel club was enough. Demand was so strong the courts filled themselves.
Not anymore.
Today, in most big cities, a player can choose between three, four, sometimes six clubs within 20 km. And when they look for a slot, they don’t go from club to club.
They open Google. They scroll Instagram. They ask their friends in a WhatsApp group.
If your club doesn’t show up in those three places, you don’t exist for a large share of potential players.
Digital marketing for a padel club isn’t posting a photo of an empty court on Monday morning captioned “Come and play!”. It is a strategy that reaches the right players, at the right time, with the right message.
Done well, the results are concrete: courts fully booked, tournaments that fill in 48 hours, and a loyal community of players who come back every week.
The 3 pillars of a digital marketing strategy for a padel club
1. Be findable on Google (local SEO)
When a player types “padel club + [your city]” into Google, your club has to show up. It is the basics, and yet most padel clubs don’t even have an optimised Google Business profile.
Concrete actions:
Create and optimise your Google Business Profile. Add recent photos of your courts (not architect’s 3D renders), up-to-date opening hours, your phone number and a direct link to your booking system. Reply to every Google review, positive or negative, within 24 hours.
Your website has to use the words your future players type. If your homepage says “Welcome to our multi-sport space”, Google doesn’t understand you are a padel club. Use “padel club in [city]” in your title, your descriptions and your page content.
Publish regular content on your site: tournament results, coach profiles, beginner guides. Every article is a door from Google into your club.
What to expect: within 2 to 3 months, your club shows up in the top 3 Google Maps results for “[padel + your city]”. That is free, ongoing visibility.
2. Create content that makes people want to play (social media)
Instagram and TikTok are your club’s shop window. Not your website, not your flyer: your social channels. That is where players decide whether your club has the atmosphere they are looking for.
What actually works:
Short videos of spectacular points. A smash that goes over the glass, an unlikely volley, a 30-shot rally finished with a perfect lob. This kind of content gets shared naturally and reaches players well beyond your area. The goal isn’t to go viral. It is to show your club’s energy.
Behind the scenes and club life. Show your coaches at work, drinks after tournaments, beginner groups laughing through their first lesson. People want to belong to a community before they book a court.
Member testimonials. A player explaining how they discovered padel at your club six months ago and can’t stop playing: that is your best advert. Film it in 30 seconds on your phone, no production needed.
What doesn’t work: photos of empty courts, generic “padel is fun” posts, permanent 50%-off promotions. None of it creates emotion, and it makes your club look desperate.
Recommended frequency: 3 to 5 posts a week on Instagram (a mix of Reels, Stories and posts). 2 to 3 short videos a week on TikTok. It is a demanding pace, but it is what builds a visible presence. That consistency is what took Celio to 137K followers in 12 months.
3. Turn views into bookings (conversion)
5,000 Instagram followers are worth nothing if nobody books. The third pillar is getting people to act.
The mechanics that convert:
A booking link everywhere. In your Instagram bio, in every Story (link sticker), in your posts, in your emails. A player who sees a Reel of your club must be able to book a slot in under 30 seconds.
Targeted discovery offers. “First group lesson free” works better than “20% off your next booking”. One creates an experience, the other looks like a clearance sale.
A monthly email to existing members. Not a marketing newsletter: a recap of club life. Last tournament’s results, new coaches, upcoming events, free weekday slots. Your best ambassadors are the players who already come.
Events that create urgency. Monthly tournaments, afterwork padel evenings, intensive camps in the school holidays. Every event is a reason to communicate, post content and convert new players.
The mistakes 90% of padel clubs make in digital marketing
Handing social media to an intern with no brief. A club’s social channels are a sales tool. They deserve a strategy, an editorial calendar and someone who understands what gets padel players to react. An intern can film and edit, but they need clear direction.
Buying Facebook ads without an organic base. If your Instagram has 150 followers and 3 posts a month, spending €500 on ads is throwing money away. Build a credible organic presence first, then amplify with ads.
Ignoring Google Maps. Half of local searches lead to a visit or a call within 24 hours. If your Google profile is incomplete, you lose players every day.
Not measuring results. “We post on Instagram but we don’t know if it works.” That is the sign there is no strategy. Every month, look at three numbers: new bookings, follower growth, engagement rate. If they go up, keep going. If they stall, change your approach.
Copying other clubs. The club next door posts trophy photos? That doesn’t mean it works. Find what makes your club unique (the atmosphere, the coaches, the community, the location) and build your content around it.
How to run digital marketing while running a club day to day
We know: a padel club manager wears twenty hats. Front desk, scheduling, maintenance, accounts, events. Adding “head of digital marketing” to the list seems impossible.
Here is a realistic approach that takes two to three hours a week.
Monday (30 minutes): plan the week’s 3 to 5 pieces of content. What is happening at the club this week? A tournament, a new coach, a special slot? Jot the ideas down, even quickly.
Every day you are at the club (15 minutes): film one short piece. A spectacular point, match atmosphere, a quick player testimonial. Your phone is more than enough.
Friday (1 hour): publish the week’s content, reply to comments and messages, check your stats, see what worked. Prepare the following week.
Once a month (1 hour): take stock. How many new bookings this month? Which content worked best? Which slots are still hard to fill? Adjust.
It is a minimal investment for concrete results. And if the volume needed goes beyond what you can produce in-house, that is where a specialist agency like The Court comes in: we know padel, we know digital marketing, and we know what converts.
What it looks like when it’s done well
We worked with Sol Sportif on a creator-athlete activation combined with a structured content strategy.
The result:
→ 310,000+ views on the content produced
→ 5 qualified leads from interested clubs
→ 1 signed project
All from a single operation.
That isn’t luck. It is what happens when the content is authentic, the strategy is targeted and the execution is professional.
For a padel club that invests seriously in digital marketing, in-house or with a partner, typical results over 3 to 6 months are: a 30 to 50% increase in weekday bookings, social followers doubling, and a spot in the local Google Maps top 3.
Where to start?
If you run a padel club and you are reading this, here are three things you can do today:
Check your Google Business profile. Is it complete, up to date, with recent photos and replies to reviews? If not, start there.
Film a 30-second piece at the club. A spectacular point, a group lesson, an evening atmosphere. Post it on Instagram with a booking link in your bio.
Review your empty slots. Which days, which hours? Create an event (tournament, afterwork, taster session) specifically to fill them, and talk about it for two weeks.
And if you want to go further, Arthur, founder of The Court, will spend 30 minutes looking at your club’s online presence with you and pinpoint exactly where your opportunities are. It’s free, it’s concrete, and we don’t bite.
→ Book a free call with Arthur
The padel marketing agency that fills courts
The Court is the marketing agency 100% dedicated to padel and tennis in France. We work with clubs, brands and pro players on content strategies that fill courts and feeds.
A padel club’s digital marketing budget: from €0 (applying this guide in-house) to €2,000-5,000 a month with a specialist agency. What matters is starting, and this guide gives you everything you need for first results without spending a cent.
