Facebook ads for an axe throwing venue

Other business owners in Zurich told him paid ads do not work there. Revenue almost doubled, and now customers recognise him at the gym.

Ian, Axe throwing venue. Recorded May 2026.

Ian opened the first urban axe throwing range in Zurich in 2019, taking the concept from the States. That American origin is part of the brand, which is why he went looking for someone who could market in that register rather than a local agency.

The advice he got locally was unanimous and wrong: other business owners told him not to bother, that paid advertising was not a thing in that market. He disagreed and ran them anyway. He had a couple of people managing the ads who were doing acceptably.

Revenue almost doubled after the ads were rebuilt and the creative volume went up. For a venue business that is a straightforward mechanism — an axe throwing range has fixed capacity and fixed costs, so filling more of the calendar drops most of the difference to the bottom line.

The method he describes is the important part: forty or fifty creatives pushed out until one wins, then spend concentrated behind that one. It takes real effort and most of what gets made does not work. That is the price of finding the ones that do.

Years in, the brand recognition is its own asset. People at his gym tell him they have seen his ads on Instagram. For a local venue, being the one people have already heard of is most of the marketing.

His caveat is genuinely useful: get set up before you turn this on. Ads bring volume, and a venue that cannot handle the bookings turns a good campaign into a bad customer experience.

In Ian’s words