Wellness businesses are missing their own revenue targets more than anyone else - and don't fancy spending their way out of it

Braze's 2023 survey of marketers found health and wellness organisations were the sector least likely to hit their revenue goals and the most likely to miss them outright, with little appetite for bigger budgets to fix it. This includes practices like yours.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Practices banking on a bigger marketing budget to rescue a slow year might notice the rest of the sector already tried that and gave up on it.

Original Research	Wellness brands lag on revenue goals and expect no relief in budget, Braze finds
Source	https://www.braze.com/resources/articles/2024-health-and-wellness-marketing-trends
Overview	Braze's fourth annual Global Customer Engagement Review surveyed marketers across sectors on how they performed against revenue and engagement targets in 2023.
Year	2023
Publisher	Industry-commissioned, independently conducted, Braze
Relevance to Wellbeing	Health and wellness came out worse than every other sector surveyed on hitting revenue goals, which puts practices in a crowded, underperforming field rather than a niche exception.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell the finding is specific and sector-wide, but rests on self-reported marketer sentiment rather than audited figures.
Our Summary	Wellness appears as its own distinct category in Braze's data, so it isn't being lumped in with "health" generally and forgotten about. It's self-reported by marketers, so nobody's checking the numbers against the actual bank statement. The finding matches what a lot of small practices already suspect, which is that the market is harder than the brochure suggested. Braze sells engagement software, and a report about marketing shortfalls needing a better strategy is not exactly against their interests.
Our Geo View	Applies broadly to all countries

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: this matters because a quiet month can look like a marketing problem when it's actually a conversion problem, and the data suggests the whole sector fell into the same trap.
Therapy: this matters because private practitioners chasing new referrals might do better looking at why existing clients leave, rather than spending more to find new ones.
Training: this matters because gyms and studios competing on more sessions may be bumping into the same ceiling everyone else already hit.
Alternative Healing: this matters because holistic practitioners already battle scepticism, and a sector-wide shortfall takes some of the "it's just me" pressure off.
Clinical: this matters because clinics carry bigger overheads, so a missed target stings more and throwing budget at it may not close the gap.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because centres with fixed costs and seasonal bookings are precisely the kind of business this budget pessimism was measured against.

Where this came from

Braze's own headline was that wellness brands undershoot revenue targets more than any other sector, and aren't expecting fatter marketing budgets to help matters.

Braze, published 2024, drawing on 2023 survey data from its fourth annual Global Customer Engagement Review.

Credibility flags: Braze surveyed marketers directly; exact sample size for the wellness slice is not disclosed in the public report; publisher is a marketing technology vendor with a commercial stake in the subject.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

56%

Practice fit, 50How new, 70How solid, 50

Marked down slightly on how solid the method is, since the headline figures come without a disclosed sample size, but scored well on relevance given the direct fit with wellbeing practices and reasonably fresh data.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Put your actual results next to your target once a quarter, not just at year end. Drift is easier to fix early.
Say the word "budget" before a client or investor asks. Explain what you're spending and why, so nobody assumes more spend automatically means more clients.
Brief your team that a quiet month isn't unique to your practice. The whole sector had one.
Review last year's marketing spend against actual bookings before agreeing to increase it again this year.
Put a line in your planning documents that strategy gets reviewed before budget gets increased.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Medium	Check enquiry-to-booking conversion before spending more on ads.
Therapy	Medium	Look at retention of existing clients rather than chasing new leads.
Training	Medium	Audit whether pricing, not marketing spend, is the real ceiling.
Alternative Healing	Low	Use the finding to reassure yourself, not to justify standing still.
Clinical	High	Model revenue against fixed costs before committing to a bigger ad spend.
Retreat/Centre	High	Stress-test occupancy assumptions before raising the marketing budget for next season.

Best before

Best before: worth revisiting when Braze publishes its next annual review, or sooner if you want to check the 2023 figures against a primary source.

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