Agency comparison
Ground Standard vs Academy Kings for martial arts schools
A side-by-side of Ground Standard and Academy Kings for martial arts school owners: who each is for, what each does, and when each is the right call. What this page says about Academy Kings comes from their own public site and can change; their site has the current terms.
Who they are01
About Academy Kings
A neutral description based on their own public site.
Academy Kings is a membership for martial arts academy owners that combines weekly coaching, an owners' mastermind, done-for-you marketing and its own CRM; co-founded by Lance Trippett and Jonathan Stroud.
Side by side02
How the two compare
Details about other companies come from their public sites and can change; their site has the current terms.
| Row | Ground Standard | Academy Kings |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Martial arts schools that want growth run for them by one team, on one standard. | Martial arts academies with 15 or more active students, any style, from solo owners to franchise locations. |
| Services | Meta and Google ads, websites and SEO, lead follow-up and live concierge, operations (fractional integrator), retention systems and automation. | Done-for-you ads, offers, landing pages and follow-up; one-on-one coaching; a weekly mastermind; an owners-only group; live events; weekly trainings; scripts and programs. |
| Done-for-you vs coaching | Done-for-you, with weekly strategy calls. | A membership: coaching and community first, with the marketing done for you inside it. |
| Software included | Runs with the school's existing membership software. Keppan and a Try A Martial Art listing are available from the same group. | The Academy Kings software: a CRM with automated follow-up, a booking calendar and a dashboard. |
| Lead follow-up | AI follow-up by text and email starts the moment a lead comes in. From Starter up, live concierge: real people on calls and messages 8am to 10pm ET on weekdays, by message on weekends. | Automated text and email follow-up that books the first class, with reminders and no-show recovery. Human callers are not described on their site. |
| Reporting | Ad performance snapshots to Slack or email (spend, leads, cost per lead, what changes next), results reviewed on strategy calls, and an automatic monthly recap report. | A dashboard showing leads, shows, sales and cost per member, updated daily. |
| Term | Six-month terms for Starter and the content tiers, twelve months for Standard. | Not stated on their site. |
| Pricing model | Tiered, priced on a call: Starter (managed lead system, Meta ads, live concierge), Standard (adds website and SEO, Google Ads, Slack, strategy calls, gear discount, storefront, Keppan plan) and the content tiers Signature, Studio and Spotlight. Clients fund their own ad accounts; the management fee is set in the agreement. | No prices listed; starts with a strategy call. |
Choose Academy Kings if
- You want a coaching community of owners around you, with the marketing included in the membership
- You want to run your school on their CRM and dashboard
- You run a smaller academy and want one program that covers coaching and marketing
Choose Ground Standard if
- You want the whole system run for you, not a course to follow
- You want AI follow-up the moment a lead comes in and real people on your leads on weekdays
- You want ads, website, follow-up and operations from one team
- You want membership software and a directory listing from the same group
- You run a martial arts school, not a general fitness business
FAQ03
Questions, answered
What is the difference between Ground Standard and Academy Kings?
Ground Standard runs the whole growth system for martial arts schools as a done-for-you service with a human follow-up team. Academy Kings: Academy Kings is a membership for martial arts academy owners that combines weekly coaching, an owners' mastermind, done-for-you marketing and its own CRM; co-founded by Lance Trippett and Jonathan Stroud.
Is Academy Kings a good fit for martial arts schools?
Martial arts academies with 15 or more active students, any style, from solo owners to franchise locations. Their own site has their current client stories and case studies.
Can a school use both Ground Standard and Academy Kings?
Sometimes, when they cover different pieces. In most cases a school picks one team to run growth so that ads, follow-up and reporting are not split across vendors.
How should a school compare agencies?
Ask who answers the lead and how fast, what the reporting shows, what the term is, and whether the agency works with your membership software. Then ask for two current client references in your discipline.
More comparisons: All compare pages
One team. One standard. The whole system.
Marketing, operations, retention and automation for martial arts schools, run by one team on one standard.