The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK dealerships has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK dealerships perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK automotive dealerships has just been published. It covers the largest 12 UK automotive dealerships, including Sytner Group, JCT600, Arnold Clark, Lookers Motor Group, Vertu Motors plc, Inchcape plc, Marshall Motor Group, Group 1 Automotive UK, TrustFord, Stoneacre Motor Group, Listers Group, and Stratstone.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other dealership providers to increase market share, accelerate leads & sales, and improve brand recognition. The report highlights year-on-year digital performance, plus winner and loser comparisons across 20+ online performance metrics for the dealerships providers.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 12 dealerships on, check out our quick-look table below;
To understand what the *CTM Digital Performance Index™ is click here.
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK automotive dealerships or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK automotive dealerships was £102,480 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £6. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, Marshall Motor Group reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £1, and Listers Group reported has the highest at £20.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, TrustFord has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £2,270, and Arnold Clark has the highest at £4,550,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. For automotive dealerships, they'll particularly want to take care over key pages such as offers, financing, locations, and new models that they have in stock, and ensure that prospective customers can easily find key information.
In our previous audit, Lookers Motor Group received the most 404 errors (69). This quarter, Lookers Motor Group has increased their total to 98. However, the dealership to watch this quarter is Listers Group, reporting 149 404 errors. If a website lacks a helpful or well-designed 404 page, visitors may not know how to continue browsing. Without clear navigation options, links to relevant pages, or a search bar, users can feel stuck. This confusion often results in them leaving the site rather than trying to recover from the error.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. For automotive dealerships, they'll want to ensure they have a fast-performing site that gives off an exceptional first impression to potential customers looking to buy these large-ticket items.
In our last audit, both Group 1 Automotive UK and Stratstone reported the slowest mobile site speed (12). This quarter, Group 1 Automotive UK has decreased their score to 6 — the lowest of all dealerships. Stratstone has increased their score to 30. Mobile users are often browsing on the go, using varying network conditions. A well-optimised site that loads quickly even on slower connections ensures accessibility for a wider audience. This inclusivity improves the likelihood of retaining users regardless of their environment.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. For brands operating in the automotive industry, they should be working with digital PR specialists to identify opportunities and ideas for out-of-the-box, surprising PR campaigns.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our previous report, Harwoods received the lowest DA score (32). This quarter, Harwoods remains at the bottom of the leaderboard, though they’ve since increased their score to 36. Websites should avoid manipulative link-building practices, such as buying backlinks or participating in link schemes. These tactics may offer short-term gains but often result in long-term penalties or loss of trust from search engines. Domain authority built through artificial means is rarely sustainable.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. The cost of living crisis and a drop in consumer confidence is having a wide impact across all non-essential sectors, as customers are cutting back on treats and expendable items. In the case of automotive dealerships, this could mean potential car buyers are sticking with their older models for longer, or only opting for used vehicles.
Four brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Group 1 Automotive UK flagging the biggest loss (-25%). On mobile, 5 brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Arnold Clark seeing the biggest drop here, too (-23%). Organic traffic often differs between desktop and mobile due to variations in user intent. Desktop users are more likely to conduct in-depth research, often during working hours, while mobile users tend to search for quick answers or immediate solutions when on the go. These differing intentions naturally lead to variations in the type and volume of traffic each device generates.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Local Pack' could be a key Universal Search result for automotive dealerships to optimise for, as a way to quickly appear for customers looking for nearby forecourts.
Arnold Clark has since secured the most Universal Search appearances (107,800) — an increase from 68,385 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (93,500).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. For automotive dealerships, longtail keywords could include terms relating to the colour and make of a car, along with buying signals such as 'buy today' or 'with finance'.
Arnold Clark continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (9,253) — an increase from 6,876 previously. Arnold Clark also secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 4–10 (30,409) — an increase from 25,840 previously. Websites can use longtail keywords by expanding on related subtopics within a single article. By exploring different angles of a topic, the content naturally introduces longer phrases that reflect variations of the main search query. This allows the page to rank for a broader range of searches without appearing repetitive or overly optimised.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. For automotive dealerships, they'll want to use Facebook ads to secure visibility on offers and new lines, and can use the platform to target specific locations where they're experiencing the toughest competition.
We’ve included screenshots of TrustFord’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK automotive dealership should consider line spacing to make their posts easier for social media users to skim.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Tying back to the Universal Search opportunity results, dealerships appearing for high levels of 'People Also Ask' and 'FAQ' results have already got a headstart in valuable content creation.
Arnold Clark secured the most Facebook Likes (135,200) and the most Instagram followers (55,600). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Group 1 Automotive UK received the highest total engagement rate (6,943) and the highest average engagement (69).
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Though automotive brands may not immediately think there is a need to remain accessible to visually impaired users, there are many forms of visual impairment that do not inhibit driving ability.
In our last audit, Marshall Motor Group reported the most accessibility alerts (535). This quarter, Marshall Motor Group continues to report the most accessibility alerts, increasing their total to 847. Accessibility alerts can prevent consumers from completing essential actions such as signing up, checking out, or contacting support. If fields are not properly labelled or errors are not announced to assistive technology, users may not know what went wrong. This creates confusion and blocks task completion.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.