The Q3 2026 benchmarking report for UK Coffee suppliers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 coffee suppliers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q3 2026 benchmarking report for coffee suppliers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 coffee suppliers, including Pact Coffee, Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, Origin Coffee, Ozone Coffee, Rave Coffee, Coffee Factory, Square Mile Coffee Roasters, North Star Coffee Roasters, Workshop Coffee, Grind, Redber Coffee, and Assembly Coffee.
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 coffee suppliers to win brand exposure, drive traffic online, and even increase in-store footfall, where relevant. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q3 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 UK coffee suppliers, 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 live-in care providers or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70 pages of research benchmarks each site 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 Q3 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK coffee suppliers was £9,054 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 cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £10. 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, Grind reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £6, and Assembly Coffee reported the highest at £42.
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, Grind reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £6, and Assembly Coffee reported the highest at £42.
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 coffee suppliers, they'll particularly want to take care over key pages such as offers, new product launches, stock updates, and ensure that prospective customers can easily find key information.
In our last audit, Union Hand-Roasted Coffee reported the most 404 errors (727). This quarter, Union Hand-Roasted Coffee remains the brand to watch, though they’ve made great progress to reduce their total to 448. Users often expect websites to function smoothly and efficiently. A 404 error disrupts those expectations and can make the overall browsing experience feel unreliable.
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 coffee suppliers, 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 previous report, the brand with the lowest mobile site speed score was Square Mile Coffee Roasters (21). Square Mile Coffee Roasters has made great progress to increase their score to 42 — moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed score ranges between 44 and 25, with both Grind and Union Hand-Roasted Coffee the brands to watch. Faster mobile speeds encourage customers to explore more pages during a single visit. Instead of leaving after viewing one page, they're more likely to continue browsing additional products, articles or services.
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 is not gained through sponsored ads. For brands operating in the food and drink 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 is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last audit, Coffee Factory reported the lowest DA (37). This quarter, Coffee Factory remains the brand at the bottom of the leaderboard, continuing to score 37. Websites with strong domain authority are more likely to attract high-quality backlinks, which often lead users from other reputable websites. This exposes audiences to useful resources they may not have discovered otherwise.
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 the food and drink industry, this could mean that customers are sticking to supermarket brands rather than ones with a costlier price tag.
Five brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Assembly Coffee seeing the biggest loss (-64%). On mobile, six brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with both North Star Coffee Roasters and Coffee Factory seeing the biggest decrease (-42%). Desktop users often have more screen space available for comparing products or viewing detailed specifications. Websites should make use of this extra space without overwhelming visitors with unnecessary clutter.
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 coffee supplier can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. ‘Reviews’ could be a key Universal Search result for coffee suppliers to optimise for, as a way for potential customers to hear about past customers’ experience.
Grind continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (903) — a decrease from 3,188 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘AI overview’ (362).
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 brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. For coffee suppliers, longtail keywords could include terms relating to the body and taste of the coffee, such as ‘pre-ground for espresso’ or ‘compostable decaffeinated capsules’.
Grind secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (857) — an increase from 823 previously. Grind also secured the most longtail keyword appearances for positions 4–10 (1,123) — a decrease from 1,502 previously. Brands should focus on one primary longtail keyword for each page rather than trying to target many unrelated phrases. A clear topic makes it easier for search engines to understand the content and rank it appropriately.
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 coffee suppliers, they'll want to use Facebook ads to show followers their personality and branding as well as showcase new product launches and provide updates.
We’ve included screenshots of Rave Coffee’s sponsored Facebook posts. This coffee supplier considered line space with their text, helping to make their posts more scannable for social media users.
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. Coffee suppliers should focus more on their social media engagement rate than the number of social media followers they have because engagement allows companies to assess if their followers are interacting with their posts.
Pact Coffee secured the most Facebook Likes (50,000), and Grind secured the most Instagram followers (245,300).
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 report, Rave Coffee flagged the most accessibility alerts (208). This quarter, Rave Coffee remains the brand to watch, though they’ve since decreased their total to 201 — a step in the right direction. Low contrast design can create a visually unpleasant experience, making a website feel outdated or poorly designed. Users often associate clarity and readability with professionalism. If a site is hard to read, it may damage trust in the brand.
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.