The Q4 2025 benchmarking report for UK energy providers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK energy providers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q4 2025 benchmarking report for UK energy providers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national Energy providers, including British Gas, EDF, E.ON, ScottishPower, OVO Energy, Octopus Energy, Utility Warehouse, Shell Energy, npower Business Solutions, SSE Renewables, Utilita Energy and Green Energy UK.
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 energy providers to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate new customer enquiries. 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 Q4 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 energy providers on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing energy 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 Q4 2025, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK energy providers was £109,757, 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 £281 . 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, npower Business Solutions reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Shell Energy has the highest at £3,060.
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, Utilita Energy has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £265, and British Gas has the highest at £2,130,000.
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. Energy providers will want to ensure key information, such as rates and quote generators, are clearly signposted and not blocked off by broken links.
In our previous audit, Ovo Energy reported the most 404 errors (275). This quarter, Ovo Energy has decreased their 404 errors to 40, demonstrating they’ve been monitoring and updating their website. Currently, the brand to watch is EDF, with a total of 188 404 errors. 404 errors can cause missed marketing opportunities. When backlinks, ads, or social media posts lead users to missing pages, that traffic—and potential conversions—are instantly lost. Regularly monitoring and fixing 404 errors helps ensure that all user journeys remain smooth, keeping both visitors and search engines satisfied.
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. As with technical site compliance, energy providers will want to ensure their site is optimised for mobile, by ensuring their website theme is suitable to use on a smaller screen.
In our previous report, Green Energy UK flagged the slowest mobile site speed (28). This quarter, Green Energy UK has increased their mobile site speed to 34, moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed ranged between 71 and 7, with Octopus Energy reporting the slowest score. Monitoring mobile site speed helps brands keep up with changes in technology, browser updates, and device performance. Even small updates to a website can unexpectedly impact load times. Regular checks ensure everything remains optimised and functioning properly on modern mobile devices.
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. Energy providers would benefit from engaging with a digital PR specialist, who can identify opportunities to reclaim backlinks, and create engaging content that national press will want to share.
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 last report, Shell Energy received the lowest DA score (49). This quarter, Shell Energy has slightly decreased their DA score by 1 point to a total of 48. However, the energy provider with the lowest DA currently is Green Energy UK, scoring 39. Websites can increase domain authority by focusing on long-term consistency rather than quick wins. Domain authority naturally grows as you publish quality content, earn genuine backlinks, and maintain strong site performance over time. A steady, strategic approach yields far better results than attempting shortcuts or artificial link schemes.
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. Fluctuating energy prices will have consumers shopping around to try and identify the best price. Therefore, energy providers must have a strong organic strategy to capitalise on this restless consumer base.
Ten brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Shell Energy receiving the biggest loss (-92%). On mobile, 6 brands saw a drop in organic traffic, with Shell Energy receiving the biggest loss (-94%). A fast, technically sound website attracts more organic traffic because search engines prioritise high-performing sites. Brands should optimise loading times, compress images, and ensure server stability. Quick page speeds improve the overall user experience on both desktop and mobile devices.
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 site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Optimising for 'people also ask' results is a great way to build brand awareness and confidence directly from the SERP, as energy providers can provide much-needed answers before users have set virtual foot on their site
British Gas continues to report the most Universal Search appearances (16,355) — a decrease from 17,843 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘people also ask’ (7,900).
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. Energy suppliers should look for opportunities to use longtail keywords throughout their website, as these phrases have a low-competitive, high-conversion rate.
British Gas continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (11,623) — an increase from 11,329 previously. British Gas also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (17,226) — an increase from 17,133 previously. Longtail keywords provide insight into user intent, revealing what people are genuinely trying to achieve. By targeting these specific phrases, brands improve engagement metrics like time on page and reduced bounce rates.
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.
We’ve included screenshots of ScottishPower’s sponsored Facebook posts. This energy provider included vertical videos, showing they tailored their content to social media users on a mobile.
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. Content such as energy-saving tips and advice will be engaging, topical, and most likely to be shared by social media users.
Shell Energy secured the most Facebook Likes (10m) and the most Instagram followers (478,500). Twitter was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Octopus Energy received the highest total engagement rate (147,750) and the highest average engagement (574).
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, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. As energy is an essential need for any customer, energy providers must ensure their sites are universally accessible.
In our previous audit, EDF Energy received the most accessibility alerts (255). This quarter, EDF Energy has since dramatically reduced their accessibility alerts to 6, no longer putting them at the bottom of the leaderboard. Currently, the energy provider to watch is npower Business Solutions, flagging 114 accessibility alerts. Reducing accessibility alerts is important because it directly improves the user experience for people with disabilities. An accessible website is easier to read, navigate, and interact with, which reduces frustration and improves engagement. This helps brands build trust with a wider audience.
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.