The Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK EV charging companies has just been published. Learn how 10 of the largest UK EV charging companies perform across the digital space.

The latest Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK EV charging companies has just been published. It covers 10 of the largest national EV charging companies, including Pod Point, InstaVolt, Osprey Charging, Egg, bp pulse, IONITY, GRIDSERVE, Wallbox Chargers, PropCert and Plug Me In.  

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 EV charging companies to win brand exposure locally, secure online views, and ultimately drive the installation and usage of their charging points. 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 Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q2 2024 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 10 EV charging companies on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing EV charging companies, or request a copy of the report for the full review.

Request the report

What The Industry Research Report Covers

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.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

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.

Technical Website Compliance

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 EV charging companies, having an easy-to-navigate site is essential for EV drivers needing to locate charging options for their vehicles and particular care should be taken of the pathways to key pages, such as charging station locators.

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

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 ensuring your site is technically compliant, EV charging companies must ensure their site experience is fast and efficient (just as their chargers should be!).

For Q2 2024, the mobile site speed ranged between 60 and 6, with Wallbox Chargers reporting the lowest score. This EV charging company can increase its mobile site speed by keeping its site lightweight and opting for a simple design over one with heaps of content and CTAs on a single page.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

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. As the market for products relating to electric vehicles widens, brands such as those in the EV charging sector must ensure they're building authority early, to land them in good stead as the industry develops. 

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. The DA for this quarter ranged between 74 and 28, with PropCert reporting the lowest DA. This EV charging company can increase its DA score by acquiring backlinks from a variety of high-authoritative sites. While it didn’t report the fewest number of backlinks or backlinks from the fewest domains, it was still at the bottom of the leaderboard, and improvements to its backlinks will help with its DA score.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. In the case of EV charging companies, these could look like "EV charge point near me", "home EV charge point installation", or "office EV charge point installation". 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.

In our previous audit, 6 of the EV charging companies reported a loss in organic mobile traffic YoY, with Egg flagging a 71% loss. In this quarter, Egg still saw the most significant loss in organic mobile traffic, though this wasn’t as much as the last quarter (-66%). On the other hand, Plug Me In saw a 6,417% increase in organic mobile traffic, and this was due to an URL update, allowing its target audience to discover its website easier through search engines.

Universal Search Opportunity

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. For emerging sectors such as EV charging, brands can use educational content to appear for these 'position zero' results, such as by optimising for 'People Also Ask' and 'Image' results with quick answers. 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.

Pod Point remains at the top of the leaderboard for the highest Universal Search appearances (6,619) — an increase from the previous quarter. Plug Me In reported zero appearances for both ‘People Also Ask’ and ‘Images’ — categories that would help EV charging companies to appear in SERPs and increase their rankings on search engines.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. This builds on what we've discussed within our Organic Performance section, as EV charging companies will want to ensure they have key, transactional phrases within their approach. 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. EV charging companies should look to high-purchase intent phrases, such as 'installation next week' to secure traffic from users most likely to enquire.

Once again, Pod Point saw the most longtail keyword appearances (1,304 in positions 3) — an increase from the previous quarter. Companies can increase their longtail keyword appearances by ensuring they’re incorporating keywords throughout their website and adopting a keyword strategy so they’re using phrases their target audience type into search engines.

Facebook Adverts

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 brands that operate both at home and within the public, such as EV charge points, Facebook ads are an opportunity to build brand visibility and recognition.

We’ve included 3 examples of IONITY’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK EV charging company should reduce the amount of text with each sponsored post to increase the chances of scrollers from engaging with their posts. 

Top Social Shares & Content

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. EV charging companies can build on their content strategy for boosting visibility on 'people also ask' results and longtail keywords to identify trending topics that will be more likely to be shared on social media.

Wallbox has the highest engagement (3,789). It’s important that companies assess their engagement rates to check whether their social media followers are interacting with their posts. Brands can increase their engagement rate by asking their followers questions and creating content that isn’t too sales-y.

Website Readability & Accessibility

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. Accessibility must be a consideration for brands in any sector - even when it doesn't seem like the most pressing concern, such as in the wider automotive industry.

Wallbox has the highest engagement (3,789). It’s important that companies assess their engagement rates to check whether their social media followers are interacting with their posts. Brands can increase their engagement rate by asking their followers questions and creating content that isn’t too sales-y.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 2024 REPORT

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 Mike Movassaghi.

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