The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK Gold bullion dealers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK Gold bullion dealers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK Gold bullion dealers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national Gold bullion dealers, including BullionVault, BullionByPost, GOLD.co.uk, UKBullion.com, The Gold Bullion Company, Physical Gold, ATS Bullion, Atkinsons Bullion & Coins, The Royal Mint, Baird & Co., and Chards.
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 gold bullion dealers to win brand exposure locally, drive traffic online, and generate orders. 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 2026 WINNERS LEADERBOARD
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 gold bullion dealers 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 gold bullion providers or request a copy of the report for the full review.
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 click 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
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 Q2 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK gold bullion dealers was £11,147 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 £18. 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, UKBullion.com reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £4, and Chards reported has the highest at £91.
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, The Gold Bullion Company has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £41, and The Royal Mint has the highest at £251,000.
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.
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. Gold bullion dealers will want to ensure key pages, such as investment guides, are clearly signposted and available for users to visit.
In our previous report, Chards received the most 404 errors (392). This quarter, Chards remains the company to watch, and they’ve increased their total to 397. Though the increase might only be slight, this suggests they’re not following a plan to remove broken links from their website. Providing a search function on the website allows users to quickly find what they’re looking for if they encounter a 404 error. This simple feature can significantly improve usability and reduce frustration.
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 a luxury investment item, gold bullion dealers will want to ensure their sites are quick and give an excellent brand impression from every digital touchpoint.
In our last audit, Physical Gold received the slowest mobile site speed (21). This quarter, Physical Gold has increased their mobile site speed to 55 — no longer putting them at the bottom of the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 60 and 25, with UK Bullion.com the one to watch. A fast mobile site enhances readability. When text and images load without delay or shifting, users can focus on the content itself. Stable, quick-loading pages reduce frustration and make reading a more pleasant and uninterrupted experience.
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. Gold bullion dealers can look to engage with a digital PR specialist to identify any potential backlink opportunities and develop attention-grabbing campaigns that boost organic visibility.
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 audit, ATS Bullion received lowest DA score (20). This quarter, ATS Bullion remains the brand to watch, and they’ve since decreased their score to 16. Websites with higher domain authority often attract more organic traffic because search engines tend to prioritise them. This increased visibility can lead to more clicks, higher engagement, and ultimately more conversions.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
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.
Four brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with BullionVault.com seeing the biggest loss (-46%) — an improvement from -54% previously. On mobile, two brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with BullionVault.com seeing the biggest drop (-58%) — an improvement from -67% previously. Search engine algorithms may interpret mobile and desktop signals differently. Factors such as usability, speed, and responsiveness can have varying levels of importance depending on the device.
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. 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. 'People also ask' is a useful Universal Search opportunity for gold bullion dealers, who can address common queries about investing in gold bullion, capturing attention and traffic from those exploring the investment potential.
BullionByPost continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (14,176) — an increase from 11,606 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘people also ask’ (7,800).
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
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. Gold bullion dealers should pay particular attention to terms indicating a high-purchase intent as, though these may be low-traffic, they are more likely to secure sales.
BullionByPost secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (7,065) — an increase from 6,246. The Royal Mint continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (8,399) — an increase from 7,970. Websites can make the most of longtail keywords by focusing on specific user intent. Rather than targeting broad, highly competitive phrases, they should aim for more detailed queries that reflect exactly what users are searching for.
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 UK gold bullion providers, Facebook ads are an opportunity to ensure customers see the potential in investments and product availability.
We’ve included screenshots of The Royal Mint’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK gold bullion dealer should limit their text to three lines, as too much text can deter social media users from reading the content and engaging with it.
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 retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Sharing information about gold bullion investment is a great way of creating shareable content that is likely to pick up traction.
The Royal Mint secured the most Facebook Likes (471,500) and the most Instagram followers (82,100). Twitter was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. The Royal Mint received the highest total engagement rate (8,965) and the highest average engagement (59).
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 should be at the forefront of any brands strategy, particularly when asking users to place large amounts of trust in your service, such as investment.
In our previous report, Physical Gold received the most accessibility alerts (123). This quarter, Physical Gold remains the company to watch, and they’ve since increased their total to 134. Accessibility alerts can be disruptive because they interrupt the user’s flow. When someone is trying to read or navigate a page, an unexpected alert can break their concentration and make the experience feel frustrating.
GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 2026 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 Rory Tarplee.