The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK health insurance providers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK health insurance providers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK health insurance providers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national health insurance providers, including  Bupa, Circle Health Group, Spire Healthcare, Nuffield Health, AXA UK, WPA Healthcare, Benenden Health, BHSF, Sovereign Healthcare, Vitality, Westfield Health, and HCA Healthcare 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 health insurance providers to win brand exposure, increase online enquiries, and generate more policy sign-ups. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and will identify the barriers that may be reducing your ability to optimise digital performance. 

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.

Q1 2026 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 health insurance providers on, check out our quick-look table below;

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

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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.

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 Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK health insurance providers was £123,608 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 £36. 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 layers. 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, BHSF reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Vitality has the highest at £110. 

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, Westfield Health has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £627, and Vitality has the highest at £4,920,000.

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. Health insurance providers will want to ensure prospective customers can easily access key pages, such as pricing information, policy coverage details, and plan comparisons.

In our previous audit, Vitality received the most 404 errors (111). This quarter, Vitality remains the provider to watch this quarter, and they’ve since increased their total to 147. Broken links leading to 404 pages can damage a website’s internal linking structure, which is crucial for SEO performance. Internal links help search engines understand site hierarchy and distribute link equity across pages. When these links point to non-existent URLs, that authority is effectively lost, reducing the ranking potential of key pages and weakening the overall SEO strength of the site.

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. For health insurance providers, they'll want to provide an excellent customer experience at every touchpoint, giving the impression of quick service from the moment a user steps virtual foot on their site.

In our last audit, AXA UK received the slowest mobile site speed (22). This quarter, AXA UK has increased their mobile site speed to 30, moving them up the leader board. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 66 and 25, with Spire Healthcare reporting the slowest score. A fast mobile site improves the effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns. When users click on ads and land on slow pages, budgets are wasted through drop-offs and poor conversions. Fast landing pages maximise return on ad spend by keeping users engaged and encouraging action.

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. Health insurance companies should consider what topics they can cover that are most likely to be picked up by external sites and gain backlinks - something engaging with a digital PR specialist will help with.

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 previous audit, Sovereign Healthcare reported the lowest DA score (41). This quarter, Sovereign Healthcare remains at the bottom of the leader board, slightly increasing their DA score to 42. High domain authority improves the effectiveness of all SEO activities. Technical improvements, content optimisation, and keyword strategies deliver stronger results when built on an authoritative domain. Without authority, SEO efforts often produce limited returns, making marketing investments less efficient.

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. With growing concerns over NHS waiting times, and a need to access additional services, we'd expect to see some uplift within the private health insurance sector.

Five brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Westfield Health receiving the biggest loss (-13%). On mobile, only Bupa received a drop in organic traffic (-4%). Different audience demographics also influence device-based traffic volumes. Some user groups prefer desktop browsing for work-related research, while others rely on mobile for everyday searches. These audience habits create natural variations in organic traffic across devices.

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. Results such as 'people also ask' give health insurance providers the opportunity to answer queries from potential policyholders directly from the SERP, even if they aren't appearing in position one.

Bupa continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (99,130) — an increase from 31,898 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘people also ask’ (33,800).

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. For health insurance providers, they'll want to pay particular attention to phrases including high conversion intent terms, such as 'instant access', 'includes dentist', or potentially 'pre-existing condition coverage' (if this is something they can offer).

Bupa continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (27,659) — an increase from 27,575 previously. Bupa also secures the most appearances for positions 4–10 (65,798) — an increase from 66,285 previously. Proactively optimising headings, subheadings, and page structure helps long-tail keywords perform better. Clear structure improves readability for users and helps search engines understand exactly what each page is about.

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.

We’ve included screenshots of Benenden Health’s sponsored Facebook posts. The best way to increase engagement on a sponsored Facebook post is to lead with value, not promotion. Content that educates, entertains, or solves a problem feels useful rather than sales-driven, encouraging users to interact naturally.

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. Health insurance providers can look to create content across the full breadth of health and lifestyle, a sector where content is widely shared as users turn to online sources to guide changes in eating, exercise, and other lifestyle habits.

Vitality secured the most Facebook Likes (94,800) and the most Instagram followers (99,500). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Bupa received the highest total engagement rate (80,276) and the highest average engagement (258).

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, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Any website operating in the healthcare space must be particularly conscious of accessibility, from both a branding and potential customer perspective.

In our previous report, Westfield Health flagged the most accessibility alerts (92).This quarter, Westfield Health remains the provider to watch, and they’ve since increased their total number of accessibility alerts to 103. Creating clear accessibility guidelines and standards for the website helps maintain consistency. Documented rules for headings, alt text, contrast, and navigation ensure that everyone follows the same accessible approach, reducing recurring alerts.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q1 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.