The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK insurance companies has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK insurance companies perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK insurance companies has just been published. It covers the 12 largest national insurance companies, including Footman James, Lancaster Insurance, Heritage, Performance Direct, Sterling, Brightside, Classics, Keith Michaels, Adrian Flux, Kingfisher, Autonet, and Carole Nash.
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 insurance companies to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate policy enquiries & sign-ups. 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.
For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 insurance companies 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 insurance companies or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of a 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 and 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 Q2 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK car insurance companies was £45,362 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 £14. 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, Heritage reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £3, and Autonet reported the highest at £41.
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, Heritage has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £93, and Adrian Flux has the highest at £2,500,000.
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. For insurance companies, having an easy-to-navigate site is essential for consumers looking into insurance companies and particular care should be taken of the pathways to key pages, such as different insurance options, enquiry forms, and FAQs.
In our previous audit, Footman James received the most 404 errors (572). This quarter, Footman James has made immense progress to reduce their total to 28, moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the company with the most 404 errors is Brightside (173). Monitoring 404 pages helps brands identify broken internal links that may be disrupting navigation. Fixing these issues ensures users can move smoothly through the website without unnecessary interruptions.
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 will see a significant improvement in your overall conversion rates. Insurance companies need to ensure their customers have a positive experience on their mobile site, as these brands will want to ensure they're giving an impression of being fast and reliable at each touchpoint with potential customers.
In our previous audit, Heritage was the brand to watch for mobile site speed (16). This quarter, Heritage remains at the bottom of the leaderboard, and they’ve since decreased their score to 13, suggesting they’re not optimising their website for speed. Speed improvements can positively impact brand perception. A responsive, fast-loading site suggests professionalism and attention to detail, which can build trust with users.
Domain authority (DA) 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. Insurance companies should be continually pushing to improve their DA - they can do this by sharing their finance plans and current offers, or collaborating with relevant companies on joint content projects that may win them backlinks.
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 previous report, Classics received the lowest DA score (0.4). This quarter, Classics continues to report 0.4, keeping them at the bottom of the leaderboard. A good domain authority score can make link-building efforts more effective. Other websites are generally more willing to link to sources they perceive as authoritative.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for core, 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. Insurance companies are in a niche group where ‘popularity’ never changes - everyone will always need car insurance, therefore these companies are competing for what should be a consistent pool of traffic. That being said, they must ensure they have a strong organic search strategy in place to capture traffic from changing search terms, to tap into topical needs.
Five brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Performance Direct seeing the biggest loss (-77%). On mobile, four brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Heritage also seeing the biggest loss (-64%). Differences in tracking and attribution can make mobile and desktop traffic appear inconsistent. Cross-device journeys aren’t always perfectly captured, meaning some organic interactions may be underreported or misattributed.
Google Universal Search Results are 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. Insurance companies should be utilising all universal search features as potential customers will be interested to see how previous customers have found their experience via 'reviews', 'FAQs' and 'people also ask'.
Adrian Flux continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (8,145) — a decrease from 12,261 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (5,200).
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 new search terms as they enter Google’s index. There are many longtail keyword options insurance companies could be using such as ‘best car insurance companies’ and ‘who to use for car insurance’.
Adrian Flux continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (1,382) — an increase from 1,114 previously. Adrian Flux also continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (4,873) — an increase from 4,333 previously. Longtail keywords can reveal emerging trends or niche interests that broader terms might miss. By tapping into these, websites can stay ahead of competitors and capture new audiences.
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 insurance companies, Facebook ads are an opportunity to ensure customers see upcoming events and ticket availability.
We’ve included screenshots of Adrian Flux’s sponsored Facebook posts. Analysing performance metrics is crucial for ongoing improvement. Reviewing data such as reach, engagement, and click-through rates helps brands understand what works and what does not, allowing them to refine their content strategy over time.
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 a long period of time. It's great for your engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Social media could be especially useful for sharing information about different financing options and special offers.
Carole Nash secured the most Facebook Likes (171,200) — an increase from 167,100 previously. Adrian Flux secured the most Instagram followers (17,700) — an increase from 17,200 previously. Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Carole Nash received the highest total engagement rate (953) and the highest average engagement (8).
Around 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. All insurance companies need to ensure their website is accessible for all customers looking at car insurance options.
In our previous report, Footman James received the most accessibility alerts (147). This quarter, Footman James has made great progress, reducing their total to 21. Currently, the company with the most accessibility alerts is Lancaster Insurance (67). Although accessibility alerts are intended to support usability, their effectiveness often depends on how thoughtfully they’re implemented. Well-designed alerts are usually clear, easy to dismiss, and genuinely helpful, while poorly designed ones can become distracting or interrupt the browsing experience unnecessarily.
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.