The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK lighting brands has just been published. Learn how these top 11 brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK lighting brands has just been published. It covers the largest 11 UK decorative lighting brands, including LampShopOnline, Lighting Direct, Lights4fun, Litecraft.co.uk, Pagazzi Lighting, där Lighting Limited, Pooky Lights, John Cullen Lighting, Original BTC, lights&lamps, and KES Lighting.
The research illuminates who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other lighting brands to win brand exposure, drive traffic online, and increase both orders and the acquisition of new stock. 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 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 leader board*
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 11 lighting brands 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 top and poorest-performing lighting 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 under-perform. 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 lighting brands was £9,471 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 £11. 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, Litecraft.co.uk reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £2, and Original BTC has the highest at £71.
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, Original BTC has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £142, and Poooky Lights has the highest at £262,000.
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. UK decorative lighting brands should see the fewest number of errors on their website to prevent consumers from becoming frustrated. One area brands should look out for is 4xx errors, and they should assess for any broken links and update them as soon as possible to prevent sending consumers down a dead end.
In our previous audit, Lighting Direct received the most 404 errors (9). This quarter, Lighting Direct has increased their 404 errors to 18. However, the lighting brand to currently watch is Pagazzi Lighting (a total of 372). External link monitoring is another proactive strategy for reducing dead-end journeys. When other websites link to outdated or incorrect URLs, identifying these links allows site owners to create redirects or request updates, protecting users from landing on broken pages.
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. All brands should aim for the fastest site speed to prevent consumers growing impatient and then leaving their website. One of the best ways to do this is by utilising a mobile-friendly theme.
In our previous report, LampShopOnline received the slowest mobile site speed (1). This quarter, LampShopOnline continues to sit at the bottom of the leaderboard, decreasing their mobile site speed to 9. A responsive, fast mobile site improves accessibility for users with older devices or limited storage. By reducing load demands, websites become usable for a wider audience.
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. UK lighting brands should focus on creating shareable content that websites will want to direct their audience to.
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, Litecraft.co.uk reported the lowest DA score (29). This quarter, Litecraft.co.uk continues to score 29 for their DA, keeping them at the bottom of the leaderboard. A strong domain authority increases the value of backlinks and partnerships. Reputable sites are more willing to collaborate, link, and engage with authoritative domains, creating a positive cycle of trust and visibility. This helps websites grow their digital footprint naturally and sustainably.
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. UK decorative lighting brands have an opportunity to gain organic traffic by using an effective keyword strategy — and longtail keywords are a great way to stand out from competitors. This requires researching keywords its target audience uses as well as undergoing competitor research.
In our last report, Litecraft.co.uk reported the lowest DA score (29). This quarter, Litecraft.co.uk continues to score 29 for their DA, keeping them at the bottom of the leaderboard. A strong domain authority increases the value of backlinks and partnerships. Reputable sites are more willing to collaborate, link, and engage with authoritative domains, creating a positive cycle of trust and visibility. This helps websites grow their digital footprint naturally and sustainably.
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, and a site can appear for Universal Search results without being strong in standard rankings. UK decorative lighting brands will want to ensure they have a strong performance for 'reviews' and ‘images’ to help increase their online rankings.
Lights4fun continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (10,453) — a decrease from 10,511 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (9,700).
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. UK decorative lighting brands can optimise their keyword strategy by incorporating phrases of 3+ words, such as ‘autumn lighting decorations’ or ‘cosy indoor lights.’
Lights4fun continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (5,536) — an increase from 5,866 previously. Lighting Direct also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (4,578) — an increase from 4,111 previously. Using long-tail keywords naturally within high-quality content is a proactive best practice. Rather than forcing keywords into text, integrating them organically improves user experience and search performance at the same time.
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. Facebook ads are an opportunity for motorhome and caravan retailers to share their latest launches to entice new customers.
We’ve included screenshots of Lights4fun’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK lighting brand included personalised text to present the brand’s character — helping to develop a closer relationship with their consumers.
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. UK decorative lighting brands should focus on building a trustworthy, close relationship with its online followers, and it’s important that they post content regularly to help with this.
Lights4fun secured the most Facebook Likes (71,500), and Pooky Lights has secured the most Instagram followers (299,400). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Pagazzi Lighting received the highest total engagement rate (5,931) and the highest average engagement (659).
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. Brands should focus on reducing accessibility alerts, errors, and contrast errors to improve readability for those using a screen reader.
In our previous report, Lights4fun flagged the most accessibility alerts (462). This quarter, Lights4fun has dramatically reduced their accessibility alerts to 53, no longer making them the brand to watch. Currently, Pagazzi Lighting, is the one to watch, with a total of 205 accessibility alerts. Proactively monitoring accessibility after updates and releases prevents new issues from going unnoticed. Every content change, plugin update, or redesign should be followed by accessibility checks to ensure compliance is maintained.
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.
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