The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK pet food suppliers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK pet food suppliers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK pet food suppliers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 UK pet food suppliers, including Tails.com, Lily's Kitchen, Butternut Box, KatKin, VioVet, Pure Pet Food, Different Dog, Trophy Pet Foods, Pooch and Mutt, Tuggs, Natures Menu, and Forthglade Natural Pet Food.
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 UK pet food suppliers to win brand exposure, drive traffic online and, for those with bricks and mortar locations, even increase in-store footfall. 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.
For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 UK pet food suppliers on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK pet food suppliers 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 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 Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK pet food suppliers was £7,497 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, Forthglade Natural Pet Food reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Pooch and Mutt has the highest at £68.
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, Natures Menu has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £5,640, and Tails.com has the highest at £193,000.
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. UK pet food suppliers should ensure all links direct to the promised page, and provide replacement links, if necessary.
In our previous audit, Pure Pet Food received the most 404 errors (910). This quarter, Pure Pet Food has reduced their 404 errors to 33 — demonstrating tremendous progress. Currently, the supplier to watch is Tails.com, reporting 107 404 errors. Custom 404 pages play an important role in reducing the harm caused when errors do occur. A helpful 404 page with clear navigation, search functionality, and guidance can keep users engaged. While it does not fix the error itself, it softens the negative impact on consumers.
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 pet food suppliers, they’ll want to ensure their website is mobile friendly to help increase their chances of customers remaining on their website. There are steps websites can take to increase site speed, too, such as compressing images and reducing page weight.
In our last audit, Tuggs received the slowest mobile site speed (25). This quarter, Tuggs has increased their mobile site speed to 33, moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 52 and 17, with Trophy Pet Foods reporting the slowest speed. The negative impact of slow mobile speed is often greater for first-time visitors. Without an established relationship with the brand, new users have little motivation to tolerate delays. A poor first impression caused by slow loading can prevent users from returning in the future.
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 is not gained through sponsored ads. All pet food suppliers should focus on securing high-quality backlinks by uploading link-worthy content in the form of infographics or articles containing original research.
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 last audit, Tuggs reported the lowest DA score (0). This quarter, Tuggs is no longer in bottom place, scoring 22 for their DA. Over-optimisation should also be avoided when trying to increase domain authority. Excessive keyword stuffing, unnatural anchor text, or forced internal links can harm content quality and user experience. Search engines increasingly prioritise natural, user-focused optimisation.
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. Pet owners will always be looking for pet food supplies, though the cost-of-living crisis might have impacted traffic levels for some brands as consumers look to products with a lower price tag.
Three brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Lily’s Kitchen receiving the biggest loss (-9%). On mobile, 1 brand received a drop in organic traffic, with VioVet reporting the biggest drop (-26%). Organic traffic on both mobile and desktop matters because it shapes first impressions before a user even lands on the site. Strong organic presence suggests relevance, trustworthiness, and consistency across devices. When organic visibility is weak, visitors may perceive the website as less credible or less worth their time.
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 site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For pet food suppliers, they’ll want to focus on results for ‘images’ and ‘reviews’.
Pooch and Mutt has now secured the most Universal Search appearances (15,395) — overtaking VioVet. The majority of their appearances this quarter came from ‘people also ask’ (6,400).
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 brand-new search terms as they enter Google’s index. UK pet food suppliers should follow a longtail keyword strategy and regularly assess the performance of each phrase and make adaptions if necessary.
Pooch and Mutt continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (2,473) — an increase from 2,467 previously. Pooch and Mutt also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (4,603) — an increase from 4,300 previously. Longtail keywords tend to be more descriptive and closely aligned with what users are actively looking for, which means content created around them is more likely to be relevant and genuinely useful. This relevance helps websites build stronger connections with their readers from the very first interaction.
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 provide an opportunity for pet food suppliers to reach new audiences and promote their latest products or discounts to pet owners.
We’ve included screenshots of Forthglade Natural Pet Food’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK pet food supplier should reduce their amount of text per post, as too much text can discourage social media users from engaging.
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. 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 ticket deals and availability.
Tails.com secured the most Facebook Likes (181,400), and Pooch and Mutt secured the most Instagram followers (134,400). Both Twitter and Facebook were the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Different Dog received the highest total engagement rate (5,547) and the highest average engagement (693).
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. Pet food suppliers should be particularly mindful of having an accessible site, as being poorly prepared for visually impaired users could not only lose customer confidence but look very poor for their brand!
In our previous report, Different Dog flagged the most accessibility alerts (119). This quarter, Different Dog has reduced their accessibility alerts to 12. Currently, Pooch and Mutt is the supplier to watch (78). Accessibility alerts can negatively affect a visitor’s emotional response to a website. Feeling excluded or overlooked can lead to disappointment or resentment towards the brand. These negative feelings can reduce the likelihood of return visits or recommendations.
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.