The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK protein and sports nutrition brands has just been published. Learn how the top 11 UK Protein and sports nutrition brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for UK protein and sports nutrition brands has just been published. It covers the largest 11 national protein and sports nutrition brands, including Myprotein, MaxiNutrition, PhD Nutrition, Grenade, Bulk ™, Innermost, Protein Works, HERMOSA, Form, Optimum Nutrition, and Science in Sport.
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 protein and sports nutrition brands to win brand exposure, drive online views, and win 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 below or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 11 protein and sports nutrition 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 best and poorest-performing UK protein and sports nutrition brands or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand 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 & 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 protein and sports nutrition brands was £29,564 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 £15. 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, Myprotein reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £3, and Form reported the highest at £72.
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, HERMOSA has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £21, and Bulk ™ has the highest at £874,000.
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 protein and sports nutrition brands, care should be taken that the removal of any products does not impact existing links, such as from blog posts, category pages, or alternate product recommendations.
In our previous report, MaxiNutrition flagged the most 404 errors (266). This quarter, MaxiNutrition remains the brand to watch, though they’ve since slightly reduced their total to 226. External websites may still link to outdated content long after a page has changed. Redirecting older URLs to relevant new pages helps maintain referral traffic and prevents visitors from reaching a 404 error page.
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. In an increasingly competitive market, geared towards high performance in exercise and sports, protein and sports nutrition brands will want to ensure their sites are also quick, easy to use, and give a positive impression of their brand from every touchpoint.
In our previous audit, Innermost reported the slowest mobile site speed (1). This quarter, Innermost remains the brand to watch, though they’ve since slightly increased their score to 2 — demonstrating an awareness. Mobile users are often browsing while travelling, multitasking, or using mobile data. Because of this, speed becomes even more important, as people may have limited patience or weaker internet connections when accessing websites on their phones.
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. Protein and sports nutrition brands should be continually pushing to improve their DA, and could collaborate with leading fitness publications and bloggers in order to build this authority.
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. Previously, HERMOSA reported the lowest DA score (29). This quarter, HERMOSA continues to sit at the bottom of the scoreboard, and they’ve since decreased their DA score by one point to 28. High domain authority can contribute to stronger lead generation and conversion opportunities. When users trust a website and can easily discover it through search results, they’re often more willing to complete purchases, enquiries, or sign-ups. This can positively affect overall business growth.
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 sports and fitness remaining an ever-growing sector, we expect protein and sports nutrition brands to be able to capitalise on these growth opportunities.
Two brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with HERMOSA seeing the biggest loss (-77%) — an improvement from -80% previously. On mobile, two brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Science in Sport also seeing the biggest loss (-32%). Desktop visitors are usually more likely to engage with in-depth navigation menus and multiple content categories. Mobile users, however, prefer simplified structures, so cluttered menus can reduce usability and limit organic performance on smartphones.
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 brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Protein and sports nutrition brands should be utilising all universal search features as their customers will be interested to see how previous customers have found their experience via 'reviews', 'FAQs', and 'people also ask'.
Myprotein continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (11,736) — a decrease from 14,460 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (7,200).
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 brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Protein and sports nutrition brands should look at high-conversion potential terms when expanding their longtail keyword portfolio, in order to improve, not only general visibility and traffic, but sales stemming from organic traffic.
Myprotein continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (4,214) — an increase from 4,154 previously. Myprotein also continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (7,668) — a decrease from 7,676 previously. Longtail keywords can support content creation by providing inspiration for articles, guides, and landing pages. Each keyword phrase represents a specific topic that can be explored in depth to meet user needs.
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 adverts are an opportunity for protein and sports nutrition brands to expand the reach of their organic content, and highlight new and key products.
We’ve included screenshots of Form’s sponsored Facebook posts. Using videos on Facebook can make a brand feel more human and approachable. Behind-the-scenes clips, interviews, or casual updates help audiences connect with the people behind the company, which can strengthen customer loyalty and encourage long-term engagement.
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 that achieves traffic over a long period of time. Protein and sports nutrition brands can create content across the full spectrum of fitness and sports content - topics which are likely to engage a social media audience and win social shares.
Myprotein secured the most Facebook Likes (2.5m) — the same as previously. Myprotein also secured the most Instagram followers (1.2m) — the same as previously. Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Myprotein received the highest total engagement rate (13,432), and Grenade secured the highest average engagement (408).
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. Protein and sports nutrition brands, which are likely to sell many similar products with only slight differences, must ensure that their site is clear for users with any vision deficiencies to navigate.
In our previous report, Protein Works received the most accessibility alerts (283). This quarter, Protein Works has reduced their total to 141, moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the band with the most accessibility alerts is Innermost (227). Too many alerts can interrupt the natural reading order of a webpage for screen reader users. This may force them to repeatedly listen to information they don’t need, making navigation inefficient.
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.