The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK supermarkets has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK supermarkets perform across the digital space.
The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK supermarkets has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK supermarkets perform across the digital space. It covers the largest 12 UK supermarkets, including Aldi, Iceland Foods, Lidl GB, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose & Partners, Morrisons, Asda, Co-op, The Food Warehouse, Ocado Group, and Farmfoods.
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 supermarkets to win brand exposure, generate online orders, and drive 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 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 supermarkets on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing supermarkets, 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 Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK supermarkets was £95,021 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 £7 . 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, both Sainsbury’s and Lidl GB reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £1, and Co-op has the highest at £19.
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, Lidl GB has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £1,150, and Iceland Foods has the highest at £1,760,000.
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. Supermarkets may find it challenging to stay on top of technical performance, due to the huge volume of product pages that they will need to maintain.
In our previous audit, Asda received the most 404 errors (163). This quarter, Asda has increased their 404 errors to 318. However, the supermarket to watch currently is Ocado Group, reporting a total of 2,813. Decreasing 404 errors protects consumers from frustration and lost time. A well-maintained website that proactively manages broken links feels more trustworthy and easier to use. By reducing 404 errors, websites improve overall user satisfaction and strengthen their relationship with 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. Managing large sites can prove challenging when needing to maintain mobile page speed performance, but supermarkets can mitigate this by using smaller images where possible.
In our last audit, Asda received the slowest mobile site speed (11). This quarter, Asda has decreased their mobile site speed to 10, keeping them the supermarket to watch. Slow mobile performance can also increase data usage for consumers. Pages that take longer to load or repeatedly reload can consume more mobile data. This is particularly problematic for users on limited data plans, creating a negative perception of the website.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance and helps create a reliable overall gage of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, ie. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Supermarkets have the opportunity to build their backlink profile and authority by capitalising on the huge range of products and brands that they stock. They can also run and take part in events within their local communities and for charities, helping them maintain their brand image, as well as securing links.
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, The Food Warehouse reported the lowest DA score (41). This quarter, The Food Warehouse has decreased their DA score to 36, continuing to make them the supermarket to watch. A clear and logical internal linking structure also supports domain authority growth. By linking related pages together, websites help search engines understand content relationships and importance. This approach ensures that authority is distributed effectively across key pages rather than concentrated in just a few areas.
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. The cost of living crisis and a drop in consumer confidence is having a wide impact across all non-essential sectors, as customers are cutting back on treats and expendable items.
Five brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Lidl GB receiving the biggest loss (-13%). On mobile, 3 brands received a drop in organic traffic, with Iceland Foods reporting the biggest drop (-9%). Technical SEO improvements can significantly boost organic visibility. Fixing crawl errors, broken links, and improper redirects ensures search engines can access content efficiently. A technically clean website allows search engines to index pages accurately and rank them appropriately.
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. 'Reviews', 'Local Pack', and 'People Also Ask' results are all useful results for supermarkets to target, helping them deliver additional information, directly on the SERP.
Tesco continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (482,775) — an increase from 423,493 previously. The majority of their appearances this quarter came from ‘images’ (386,500).
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. Supermarkets showing for more long-tail keywords than their competitors can expect to scoop up traffic from lower-funnel search terms that are more likely to lead to a conversion or sale.
Tesco continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (131,260) — a decrease from 133,784 previously. Tesco also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (210,386) — a decrease from 222,097 previously. A key advantage of longtail keywords is reduced competition. Broad keywords are often dominated by large, established websites, making it difficult for smaller or newer sites to rank. Longtail keywords provide an opportunity to compete more effectively in search results, allowing websites to gain visibility and authority in niche areas where larger competitors may not be focusing their efforts.
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 supermarkets, they can use Facebook ads to drive in-store and online footfall in high-competition areas, along with ensuring visibility on key events and product lines.
We’ve included screenshots of Sainsbury’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK supermarket should reduce the amount of lines of text per post to help make their content more scannable.
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. Supermarkets can draw on content across their full range of products, using recipe content, home advice, and seasonal product lines to appeal to topical subjects and drive engagement.
Both Tesco and Aldi secured the most Facebook Likes (2.6m), and Aldi secured the most Instagram followers (901,400). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Iceland Foods received the highest total engagement rate (106,624) and the highest average engagement (772).
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. Grocery shopping is essential for everyone, so supermarkets should ensure their sites are accessible and do not exclude customers with additional accessibility needs.
In our previous report, Waitrose & Partners flagged the most accessibility alerts (77). This quarter, Waitrose & Partners has decreased their accessibility alerts to 71. Websites should test updates on both mobile and desktop, using screen readers and keyboard navigation where possible. This ensures fixes genuinely improve real-world accessibility.
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.