The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK veterinary practices has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK driving schools perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK veterinary practices has just been published. It covers the largest 12 UK veterinary practices, including IVC Evidensia UK, VetPartners, CVS Group, Medivet & Partners, Linnaeus, Vets Now, Goddard Veterinary Group, PDSA, Blue Cross, DNA Vetcare, White Cross Vets, and The Pet Vet.
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 veterinary practices to win brand exposure locally, secure online views, and ultimately drive the pet owner to make an appointment. 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 UK veterinary practices 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 veterinary practices, 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 & 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 veterinary practices was £11,246 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 £13. 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, Goddard Veterinary Group reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £0, and Blue Cross reported has the highest at £32 .
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, IVC Evidensia UK has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £381, and Blue Cross has the highest at £475,000.
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. Veterinary practices will want to avoid directing their customers to dead ends, as this can increase bounce rates and potentially lead them to resort to competitors instead.
Linnaeus received the most 404 errors (1,467). For consumers who are less confident with technology, 404 errors can be particularly confusing. They may not understand why the page is unavailable or how to navigate away from the error, which can lead to them abandoning the website altogether.
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. Consumers today expect instant access to information, especially when browsing on mobile devices. With shorter attention spans and constant access to alternatives, users are unlikely to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load.
The mobile site speed ranged between 84 and 19, with IVC Evidensia UK reporting the slowest speed and The Pet Vet scoring the highest. Server performance plays a major role in mobile site speed. Websites should use reliable hosting, enable caching, and consider using content delivery networks to serve content closer to users. Faster server response times improve the overall mobile browsing experience.
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. Domain authority is a comparative metric developed to estimate how likely a website is to rank in search engine results. It’s not used directly by search engines but instead aggregates multiple SEO signals into a single score, typically on a scale from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the stronger the perceived ability of the domain to perform well in search rankings.
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. White Cross Vets received the lowest DA score (31), and Blue Cross reported the highest (79). Spam signals and toxic backlinks can negatively impact domain authority. Links from suspicious or low-quality sources may reduce the credibility of a domain. Tools that calculate domain authority often include spam detection algorithms to account for this.
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. Mobile and desktop organic traffic can vary, as desktop users typically have more time compared to mobile users who are on the go, meaning the level of detail and layout they’re looking for can have different goals.
Four companies reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Linnaeus seeing the biggest drop (-28%). On mobile, eight companies reported a decrease, with Linnaeus seeing the biggest loss (-75%). Local intent is far more prominent on mobile devices. Many users rely on their phones to search for nearby businesses, directions, or services. As a result, websites that are optimised for local SEO may see higher organic traffic from mobile compared to desktop, where location-based searches are less dominant.
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 retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For veterinary practices, they'll want to ensure they're appearing for ‘local pack’ and ‘people also ask’ results.
PDSA secured the most Universal Search appearances (55,369) — with the majority of their appearances coming from ‘people also ask’ (22,700).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. This builds on what we've discussed within our Organic Performance section, as EV charging companies will want to ensure they have key, transactional phrases within their approach. 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. Longtail keywords are generally less competitive than shorter, generic terms. This makes it easier for smaller or newer websites to rank in search engine results, helping them gain visibility without needing the same level of authority as larger, established competitors.
PDSA secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (14,934) and position 4–10 (17,397). Longtail keywords can attract highly targeted organic traffic. Instead of bringing in a broad audience with varying intentions, longtail keywords help draw in users who are specifically interested in a particular product, service, or topic.
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 to build brand visibility and recognition as well as update their current customers in their latest services and announcements.
We’ve included screenshots of Blue Cross’ sponsored Facebook posts. This UK veterinary practice utilised posts that target people’s empathy, allowing them to share the core root of their practice’s mission.
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. Veterinary practices should utilise a content strategy that isn’t solely on selling their services but also centered about building a strong relationship with their current customer base.
Blue Cross secured the most Facebook Likes (385,900) and the most Instagram followers (97,000). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Vets Now received the highest total engagement rate (3,645) and the highest average engagement (135).
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. Brands will want to ensure that their websites have as few accessibility alerts and contrast errors as possible to help with readability.
Linnaeus reported the most accessibility alerts (57), and The Pet Vet flagged the most contrast errors (39). Accessibility alerts highlight missed opportunities to create inclusive digital experiences. Instead of relying on alerts to flag problems, websites should aim to proactively design with accessibility in mind. By doing so, they can provide smoother, more enjoyable experiences for all users and avoid the negative impacts associated with these alerts.
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.