The Q4 2024 benchmarking report for UK protein and sports nutrition brands has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK Protein and sports nutrition brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q4 2024 benchmarking report for UK protein and sports nutrition brands has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national protein and sports nutrition brands, including Myprotein, MaxiNutrition, PhD Nutrition, Grenade, foodspring, 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 Q4 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. 
Q4 2024 WINNERS LEADERBOARD
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 protein and sports nutrition brands on, check out our quick-look table below; 
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.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
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.
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 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.
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. 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, PhD Nutrition flagged 103 4xx errors, which it’s increased to 429 this quarter. However, Science in Sport is the brand to watch, with 576 4xx errors. This brand should ensure that all broken links are amended by either updating them with replacement links or removing them. Otherwise, there’s a risk that users could become frustrated and potentially leave the website.
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. 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, PhD Nutrition reported the lowest mobile site speed (21). This quarter, PhD Nutrition still has a site speed of 21 — the lowest of all brands. They should ensure all images are sized proportionately and consider using a responsive mobile theme. A fast mobile site can improve the user experience by reducing wait times, which can lead to increased conversion rates.
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. 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’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA rating for this quarter ranged between 76 and 28, with HERMOSA continuing to report the lowest score. This protein and sports nutrition brand received the fewest backlinks and backlinks from the fewest domains. They should consider posting content to their blog page more frequently to increase the chances of receiving backlinks from authority companies with a similar target audience.
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. 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.
Six of the brands reported a decline in organic traffic on desktop, with PhD Nutrition flagging the biggest loss (-28%). Meanwhile, 8 of the brands saw a decline on mobile, with HERMOSA reported the biggest loss (-65%). With this data in mind, brands should ensure that they have a mobile-friendly website theme so they’re catering to mobile users.
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 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 report the highest Universal Search appearances (38,101) — a reduction from 42,266 in our previous report. The majority of these came from ‘reviews’. On the other hand, HERMOSA reported the fewest overall Universal Search appearances (60) and should reach out to past customers and ask them to leave an online review.
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 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 remains the brand to beat, with 3,462 longtail keywords in position 3 and 7,359 in positions 4–10. HERMOSA remains at the bottom of the leaderboard, with 9 appearances for position 3 and 11 appearances for positions 4–10. This brand should assess its keyword strategy to ensure they’re using phrases their target audience uses.
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. For UK protein and sports nutrition brands, Facebook ads are an opportunity to increase sales by targeting fitness enthusiasts.
We’ve included examples of Bulk’s ™ sponsored post. While it’s a good tactic for brands to test which text/images receives the most engagement, they should also refrain from repetitive posts, which could deter social media users.
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 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 the largest Facebook page (2.4 million Likes) and the largest Instagram account (1.1 million Instagram followers). However, Grenade received the highest total engagement (25,569), which is an important metric for brands to monitor.
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, 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, foodspring received the highest accessibility alerts (207), which they’ve reduced to 105 this quarter. Now, the brand to watch is Innermost, which received 215 accessibility alerts. It’s important that companies aim to reduce these alerts to improve the web experience for those using a screen reader.
GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q4 2024 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 Mike Movassaghi.
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