The Q4 2023 benchmarking report for UK ticket resellers has just been published. Learn how the top 8 UK ticket resellers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q4 2023 benchmarking report for UK ticket resellers has just been published.  It covers the largest 8 national Ticket resellers, including Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, See Tickets, Gigantic, Eventim, Viagogo, TicketSellers, and Live Nation.

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 ticket resellers to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate ticket sales. 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 or schedule a call.

Q4 2023 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 8 ticket resellers on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK ticket resellers, or request a copy of the report for the full review.

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What The Industry Research Report Covers

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.  

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 ticket resellers, having an easy-to-navigate site is essential for consumers needing to purchase tickets. Particular care should be taken of the pathways to key pages, such as upcoming events and 'my account'.

In our last report, we found that LiveNation flagged for 1,029 4xx errors. This quarter, it’s seen an increase to 2,244. Eventim has also seen an increase in 4xx errors from 46 to 117, which is an area it’ll hopefully make amendments to.

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. Ticket resellers need to ensure their customers have a positive experience on their mobile site as many customers now rely on purchasing via the mobile site and apps. Plus, when popular events sell out quickly, ticket sellers don't want disappointed fans blaming their missing out on poor site performance!

This quarter saw slight improvements in some UK ticket resellers. However, TicketSellers has seen a drop from 46 to 34, and Ticketmaster has also decreased its mobile speed score from 44 to 32. Both companies will need to make adjustments to prevent a further dip by the next quarter.

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 is not gained through sponsored ads. Ticket resellers should be continually pushing to improve their DA by sharing great-quality content about their upcoming events and payment options.

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 this quarter, all ticket resellers’ DAs have stayed the same, apart from Viagogo, which saw a slight drop in its DA from 59 to 58. We hope to see it reach a 60+ DA for the next quarter to compete with the other ticket resellers.

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. The cost-of-living crisis may have some kickback on to the live event industry, having an impact on ticket resellers. However, with high-profile events, such as the Taylor Swift Eras tour, still selling out rapidly, ticket sellers can still expect to see high levels of traffic for key events.

This quarter, all ticket resellers have seen a drop in organic mobile traffic. TicketSellers has seen the biggest loss (66%). This decrease in traffic could suggest a universal issue with consumers’ budgeting their money.

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 site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Ticket resellers should be utilising all universal search features as potential customers will be interested to see how previous customers have found their experience via 'reviews', 'FAQs' and 'people also ask' results.

In this quarter, Eventim has the highest number of ‘Reviews’ (9600). Ticketmaster continues to take the lead for ‘People also ask’ results (7800). A strong performance for ‘people also ask’ results, generally points to a strong presence for longtail keywords, a great opportunity to build visibility for transactional phrases.

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. Ticket resellers should consider event-specific terms in order to improve appearances for longtail, high conversion-potential tickets.

In the last quarter, Ticketmaster secured the top spot for the most appearances for longtail keywords. It continues to hold the top spot with a total of 22,734 appearances for the top three results in search engines. See Tickets is ranking at 20,873 appearances for longtail keywords in the top four to ten search engine results, so we may see it switch to the top three in the coming quarters.

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 ticket resellers, Facebook ads are an opportunity to ensure customers see upcoming events and ticket availability.

LiveNation likes to include videos with each Facebook ad. This ticket reseller uses a vertical format, making it more mobile-friendly. This is a great call, given that just over half of their visibility comes from mobile users. Additionally, LiveNation has ensured creative and targeting has been set up to include Taiwanese users in the UK, in recognition of Mayday's home country and to capture attention from local fans.

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 retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Social media is an effective tool for ticket resellers to share information about upcoming events, along with features on artists that will be engaging and entertaining for social media users.

Gigantic has seen the largest total of engagement on social media (629,880). That’s more than 16x its figures from the previous quarter. This could suggest that it’s increased its social media ads, has become more responsive to users, or has increased postings. However, it hasn’t secured many additional Facebook and Instagram followers.

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. All the ticket resellers need to ensure their website is accessible for all customers looking purchase tickets, especially when there is such a huge range of different events to suit a range of potential ticket-buyers.

Last quarter, we noted that Gigantic saw 152 alerts. This quarter, it has seen an increase to 154. Eventim’s number of alerts has also increased from 1 last quarter to 110 in this quarter. Eventim also has an alarming number of contrast errors (134). Perhaps this ticket reseller can take some notes from Ticketmaster’s website (which scored 0 in this category).

GET THE FULL 79-PAGE Q4 2023 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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