The Q4 2024 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 2024 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 2024 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.

Request the report

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'.

TicketSellers reported 124 4xx errors (the highest of all ticket resellers). A poor linking structure can negatively impact a brand’s SEO health, so it’s important that all brands update any broken internal and/or external links.

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!

In our previous audit, See Tickets reported the lowest mobile site speed (17). This quarter, See Tickets has increased its mobile site speed to 59 — the highest of all brands. Now the brand to watch is The Ticket Factory, which reported a 34 score for mobile site speed. Reducing page weight will help to improve its mobile site speed.

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. The DA rating for this quarter ranged between 86 and 59, with Viagogo flagging the lowest DA score. This UK ticket reseller can increase its domain rating by increasing its organic traffic (through a keyword strategy) given that it reported the biggest decline in organic traffic on both desktop and mobile. Increasing traffic can help to improve a website’s DA score.

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.

As mentioned earlier, Viagogo reported the biggest decline in organic traffic on both devices (-24% on desktop and -72% on mobile). On the other hand, The Ticket Factory saw the biggest increase on desktop (+731%), and Gigantic saw the biggest increase on mobile (+31%).

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.

Ticketmaster continues to hold the number one position for the most Universal Search appearances (33,806). On the other hand, Viagogo reported the fewest appearances (1) and should ensure all images are optimised to make overall improvements.

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.

Ticketmaster continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (25,981) and positions 4–10 (28,685). On the other hand, TicketSellers reported the fewest appearances for position 3 (54) and positions 4–10 (175). Reassessing its keyword strategy will help to highlight which keywords generate traffic vs areas for improvement.

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.

We’ve included 3 examples of Live Nation’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK ticket reseller included 2 vertical videos and 1 vertical image across all posts, ensuring that it’s tailoring to social media users on a mobile.

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.

Live Nation has the largest Facebook page (273,400 Likes) and the largest Instagram account (85,000 followers). This UK ticket reseller uploads content regularly to its social media channel, helping to establish a consistent strategy where users are more inclined to follow and stay connected.

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.

In our previous report, Gigantic reported 157 accessibility alerts, which it’s reduced to 119 this quarter. Now, the ticket reseller to watch is Eventim, which reported 129 alerts and 119 contrast errors. It’s important that all brands aim to reduce these alerts and errors to ensure all consumers can read the information on a screen reader and if they have a colour vision deficiency.

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.

Photo by Rachel Coyne on Unsplash