Principality Building Society · deep dive

Step 02 · Map the market

The market taking shape — demand, themes and who owns the clicks

We mapped the UK savings, ISA and mortgage market the way customers actually navigate it — by theme, by demand, and by who captures the search. The picture is stark: enormous demand, and Principality almost invisible on it.

A market only makes sense once you can see all of it. So we mapped the UK savings, ISA and mortgage market the way a customer actually navigates it — by theme, by how much demand sits behind each one, and by who captures the clicks when someone searches.

The demand is enormous

De-seasonalised monthly Google search demand, by theme:

ThemeMonthly searches
ISAs1.67M
Savings1.17M
Mortgages0.70M
Building society0.32M

ISA demand isn't flat, either — it spikes hard at the March tax-year deadline and troughs in June. Timing the content to that curve is half the battle.

And Principality is almost invisible on it

Here's the uncomfortable part. Across the whole category, Principality is visible for only 12.9% of keywords and captures just 2.6% of the clicks. The channel is owned by aggregators and the largest mutual:

PlayerKeyword coverageClick share
MoneySavingExpert55.2%16.6%
Nationwide49.3%7.5%
Principality12.9%2.6%

Break it down by theme and the gap is consistent — biggest demand, smallest presence:

ThemePrincipality coverageClick share
ISAs21.9%1.4%
Savings10.9%2.6%
Mortgages13.3%2.9%
Building society10.7%4.6%

The read

There is 1.67M monthly searches of ISA demand alone, and Principality is winning 1.4% of the clicks on it. That isn't a problem — it's an opening. The demand is already there and already huge; the only question is how much of it Principality decides to show up for. Map first, and the strategy writes itself.

See this for your own market.

The same engine, on your category — the whole market, where you can win, and the content to win it.