A first ranking of UK insurance brands on TikTok has found some of the sector's biggest names outperformed by smaller, more agile competitors, with posting frequency and follower count proving weak predictors of organic reach.
Aviva, one of the UK's largest general insurers, ranks 18th out of 20 in the study. Legal & General sits two places above it in 16th. Compare the Market tops the table on just two posts a month.
The ranking was produced by creative agency Nonsensical using 12 months of organic TikTok data from analytics platform Buzzlytics. It covers 20 UK insurance brands with at least 1,000 followers and consistent activity. Paid views were excluded.
Brands were scored on five factors: average organic views per video, distinctiveness, deep engagement, reactivity and posting consistency. Compare the Market finished with a total of 70, driven by a distinctiveness rating of 4 out of 5 for its meerkat-led content format. Bupa UK came second with 69, with the highest deep engagement rate in the field at 2.88%. That figure is nearly four times the field average of 0.75%.
Some of the UK's most recognised insurance brands placed well below smaller competitors. Aviva scored 27 overall and returned 1 out of 5 on reactivity. That is Nonsensical's lowest rating, reserved for accounts that rarely engage with trends or cultural moments.
Legal & General scored 41 with the same reactivity result. AXA UK ranked fourth and averaged 6,900 organic views per video, the highest reach in the top five, but scored just 2 on reactivity. The wider picture was consistent: average distinctiveness across all 20 brands was 2.6 out of 5 and average reactivity was 1.9.
Nonsensical describes most insurance accounts as "shuffle brands", where every post looks different and nothing leaves a lasting impression. Insurance is, the agency notes, one of the least distinctive categories on the platform.
The volume-versus-reach gap stands out in the lower half of the table. Petplan published 4.6 videos per week, the highest rate in the ranking, yet scored 25 and finished 19th. Vitality ranked eighth and won the Most Comments award with fewer than one post a week.
Urban Jungle, the London-based insurtech, was the only brand to score a perfect 5 for distinctiveness. Built around a consistent vox pop format, the account placed seventh overall with 58 points. Everypaw, a pet insurer, recorded the best reach per follower in the field despite ranking ninth, at 13,000 organic views per video.
Compare the Market published twice a month and still led the table. Combined organic views across all 20 brands reached 14 million between July 2025 and June 2026.
The results arrive as insurers face broader questions about how their digital presence connects with younger audiences. In the UK, Gen Z consumers increasingly treat social platforms as a starting point for financial research rather than search engines, a pattern already driving product and brand strategy changes across the younger motor insurance market.
Ofcom is also investigating TikTok over child safety practices the regulator says the platform has overstated. The government has confirmed a ban on social media accounts for under-16s from spring 2027, which will affect how insurance brands can use the platform.
