Energy bills rise, inflation bites – and Brits flock to MoneySavingExpert

The cost-of-living crisis has forced some Britons to spend less in a number of areas: recent YouGov data shows that a fifth of consumers have had to cut back on the amount they’re spending on essential food items and household essentials (21%). With optimism around household finances hitting a series of all-time lows this year, the public are increasingly turning to MoneySavingExpert.com for advice.

As the crisis has escalated, data from YouGov BrandIndex shows that Martin Lewis’ website saw a +9.3 leap in Current Customer scores – which track the proportion of the public who have visited a site recently - between September 25 2021 and September 25 2022.

Reinforcing a theme we’ve touched on before in this column – that a bad time for the public’s personal finances is typically a “good” time for Mr. Lewis – Impression scores, which measure general sentiment towards a brand, improved by nearly 10 points (rising from 36.9 to 46.7) compared to this time last year. Similar trends saw Reputation scores, which measure whether consumers would be proud or embarrassed to be associated with a website, jump by 9 points from 24.7 to 33.7 and Value scores climb by 7.5 points from 27.9 to 35.4.

Perhaps most importantly, Consideration scores – which asks consumers to pick brands they’d consider using from a list – jumped from 36.5 to 46.3 (+9.8). This suggests that, for more and more consumers, MoneySavingExpert.com is becoming their first port of call in stormy economic conditions.

There’s a grim irony to this, as Lewis finds himself in especially high demand at a time when he is – in his own words – “more powerless than ever” to help with things such as energy bills. But, by continuing to dispense advice in those areas where he can, MoneySavingExpert has gone from strength to strength at an increasingly desperate time for many consumers.