Last Updated on August 20, 2026
The CMA asked pet owners how they picked their vet. Half of them looked at one practice and stopped. That single number should shape almost everything a practice does about marketing.
Most veterinary marketing advice assumes you are in a competition.
The CMA went and asked pet owners what actually happens. The answer is that for most of them, there is no competition at all.
This page summarises published research and offers marketing views based on it. It is not legal or regulatory advice. Where it refers to incoming CMA requirements, the Order was still in draft when this was written and the detail may change. Check the current position with the CMA and your professional body.
What the research found
A further 29% considered two practices. Only 15% looked at three or more.
Set that against how sticky the relationship is once made. Around 90% of dogs and 85% of cats are registered with a practice, and the CMA found that over 70% of pet owners buy long-term medication from their own vet.
So the decision is made once, quickly, on proximity and word of mouth, and then it lasts for years. That is not a market where you win by being better. It is a market where you win by being the one they thought of.
What this means, and what it does not
It does not mean price is irrelevant. It means price has not yet been part of the decision for most people, largely because it has not been visible. The CMA found fewer than 40% of practices publish prices, and only 29% of owners received written pricing before non-routine treatment. You cannot compare on something nobody shows you.
It does mean your competitor is not the practice down the road. Your competitor is the moment somebody types a search, asks in a Facebook group, or remembers a name. If you are not present at that moment you are not in a close second place. You are not in the running at all, because there was no running.
It does mean the 14% figure is the most interesting number in the research. One in seven people who did not shop around said they assumed prices were broadly similar. That assumption has been protecting the expensive practices and costing the good-value ones. It is exactly what a published price list and a comparison service will dismantle.
What actually influences the decision
Ranked by what the CMA found, not by what marketing tends to emphasise.
| Factor | A factor for | The main reason for |
|---|---|---|
| Location | 68% | 34% |
| Recommendation from friends or family | 44% | 23% |
Two things dominate, and neither is your brand, your website design or your social media. They are: are you nearby, and has somebody said your name out loud.
What to do with that
1. Win the local search, not the national one
If location is the main reason a third of owners choose, then appearing when somebody searches for a vet in your town is not one marketing channel among several. It is the channel. Your Google Business Profile, your opening hours, your photographs and your reviews are doing more work than anything else you own.
2. Make the recommendation easy to act on
Word of mouth is a factor for 44% of owners, but a recommendation only converts if the person can then find you. Somebody hears your name in a park. They search it that evening. What do they find, and can they book?
3. Publish your prices before you have to
Counterintuitive, given that price barely features in the research. The point is what happens next. A regulator-operated comparison service is coming, and the 14% who assumed everyone charges the same are about to be shown otherwise.
A practice that publishes nothing will not appear in that comparison as expensive. It will not appear as anything. And the practices that published first will have been legible for months by the time it arrives. We looked at what 72 UK practices are currently publishing, and the answer is more than you would think, and less usefully than you would hope.
4. Say who owns you
The CMA found that fewer than half of people using a large veterinary group were aware their practice was part of a chain. If you are independent, that is a genuine point of difference that a meaningful number of your clients do not currently know about. Ownership disclosure is coming for the groups anyway. Independents can say it now, for free, while it still sounds like a choice rather than a requirement.
5. Stop trying to win the comparison nobody is running
If 51% consider one practice, elaborate competitor positioning is largely wasted effort. Being findable, being nearby, being recommendable and being clear will beat being cleverly differentiated, because differentiation only pays in a market where people compare, and this one mostly does not.
The honest caveat
This is CMA research into how people bought veterinary services before the transparency remedies existed. Its whole purpose was to establish that the market was not working well for consumers.
If the remedies do what they are designed to do, these numbers will change. More people will compare, and price will feature more heavily. A practice reading this in two years should treat the 51% as a baseline that was already being deliberately dismantled at the time it was measured.
Which is an argument for acting on it now rather than later.
Where this sits in the Whito framework
Start stage, almost entirely.
Being findable and being clear are foundations. A practice tempted to spend on advertising before its local search presence, its reviews and its prices are sorted is buying reach into a decision that has usually already been made on other grounds.
Common questions
How do most people choose a vet in the UK?
Mostly on proximity and personal recommendation, and mostly without comparing. CMA research found 51% of pet owners considered only one practice, 29% considered two and 15% considered three or more. Location was a factor for 68% and the main reason for 34%.
Do pet owners compare vet prices?
Historically, most did not, and often could not. Fewer than 40% of practices published prices and only 29% of owners received written pricing before non-routine treatment. Among those who did not compare, 14% assumed most practices charged about the same.
How loyal are veterinary clients?
Very. Around 90% of dogs and 85% of cats are registered with a practice, and the CMA found over 70% of pet owners buy long-term medication from their own vet. The decision is made once and tends to last.
Does being an independent practice matter to clients?
It is hard to say how much, but the CMA found fewer than half of people using a large veterinary group knew their practice was part of a chain. Many clients do not have the information to have an opinion, which is itself the finding.
Should a practice spend on advertising?
Not before local search, reviews and published prices are in order. If the decision is usually made on proximity and recommendation, advertising into it is buying reach at the point the choice has already been shaped by other things.
Sources
CMA, How people purchase veterinary services, published 6 February 2025, for the comparison, location and recommendation figures. CMA, final report on the veterinary market investigation, 24 March 2026, for price publication, written pricing and ownership awareness. PDSA PAW Mini Report 2025, 5,387 pet owners surveyed, for registration rates.
See also our guide to the CMA vet rules and the real timetable and how to build a price list that works.
Correction policy. If anything here is wrong or out of date, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it, amend it and note the change with its date.
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