Morning, everybody, and thank you for making the time, for joining us this morning. Look, hopefully you've had a chance to watch our results video, which we posted at 7:00 A.M. But before we open up the questions, perhaps you'll just allow me to do a quick recap of the main points we were making there. So firstly, 2024 was another strong year for the group, with revenue up 2% to GBP 439 million and Adjusted EBITDA up 7% to GBP 142 million. In addition, we've made further progress in line with our company purpose, which is all about helping households save money. In 2024, we've actually saved customers an estimated GBP 2.4 billion. Now, this growth has been driven by our two-sided marketplace strategy. On the consumer side, we've seen momentum across our member-based propositions. That's the MoneySuperMarket Super Save Club. That's the app from MoneySavingExpert and Quidco.
By growing numbers across our brands, we are encouraging consumer loyalty, retention, repeat purchasing, and this is delivering positive results. We're especially excited about our progress with the Super Save Club. We have now surpassed 1 million members, and these members are generating higher revenue per user, and we're attracting more traffic directly, and that is critical in reducing our reliance on expensive third-party marketing. We've also made great progress on the provider service side. That's across B2B, Market Boost, and Tenancy. In B2B, our revenue was up 49% in the year. We now have 35 providers live. Market Boost is being used by over 80 providers, and in Tenancy, we have grown revenue by 6%. Now, this two-sided marketplace is underpinned by our leading data and tech, and we said last year that our data transformation had been completed.
We've announced this morning that our broader tech transformation is also now largely complete, and this positions us well to benefit from AI, both internally, but more importantly, by using it to further advance our customer proposition, so key to our strategy is to strengthen our breadth, and this continues to provide us with an important differentiator as different markets begin to move through their cycles at different times. It's really critical for us, and that is translating into a highly effective and resilient business with strong operating cash flows. We've got efficient capital allocation, and we're positioned well to continue to deliver sustained and profitable growth, so as a result in 2024, we've once again grown the dividend, this time by 3%.
But also this morning, we have been able to announce a GBP 30 million, up to GBP 30 million share buyback, which, of course, will provide additional value for shareholders. So, based on what we're saying and the tone in which we're saying it, you'll hear that we remain excited about the opportunity for growth across our two-sided marketplace. We see that we're well positioned for sustained and profitable growth both into 2025 and beyond. So with that, can I open for questions?
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box available and click submit. We will now take our first question. Please stand by. And the first question comes from Luke Holbrook from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question, and thank you for providing a lot more information on the Super Save Club. I think that's really helpful. Now you've got one million members signed up. One of the things that was slightly surprising to me was that you wouldn't see a higher than 1% improvement in gross margin, for every million customers signed up, given the retention and the frequency KPIs that you're outlining today. Is it possible that that metric that you're issuing is slightly conservative? And then my second question is just more on cash flow allocation.
You've been quite clear on the four cash flow allocation priorities that you have, but given you're now in a net cash position, you've done a GBP 30 million buyback, but it feels like you could have gone beyond that, either growing the dividend more or done a special dividend. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about the balance sheet into next year, and maybe just why you've been a bit conservative in that regard as well. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for that, Luke. I'm gonna throw both of those over to Niall. Just to say at the start, though, that it's important to remember that margin is a function of mix within this business. So while the Super Save Club will provide a certain benefit, as Niall will go on to describe, obviously, the impact on the overall margin is a function of everything else that's happening, the growth in B2B, what we're doing with Quidco, etc. Niall, why don't you take that up and then also get into capital allocation?
Perfect. Thanks. I mean, I think, Luke, let me just I mean, I'll extend Peter's point and microcosm. In the same way that the group's margin is a function that makes, you know, Super Save Club margin going forward will also be a function. So what we're sort of putting forward here is the FY 2024 effect of adding a million members, and we're seeing that flow through. So if you look at what is actually happening, it's having the effect that we wanted to have. We're growing the revenue per user because rev because users, members are coming and doing more with us. So you can see that in the uptick in cross-channel inquiry. They're also cheaper to acquire. So, you know, this year, which is the first year, that's 14% lower.
In this first year, we've had to acquire those members for the first time and then see them come back and do another thing beyond that. As those cohorts mature, clearly, we hope that they will come more directly to us. But in any given year, we will hopefully also be adding more members to it. So there'll be a mixed effect in any given year going forward as well. We'll see that play out as we go through. And as I say, we're kinda trying to give you as much as we can here with the guidance around how we see the 2024 cohort. So that's on Super Save Club. I think then onto capital allocation. Look, I think the buyback reflects our sort of ongoing commitment to sustainable shareholder returns.
In fact, you know, you should just see this as a logical outcome of the capital allocation policy. Luke, as you're kinda calling out in your question there, we looked to invest in the business for organic growth. We absolutely make sure we pay the ordinary dividend. We screen for attractive M&A to do. And as you know, we've got a very, very high hurdle around that. And then we look to do enhanced distribution. So why are we announcing it today? We're announcing it today because we've gotten to that point where we've paid off the Quidco term loan. We now have a net cash position. So we've got a very clean balance sheet.
Announcing at the level that we've announced that gives us sort of flexibility going forward to continue with our policy, to consider further M&A as appropriate, and also to provide further enhanced distributions.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Hopefully. Thanks for the question, Luke.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. Please stand by, and the next question comes from the line of Andrew Ross from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Great. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to ask about the competition you've kind of called out in the statement as being a factor behind the softer gross margin in the second half. I hope you can give us a bit more as to kind of which verticals you're seeing that competition in, just to kind of make sure we fully understand what's happening, and I guess whether you see that as a temporary or a permanent factor, and I guess as an extension to that, when we then kinda think through the gross margin dynamics in 2025, would appreciate, you know, any color as to how to think about that because clearly, Super Save Club is working, directionally as you wanted to. It's clearly giving you a tailwind to margins, but then in aggregate, the group margin has come back in the second half.
So what are the kind of perks and takes that we should think about when we think about the overall gross margin into 2025 and beyond? Thanks.
Thanks, Andrew. I'll take the first bit. I'll hand the margin dynamics over to Nal. So look, you know, I think at the highest level, the competitive structure of our market hasn't enormously changed. You'll know insurance. We have three price comparison competitors. You know that in money, our competitors are broadly ClearScore and Experian. You know that we have one significant competitor in terms of home services, and structurally, we haven't really seen any new players come into the market or any significant changes in how the existing players operate, but I think what we have seen, as we've pointed out, is a heating up of this PPC market. Now, you know, to some degree, that is not unusual. That sort of heats up and cools down at different points in time.
But if you go back sort of four years to when I started here, you'll remember that a very core part of the early strategy was to make sure that we replatformed all our martech so we could begin to rely on direct traffic more than expensive third-party media. We need to wean ourselves off that. That's what the algorithmic bidding on PPC was about. That's what the SEO replatforming was about. That's what all the focus on data and CRM was, and of course, all the work that we have done on the brand. But in saying that, obviously, PPC markets, as I say, kinda heat up, they cool down, but fundamentally, they get more expensive over the years.
I think what we've seen in the latter half of 2024 and certainly into 2025 as well is perhaps our largest competitor on the insurance side losing market share and as a consequence, then competing very, very heavily in the PPC markets, which has, you know, caused this sort of heating up, essentially. And we then obviously have to think what that means for us. Now, you know, of course, we will always be very thoughtful about how and when we compete in terms of profitable growth. But importantly for us, this is all about our member-based propositions. So the reason that we're doing Super Save Club, the reason we're doing app, the reason we're doing Quidco is we want to give customers reasons to begin to come directly so we can begin to get that direct traffic working as strongly as we can do.
So, you know, it really reinforces the importance of the strategy that we're following. That's what we're doubling down on. That's why we're so pleased at a million members. That's why we're wanting to continue to grow that in Super Save Club over 2025. That has to be the answer to the competitive dynamics. Nal, do you wanna just talk about, margin dynamics?
Yeah. Look, I think a little bit as Peter was alluding to earlier, you know, margin is a function of mix. When we think about that going forward, in the second half this year, which you called out in your question, Andrew, you know, we had sort of two big things going on. One is that PPC costs escalating. And the other is B2B. So we, you know, we won the Auto Trader or we announced the Auto Trader contract in May last year. So clearly, that's been growing as we've gone through the second half. And as you know, that's a sort of structurally lower margin. So in any given period, I think we'll see that mixed effect coming through.
You can see in some of the numbers we've put forward today, you know, we have worked very effectively over the last number of years to offset headwinds. But as Peter said, the sort of underlying trajectory of increasing cost in third-party media is there over a number of years. So it's leaning into the clubs to offset some of that as we go forward.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Andrew.
We will now take our next question. Please stand by, and the next question comes from Rahul Chopra from HSBC. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes. Good morning. I have a couple of questions. In terms of insurance, you had 2% exit rate during the quarter. Could you just break down in terms of what you're seeing within car versus home insurance? Because I would imagine home insurance still had a higher premium inflation compared to cars. So I just want to give you a sense of what's happening between those verticals, whether that insurance will be helpful. That's the first question. In terms of the second question, in terms of provider services, obviously, you did call about the growth rates. Could you give a bit more sense in terms of where the scale of these differences are in terms of revenue numbers and the margin dynamics between B2B Market Boost and M&C? Just wanted to understand the dynamics around that, please. Thank you.
Brilliant. Thanks, Rahul. I'll again throw the second question on provider services over to Nal, and let me start on insurance. So, look, you'll know, Rahul, that we don't actually provide segmental or product-level guidance. We're only ever guiding to group-adjusted EBITDA. But look, you know, insurance, as everyone knows, is 50% of the group and of group revenue. And half of that, again, so 25% of group revenue is car, essentially. So, it is important to sort of just say, you know, what we're seeing there and how we kind of see things over the next 12 months particularly. So, you know, what I call out is, you know, clearly, there are well-documented headwinds in terms of car insurance premiums. They're coming off record highs. And, you know, that is something that we will see into 2025.
But I think two stats that you should really equally focus on. The first is that your average car insurance premium is now 48% higher than it was pre-G. So, you know, customers are paying more for their car insurance than they have ever paid for. And secondly, versus pre-G, we've seen a 2+, an over-two-times increase in the number of products which are available to consumers to begin to buy when they come and actually search on the site in terms of what's available. So what that means is that car insurance has never been more expensive. And actually, there are lots of different new products out there for customers to begin to save money. And I think that is something, which is really, really critical.
The other thing I point to is the other half of our insurance business that is not car insurance. So that's home, travel, life, you know, pets. There is a whole range of services which we offer consumers where we do see growth opportunities. So, whilst obviously, motor insurance is a significant part of our insurance portfolio, it is not the whole story by any stretch of the imagination. And there are a number of dynamics there in terms of how that should work. And I think, you know, that reflects in some of our tonality this morning in terms of where we are. And then, of course, if we go, you know, a level again, you know, the point in strength in our breadth is that we also have opportunity in money, in home services, in our other verticals as well.
So please, you know, see that in the round, as much as you can. Nal, do you wanna talk about provider services?
Yeah. Brilliant. Rahul, provider services, remember, in there, we're talking about three things. So we've got the B2B business where we're providing our platform to other audience providers. So Rightmove, Auto Trader, as we talked about as big wins last year. Market Boost, which is our data offering to providers. That helps providers to grow their business on our platform. And then the Tenancy business, which is selected placements where providers are looking to achieve certain things by putting a placement on our sites. So that sort of, we don't break out the scale of those businesses, but they're growing quite well. In terms of the question you're asking around sort of the, you know, where's the margin coming from, clearly, the B2B business is different because in that business, we split the CPA effectively with our partner.
So we're achieving the same CPA, but we split that with the audience provider. And we're very happy to do that because we believe that we can then pass that traffic through the platform that we've got, at very, very marginal cost to us. So whether it's a drag on gross margin, it's still a very profitable business for us to do. So very happy with progress this year across provider services, and hopefully more to come.
Thanks, Rahul.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now go to our next question. Please stand by, and the next question comes from Ciarán Donnelly from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my questions. A few from me. Just in terms of M&A, I guess, could you just outline what you're looking for in potential acquisitions? Is it tech capabilities or access to a new vertical? Or is it something along the lines of, I don't know, maybe a MoneySavingExpert to try and lean into that member-based offering and kind of acquire new members through something like that? Just kind of ideas in terms of priorities for M&A going forward. And then just a few on Super Save Club. I guess, could you just outline what you see as kind of the key levers for growth in the member base going forward? And also, do you have an idea in terms of how many of the one million members you have today?
Were they previously kind of MoneySuperMarket or Quidco active users? Just trying to get a sense of where the member acquisition has come from thus far, and also, just one clarification. When you're quoting the member numbers, is that as of today, or is it as of the December year-end? Thanks.
So, Nal, I'll pass Super Save Club on to you, and I'll just quickly do M&A. So thanks for that, Ciarán. Look, so our approach to M&A is we sort of look at a lot. We consider a few. We do very little, which is exactly what, I, I think you would want us to do, really. And we have a very high bar that we, that we look to evaluate any opportunity against. Yeah. Our, our thoughts are, any are there any markets that we're not currently accessing? Are there any key technologies that we don't have within the existing portfolio? Do we want to begin to go deeper into our value chain? We, we just look at sort of areas where or consumer groups we don't currently access. I should add that as well. So, so we just look at things that sort of make logical sense.
And I think if you look at sort of, you know, the big acquisitions of MoneySavingExpert, Decision Tech, CYTI, and Quidco, you hopefully see that that all begins to stack up. So there's a sort of broad pipeline that we have a look at, but, you know, really, we have very, very high hurdles for that to cross, which is why we're very, very considerate about what we do. So I hope that answers your question. On Super Save Club, there's quite a lot there, actually. Nal, you did the bits that you think you should do, and then throw it back to me if you think you can do anything.
Yeah. Okay. So I think you were asking about sort of levers for growth. I think the first thing, Ciarán, is obviously we want to, you know, get more members into Super Save Club. What have we been doing this year? We've been using the marketing spend that we were going to spend anyway to bring people into the club. So as people have bought a product, we've offered them the opportunity to join the club. And then, you know, a percentage of those have converted into club members. So we still see that as a perfectly valid continuing exercise as we go into 2025 as kind of primary thing. But more importantly than that, when they are then in the club, we get you know they are doing more with us now than they were before.
So clearly, if you think about just the file size, it will be trying to add members, but then we'll be asking members to do more, which will obviously grow the revenue of the club. In terms of where the existing users are, I mean, I think when we talk about 14 million active users, that's an inquiry-based metric, so people who had run an inquiry across those two brands over the previous 12 months, so that's a big, big number. You know, there's probably a bigger market, you know. A bigger market will basically be on the people who've ever contacted us, so a lot of these users will have been previous at some point an MSE user. But we've never. It's never been our intention to sort of only focus on people who weren't MSE users.
We absolutely want those users in the club, and we want them then to do more with us. So it's about getting more wallet share over a period of time. So I think, probably it weights towards MSE previous users, but it would do because we've got a big file.
Yeah. The only thing I'd sort of add to that, you, I think, implicit in your question, Ciarán, you still haven't politely. You've politely not said it directly, but, you know, "Well, we're just attracting the super users." And obviously, we can, through our work on data, really begin to understand that. And that is not a concern that you should have.
Great. Thanks. And just that one clarification in terms of the million users. Is that as of today, or is it as of the end of December?
It, at the end of December, it was very, very close to an even million. Today, it's over a million.
Okay. Okay. That's really helpful, guys. Thanks a million.
Thank you. As there are no further questions on the phone lines, I would now like to hand back to the room for any questions on the webcast.
We have a question from Rolf Brad at RBC. With the Super Save Club growing healthily, are you able to give us a steer on your share of direct traffic and how that is evolving?
Trying to pick that up now.
Sure, but I think the Super Save Club, obviously, the point is to get people in and get them coming directly, and what we're seeing here is that more people are coming to us directly when they are using the club. We don't really break out source mix, but we believe that over the long term, Super Save Club will be a positive to our direct traffic.
Yeah. I think that's the point. I talked in my part of the presentation about the number of people we're seeing coming directly to club. So club is now only one of our 14 million users. Obviously, as that grows, we would expect to see the direct traffic continuing to grow, but we haven't broken that down at this point.
The next question is from Jessica Pok at Peel Hunt. PPC inflation of 19% H2 over H1. How does this level of inflation compare with past periods? Can you give any color on which segments are more impacted?
So I think it's general, Jess. And I think that is kind of quite a lot. But you know, it's not that it hasn't heated up and cooled down before. So you should see this very much as a market that begins to do that. But I think it's kind of the underlying direction of travel with PPC costs that we are also trying to flag. So fundamentally, yeah, I think the 19% is a loss. I think it is quite focused on general insurance on the car and on the home side of things. But also, we're seeing that generally across the piece as well. We're seeing some of it coming through in Money. You know, we don't anticipate it's gonna continue at this level, but it's very hard to call.
It's the underlying that I think we should focus on.
We don't have any more questions.
I think that is done. So assuming that we have no more questions on the line, can I just double-check that from our moderator?
Hello. I can confirm that there are no further questions on the phone lines.
So brilliant. Then it just is left for me to say thank you, everybody, for your time this morning and joining us. We are coming up to see a lot of you over the next couple of weeks. So we look forward to continuing the conversation, then, one to one. So thanks for your time. Cheers. Take care.