Share of voice (SOV) is a marketing metric that measures a brand's presence and visibility compared to its competitors across various channels, such as social media, advertising, and organic search.
It represents the proportion of the total market conversation or advertising presence that a brand owns in relation to its competitors. By tracking share of voice, businesses can assess how well they are competing for attention in their industry and identify areas for growth in brand awareness, engagement, or market share.
Share of voice is typically expressed as a percentage, indicating the brand's portion of all relevant conversations, mentions, or ad spend within a given period. The higher the share of voice, the greater the brand's prominence within the market.
Share of voice encompasses all the ways a brand is mentioned, discussed, or advertised in its industry. It takes into account both paid and organic efforts, including social media mentions, online discussions, search engine results, and advertising efforts. Share of voice is often used in tandem with share of market (SOM), as an increase in SOV often leads to a rise in market share over time.
Share of voice helps businesses understand their position in the marketplace and how well they are capturing the attention of their target audience. Here's why tracking share of voice is valuable:
Share of voice provides insight into how visible your brand is compared to competitors. A strong share of voice means your brand is leading industry conversations, being mentioned frequently, and generating more interest, which can translate into greater brand awareness.
There is often a correlation between share of voice and market share—brands with a higher share of voice tend to capture more market share over time. By increasing your brand's visibility and voice, you can position yourself to attract more customers and outpace competitors.
Tracking your share of voice alongside your competitors helps you understand where they are gaining ground and where you may have opportunities. It reveals how effectively competitors are using their marketing efforts and can highlight areas where your brand needs to improve or pivot.
Share of voice data can help guide marketing strategies by showing which channels are driving the most visibility for your brand. By focusing on the platforms where your share of voice is lower, you can target areas for improvement and fine-tune your marketing efforts to capture more attention.
By measuring share of voice, brands can evaluate the effectiveness of their content and campaigns. If your share of voice increases after launching a campaign, it indicates that your content is resonating with your audience and gaining traction.
Calculating share of voice involves tracking and comparing key metrics across different platforms and channels. The formula for share of voice is:
Share of Voice (%) = (Brand Mentions or Impressions / Total Market Mentions or Impressions) x 100
Here's how to calculate share of voice for different channels:
To calculate social media share of voice, track how often your brand is mentioned across social platforms compared to competitors. Use social listening tools to collect data on brand mentions, hashtags, or industry-related conversations.
In paid advertising, share of voice can be measured by the proportion of ad impressions, clicks, or spend your brand has relative to competitors in the same market.
For organic search, track how frequently your brand appears in search engine results compared to competitors for key industry terms. Use SEO tools to measure how your content is ranking and how much visibility it's generating.
To calculate share of voice in media coverage, monitor how often your brand is mentioned in press releases, news stories, or blogs compared to competitors.
Several tools can help you track and measure share of voice across various channels:
While share of voice is a valuable metric, it can come with challenges:
Measuring share of voice across multiple platforms (social, search, media) can be complex, as each platform requires different tools and metrics. It's important to use comprehensive tools or combine data sources to get a complete picture.
Simply measuring brand mentions doesn't always reflect the quality or sentiment behind the conversation. For example, negative mentions can increase your share of voice but harm your brand reputation. Incorporating sentiment analysis can provide deeper insights.
Market share and share of voice can fluctuate rapidly, especially in competitive industries or during active campaigns. Continuous monitoring is essential to stay informed of shifts in visibility.
Share of voice is a critical metric for understanding your brand's position in the marketplace and how well you're competing for attention. By tracking your brand's visibility across social media, paid ads, organic search, and media coverage, you can assess your marketing efforts' effectiveness and identify opportunities to increase your presence. A strong share of voice often leads to increased brand awareness, market share, and ultimately, business growth.
Hi, I'm Justin and I write Brand Credential.
I started Brand Credential as a resource to help share expertise from my 10-year brand building journey.
I currently serve as the VP of Marketing for a tech company where I oversee all go-to-market functions. Throughout my career I've helped companies scale revenue to millions of dollars, helped executives build personal brands, and created hundreds of pieces of content since starting to write online in 2012.
As always, thank you so much for reading. If you’d like more personal branding and marketing tips, here are more ways I can help in the meantime:
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