Share of voice is an important metric in digital marketing that refers to the percentage of total advertising impressions or mentions that a brand captures in its market over a specified period of time. Achieving a 100% share of voice means that a brand has captured every single advertising impression or mention that occurred in the market during that period. This represents complete domination of the marketing landscape and conversations for that brand’s industry or niche.
While achieving a 100% share of voice is likely unrealistic for most brands, striving for the highest possible share of voice is an important goal in digital marketing. The higher the share of voice a brand can capture in its marketplace, the more opportunities it has to reach potential customers and the less room it leaves for competitors. Share of voice reflects how much of the advertising and conversational real estate a brand occupies versus its competitors.
Why is share of voice important?
There are several key reasons why a high share of voice is important for brands:
- Increases brand awareness – The more often consumers see or hear about a brand, the greater the brand awareness.
- Drives discovery – More exposure and impressions make it more likely that new consumers will discover a brand.
- Builds familiarity – Repeated exposures to branding and messaging breeds familiarity with a brand.
- Squeezes out competitors – Claiming more of the marketing share makes it harder for competitors to gain traction.
- Boosts conversions – Increased brand presence correlates with higher conversion rates.
- Establishes authority – A high marketing presence signals an authoritative, leading brand.
In essence, share of voice allows a brand to dominate the marketing landscape in its niche and industry, crowding out competitors and greatly amplifying its presence and messaging in front of its target audience. The higher the share, the better for overall brand equity, consideration, and conversions.
How is share of voice calculated?
Share of voice is calculated by comparing the advertising impressions, mentions, or specific metrics for a brand against the total for its competitors or industry during a defined period of time. The basic formula is:
Brand’s Impressions or Mentions ÷ Total Impressions or Mentions in Market x 100 = Share of Voice
For example, if Brand A had 2 million impressions over a 2 month timeframe and the total impressions for the entire market or industry was 10 million during that period, Brand A’s share of voice would be:
2,000,000 (Brand A’s impressions) ÷ 10,000,000 (Total Impressions) x 100 = 20% Share of Voice
Some key metrics used to calculate share of voice in digital marketing include:
- Impressions – Ad impressions across channels like search, social, display, video, native, etc.
- Mentions – Brand mentions, hashtags, keywords, reviews, etc. on social media, blogs, forums, and other sites.
- Links/Inlinks – External links or backlinks earned to brand owned sites.
- Keyword rank – Ranking for target keywords in search engines.
- Site traffic – Visits driven to brand owned sites.
- Social engagement – Likes, shares, comments, followers, etc. on social platforms.
The timeframes used to calculate share of voice typically range from a month to a full year. Longer time windows give a more representative picture of overall share.
How can brands increase share of voice?
There are a number of strategies and tactics brands can use to increase their share of voice:
- Increase paid advertising spend – Allocating more budget to paid ads and promotions across channels.
- Earned media outreach – Pitching press and securing placements and brand mentions.
- Influencer marketing – Partnering with relevant influencers to expand branded reach.
- Community engagement – Participating actively in social media communities and discussions.
- Optimize for SEO – Improving keyword rankings and search visibility through on and off-page optimization.
- Owned content – Developing blog, videos, and other branded content assets.
- Social media – Expanding owned social media reach and engagement through excellent content.
- Retargeting – Serving personalized ads to previous site visitors across the web to increase impressions.
- Expanding offerings – Launching new products and services to increase branded search volumes and discovery.
Using the right mix of these strategies, brands can increase branded touchpoints, discoverable content, and messaging exposure across both paid, owned, and earned channels over time. This expands share of voice in a sustainable, ROI-focused way by engaging in places where your audience is most active and receptive.
What are some example benchmarks for share of voice?
Share of voice benchmarks vary significantly based on the specific market and competitive landscape. However, here are some example SOV benchmark targets across channels:
Channel | Strong SOV Benchmark |
Paid Search | 65%+ |
Organic Search | 55%+ for core keywords |
Display Ads | 70%+ of impressions within core demographics |
Social Media | 60%+ engagement within relevant communities |
Earned Media | 65%+ of voice among competitors |
Hitting SOV benchmarks indicates a brand has succeeded in dominating the digital marketing landscape for its niche. However, even far lower SOV levels than these benchmarks could still represent an effective share for some brands and markets depending on the competitive dynamics.
Paid Search Share of Voice
In paid search, brands want to maximize impressions and visibility for valuable keywords directly related to their offerings. Monitoring SOV in paid search helps ensure brands are not leaving opportunities on the table or ceding impressions to competitors. A high paid search SOV indicates strong investment, keyword coverage, and visibility in one of the highest intent marketing channels.
Organic Search Share of Voice
Organic search SOV reflects visibility in critical SERP real estate. It is measured via rankings for target keywords. Owning the majority of the first page rankings for core brand and product keywords makes it more likely searchers will click on your listings vs. competitors. Strong organic SOV improves discoverability and conversions from SEO.
Display Ads Share of Voice
Display ads allow brands to achieve high impression volumes and saturation through visual banners and rich media. When brands achieve strong SOV on display channels, it means their ads are consistently seen by their target audiences vs. competitors as they browse sites and apps across the web. High viewability improves branding and lift.
Social Media Share of Voice
Social media is a key channel for engaging audiences, interacting directly, and driving viral earned reach through community sharing. When brands achieve high SOV for engagement and impressions on social platforms where their audiences are highly active, it improves relationships, referral traffic, and brand buzz.
Earned Media Share of Voice
Earned media is driven by press coverage, blogger reviews, influencer posts, etc. Strong SOV in earned media helps amplify brand messaging and credibility through trusted third-party endorsement. It expands reach and authority beyond just owned channels.
How can share of voice be tracked and monitored?
There are a number of ways brands can track and monitor share of voice:
- Marketing analytics platforms – Consolidated dashboards that integrate cross-channel data like Google Analytics, SEMRush, SimilarWeb, etc. for holistic SOV tracking.
- Brand monitoring tools – Software like Mention, Buzzsumo, and Brandwatch that tracks brand mentions across the web and social media.
- Social listening – Monitoring tools and feeds for reviewing brand engagement and competitors on social platforms.
- Search metrics – Tracking rankings and impressions for target keywords in paid and organic search.
- Attribution modeling – Analyzing marketing performance data to quantify the influence of different channels on conversions.
- Surveys – Asking audiences questions to gauge brand awareness and familiarity vs. competitors.
- Web analytics – Using site behavioral reports to assess traffic sources, referrals, and brand lift.
By regularly monitoring SOV through both automated reporting and manual auditing, brands can assess performance, identify new opportunities, and optimize efforts to increase share. SOV tracking provides visibility into how marketing investments are performing and where brands stand relative to competitors.
What are the limitations of share of voice?
While share of voice is an important metric, there are some limitations to consider:
- It focuses on quantity over quality – Having the most impressions does not always equate to the best messaging or positioning.
- Low competitor SOV can still be effective – Even less than 50% SOV could result in strong sales if competitors are not as resonant or conversion-focused.
- It lacks context – Absolute SOV numbers lack context without benchmarking against industry averages or competitors.
- It says nothing about profitability or ROI – A high SOV does not necessarily mean marketing spend is efficient or driving measurable business results.
- Data accuracy challenges – Data tracking across channels and brands can have inconsistencies or inaccuracies.
- Short-term optics – SOV measured monthly or quarterly may not indicate longer-term trends.
To maximize the value of SOV, it should be tracked consistently over the long-term and analyzed in context against business KPIs, competitor activity, and audience engagement metrics. SOV alone is not a complete measurement of marketing effectiveness or business growth.
Conclusion
Achieving a 100% share of voice is an extremely difficult but aspirational benchmark demonstrating complete domination of the marketing landscape. Realistically, most brands will aim for achieving the highest possible SOV relative to competitors. By increasing SOV across both paid and earned channels, brands can amplify messaging, engage audiences, crowd out competitors, and build familiarity and conversions.
However, SOV should be carefully tracked over time and integrated with other metrics to contextualize performance. The highest SOV does not automatically translate to the best results. Instead, brands should focus on reaching the right audiences with the right messaging as efficiently as possible. When planned strategically, increasing share of voice delivers visibility, discovery and business growth.