Competitive & Market Intelligence:
How Do I Measure Share Of Voice?
Define channels, keywords, and competitors, standardize counting rules, and track impressions, mentions, and engagement to calculate Share of Voice (SOV) that predicts market momentum.
Measure Share of Voice by channel-specific visibility divided by the total category visibility for the same period and rules. Track SOV across search (impressions/SOV), social (mentions & engagement), news/PR (earned mentions & reach), and paid media (impression share). Use a unified taxonomy, consistent keyword lists, and a competitor set you review quarterly. Align SOV with share of market (SOM) to see whether awareness is converting to revenue.
Principles For Reliable Share Of Voice
The Share Of Voice Playbook
A practical sequence to define, calculate, and operationalize SOV across channels.
Step-by-Step
- Define scope — Channels (search, social, news, reviews, paid), regions, languages, products, and competitor set.
- Curate keyword/entities — Brand, product, and category terms; include common misspellings and acronyms.
- Choose metrics — Search: impressions & CTR; Social: mentions & engagements; News: articles & potential reach; Paid: impression share; Reviews: volume & rating share.
- Collect & dedupe — Integrate platform data, clean bots/duplicates, and tag owned/earned/paid consistently.
- Calculate SOV — For each channel: Your Visibility ÷ Total Category Visibility. Create a weighted blended SOV index.
- Visualize & alert — Build weekly trend lines, QoQ leaderboards, and alerts for spikes or drops by channel or region.
- Act on insights — Launch “SOV gap” campaigns, PR/storytelling sprints, review acquisition, and paid share recapture.
SOV Methods: Where And How To Measure
| Channel/Method | Best For | Data Needs | Pros | Limitations | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search SOV | High-intent demand & category terms | Impressions, rank, CTR for shared keyword set | Closest to purchase; regional granularity | SERP volatility; brand bias | Weekly |
| Paid Impression Share | Auction competitiveness | Eligible impressions, lost IS (budget/rank) | Actionable; ties to budget & bids | Channel-specific; pay-to-play | Weekly |
| Social SOV | Buzz & message testing | Mentions, engagements, sentiment, share stats | Real-time; creative feedback | Noise; bot/spam risk | Daily/Weekly |
| News/PR SOV | Credibility & narrative control | Article count, outlet reach, syndication | Executive friendly; long-tail impact | Lagging; paywalled data | Weekly/Monthly |
| Reviews/Communities | Consideration & proof | Review count, rating, category rank | High trust; product feedback | Moderation bias; sample size | Biweekly/Monthly |
| Web Share of Traffic | Top-of-funnel reach | Relative traffic estimates by domain | Holistic web presence | Modeled; accuracy varies | Monthly |
Client Snapshot: From SOV Gap To Growth
A cybersecurity vendor benchmarked Search and Reviews SOV across 8 competitors. By focusing content on under-served category terms and activating a reviews program, blended SOV rose 11 pts in two quarters, organic pipeline grew 28%, and paid search costs fell as quality scores improved.
Connect your SOV metrics to a value-centric dashboard and RevOps processes so spikes trigger action—not just reports.
FAQ: Measuring Share Of Voice
Fast answers for CMOs, Product Marketers, and RevOps leaders.
Turn SOV Into Market Gains
We’ll connect SOV to RevOps, instrument alerts, and prioritize actions that lift pipeline and share of market.
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