How to Calculate Share of Voice for a Competitive Advantage in Marketing

For businesses striving to stand out, knowing where your brand fits within the broader conversation is critical. It’s not just about being seen; it’s about understanding how often and how prominently your brand is being mentioned compared to others in your industry. This is where understanding how to calculate share of voice becomes an invaluable resource. By quantifying your brand’s share of voice (SOV), you can determine your visibility in the market and make informed decisions to improve your marketing strategies.

This article will explain what SOV is, how to calculate share of voice, and how results can drive marketing success.

What is Share of Voice?

Share of voice (SOV) is a metric that shows how much attention your brand is capturing compared to your competitors. It's typically expressed as a percentage and can be measured across various channels such as paid advertising, organic search, social media, or media mentions. Essentially, it tells you what portion of the conversation in your industry is focused on your brand versus others.

For example, if your brand receives 25% of the brand mentions in your industry, while competitors share the remaining 75%, your SOV is 25%. This measurement gives you a tangible way to see how visible your brand is across different platforms and can serve as a proxy for market share. A higher SOV often indicates that your marketing efforts are resonating with your audience and generating more awareness.

The Importance of Share of Voice in Marketing and Competitive Analysis

SOV isn’t just a metric—it’s a strategic tool that can guide important business decisions. 

Here’s why:

• Market positioning. Understanding how to calculate share of voice enbales you to determine where your brand stands in relation to your competitors. A low share of voice may signal that your brand is being overshadowed, suggesting a need for more aggressive marketing or outreach so that your brand is more visible than your competitors. Social listening tools can help track this data in real time, providing insights into how often your brand is mentioned compared to your competitors, and allowing you to identify gaps in your marketing strategy or areas where competitors are gaining more attention.

• Tracking growth. If your SOV increases over time, it typically indicates that your marketing strategies are working. Conversely, a decrease in SOV may signal that competitors are outpacing your efforts, prompting a need for adjustments.
• Resource allocation. By understanding your current SOV, you can make smarter decisions about where to allocate resources. For instance, if a competitor is dominating in social engagement but lacking in paid search, you might focus your resources on bolstering your presence where there’s less competition.

How to Seamlessly Calculate Share of Voice

So, how do you calculate share of voice? What steps are involved in this process?

Simple. Just follow the steps below to seamlessly calculate share of voice across key channels like social media, search, and paid advertising.

Identify Your Competitors

The first step in calculating share of voice is identifying your main competitors. These could include direct competitors, who offer similar products or services, or indirect competitors, who provide alternative solutions. Knowing your competitors helps you accurately benchmark your SOV against them. Consider both large competitors and emerging brands that might be gaining attention in your industry. A clear understanding of who you’re competing with allows you to better calculate share of voice in different areas. Tools like SEMrush or social listening platforms can also help you identify key competitors you might not be fully aware of, based on shared audiences or overlapping keywords.

Define Your Metrics

To calculate share of voice, you first need to decide what specific metrics you’ll focus on. You can calculate share of voice across various areas, such as brand mentions, impressions, or search visibility. 

Common metrics include:

• Brand mentions: The number of times your brand is mentioned compared to competitors.
• Impressions: How often your content (ads, posts, etc.) is seen by the target audience.
• Paid search SOV: Your visibility in paid search results compared to competitors for targeted keywords.
• Organic search SOV: The share of organic search results your brand captures relative to competitors.
• Social media SOV: Your brand’s share of mentions, likes, and engagement on social media platforms.

By defining these metrics, you can calculate share of voice more accurately across different marketing channels and better understand where your brand marketing strategy needs to be improved.

Use Social Listening Tools

One of the most effective ways to calculate share of voice is by using social listening tools. Tools like those offered through Influencity’s platform enable you to track brand mentions and engagement across social media. This helps you monitor how often your brand is mentioned and how your competitors are performing in the same space. 

Essentially, social listening tools give real-time data on mentions, allowing you to calculate share of voice quickly and easily. They also provide insights into sentiment analysis, showing how much your brand is being discussed and whether the conversation is positive or negative. These insights can help you make adjustments in real time to improve your SOV.

Track Paid and Organic Search Performance

In addition to tracking brand mentions, you should also calculate your brand’s share of voice in paid and organic search performance. For paid search, tools like Google Ads and SEMrush allow you to monitor your share of visibility in search engine results compared to your competitors. For organic search, tools like Moz or Google Search Console help you measure how much of the search traffic for key terms your brand captures. By tracking keywords relevant to your industry, you can calculate share of voice based on how often your website appears in search engine results compared to your competitors. This can help you identify gaps in your SEO or paid advertising strategy that may be limiting your visibility.

Analyze Data and Calculate Share of Voice

Once you have gathered data on your competitors and brand across various channels, you can start to calculate share of voice. 

The formula that you will use to calculate share of voice is:

SOV = your brand's metric (e.g. mentions, impressions) / total metric (yours + competitors) x 100

For example, if your brand has 1,500 mentions and the total number of mentions for your industry (including competitors) is 7,500, your SOV would be 20%. This means you own 20% of the overall conversation. Whether you are calculating based on paid search clicks, organic traffic, or social mentions, this formula helps quantify your brand’s share. It provides a clearer picture of your market position and highlights where your marketing efforts may need adjustment.

Monitor and Optimize

Calculating share of voice shouldn't be a one-time task. Since market dynamics and competitor actions are constantly evolving, your SOV is likely to fluctuate. To stay competitive, it's essential to regularly monitor your SOV across key areas like social mentions, paid search, and organic search. If you observe a decline, it may indicate that competitors are gaining momentum, signaling the need to ramp up your marketing efforts or refine your strategies.

By continuously tracking and optimizing, you can keep a close eye on your share of voice and make adjustments as needed to maintain a strong market presence. Social listening tools like those offered by Influencity make it easier to monitor and improve your share of voice consistently.

What Can You Measure with It?

As we mentioned above, there is a range of metrics that you can measure when you calculate share of voice. Brand mentions are a key area, as they show how frequently your brand is discussed online compared to your competitors. Impressions, or the number of times your content is displayed, also provide insight into your visibility relative to others. Paid search SOV tracks how often your ads appear in comparison to competitors in paid search results, while organic search SOV measures your brand’s presence in non-paid search results for important keywords.

Social media SOV, in turn, evaluates your brand’s share of mentions and engagement on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. For example, you might analyze Instagram KPIs like impressions, engagement, and mentions, then use this data to calculate your social SOV. 

Finally, advertising SOV measures your brand's visibility across traditional and digital advertising channels compared to competitors. By calculating SOV in these areas, you can better understand your brand’s positioning and make strategic adjustments to increase visibility and competitiveness in the market.

Examples of Share of Voice in Action

Imagine a tech startup launching a new product in a market crowded with established competitors. By calculating its share of voice, the company can measure its SOV across social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, as well as digital ad space. If the startup discovers that it only holds 5% of the SOV compared to a competitor’s 50%, it would signal a need for more aggressive marketing strategies—perhaps increased ad spending or a targeted campaign for higher Instagram KPIs.

On the other hand, a fashion retailer may find through SOV data that it is leading in earned media value (EMV), meaning their brand is generating substantial unpaid exposure through influencer marketing and media mentions. This insight would encourage the retailer to double down on these strategies to maintain a competitive edge.

How to Analyze Share of Voice Calculator Results

Once you have calculated your share of voice, it’s important to use this data to drive actionable insights that improve your brand’s performance. 

Here’s how to make the most of your share of voice results.

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

If you find that your brand has a high SOV in certain areas, such as social media, it indicates that your campaigns are resonating with your audience in that space. However, if your SOV could be higher in other areas, like paid search, you may need to reallocate resources or adjust your strategy.

For instance, if your SOV on social media is high but needs more paid search, you may benefit from balancing your budget to ensure a more well-rounded marketing effort.

Benchmark Against Competitors

By comparing your SOV results with those of your competitors, you can understand their strengths and weaknesses as well. If a competitor is dominating in influencer marketing KPIs, but you have a lead in organic search, you can look for ways to leverage your strengths while shoring up areas where they are ahead.

Optimize Your Marketing Strategy

Your SOV results are not just a reflection of past performance but a guide for future marketing decisions. A low SOV might indicate a need to boost earned media value or reconsider your messaging strategy. Similarly, a high SOV can reinforce the value of your current efforts and encourage further investment in successful campaigns.

Measure the Impact of Your Campaigns

Finally, by monitoring your SOV over time, you can directly measure how specific campaigns or strategies impact your overall visibility. For example, after launching a new influencer-driven campaign, you might see a spike in your SOV related to brand mentions. This feedback loop helps you refine your marketing tactics and optimize future efforts.

How to Calculate Share of Voice: Summing Up

Calculating share of voice (SOV) is a powerful way to understand your brand’s position in the marketplace relative to competitors. By measuring key metrics such as brand mentions, impressions, paid and organic search visibility, and social media engagement, you can gain valuable insights into how much of the conversation your brand owns. The process involves identifying competitors, tracking relevant data using social listening and analytics tools, and regularly analyzing the results to make data-driven adjustments to your marketing strategies.

Ultimately, share of voice helps you pinpoint where your brand is succeeding and where it may need more attention. Continuous monitoring and optimization based on SOV data allow your brand to stay competitive, increase visibility, and better connect with your target audience. With the right tools and approach, calculating share of voice can guide more effective marketing and outreach efforts.