Is Adidas more popular than Nike? Do people talk about Netflix more than Amazon Prime on Instagram? Does Taco Bell get more attention than McDonald’s?
These are the kinds of questions teams ask about their own brands every day. And make no mistake, competitors are watching these trends just as closely.
That slice of the spotlight is what we call share of voice. It matters because people don’t just buy products; they buy into the brands they feel connected to. In fact, 76% of customers would rather choose a brand with which they feel a bond than go with a competitor.
Knowing how much of the conversation your brand already holds makes it easier to see which marketing campaigns are working and which ones might need a little push.
In this article, we’ll explore how to measure share of voice effectively, including across social media mentions, SEO share, paid advertising, and various marketing channels.
How to Measure and Track Your Share of Voice?
What is Share of Voice (SOV)?
At its core, share of voice is about how much space your brand occupies in people’s minds and conversations compared to your competitors.
Think of it as standing in a busy room full of brands and noticing how often your name comes up. The louder and more meaningful your presence, the stronger your brand awareness.
But is it just about noise? No. SOV is about staying visible in places where your audience is already paying attention; this is different from ‘market share,’ which is also a term used to describe the popularity of a brand.
Let’s learn about the differences between them with some examples.
🧠 Did You Know: In 2022, Shiseido leaned into user-generated content on social media, encouraging fans to share their looks with the brand’s products. As a result, mentions of Shiseido makeup rose significantly compared to the previous year, showing how visibility in the right spaces can dramatically lift a brand’s presence.
Share of voice vs. market share comparison
Imagine two coffee chains: Brand A is mentioned everywhere on social media but sells fewer cups than Brand B, which dominates actual sales. In this case, Brand A has a higher share of voice, while Brand B holds a larger market share. One shows visibility, the other shows revenue power.
To understand their differences better, here’s a comprehensive comparison:
| Aspect | Share of Voice (SOV) | Market Share (SOM) |
| Definition | Measures visibility, mentions, and brand presence compared to competitors | Measures the sales or revenue your company holds in the market |
| Focus | Brand awareness and marketing reach | Sales, revenue, and customer acquisition |
| Example | On Instagram, if Netflix appears in 2,000 out of 10,000 total mentions of streaming, its SOV is 20% | If Netflix earns $2B streaming revenue in a market sized at $10B, its SOM is 20% |
| Why it matters | Shows how present your brand is in conversations and media | Shows your actual business performance and financial strength |
Why SOV matters in competitive analysis
Knowing your share of voice helps you see where your brand stands against others.
If Nike dominates the conversation around sportswear but Adidas sees rising mentions during a campaign, that’s a sign of shifting brand visibility.
Similarly, if Taco Bell suddenly trends higher than McDonald’s on social media mentions, it can reveal consumer interests or the impact of a new product launch.
There’s a common misconception that voice analysis is about copying competitors, but what you’re really trying to do is spot the gaps and opportunities. Focus on enhancing what is effective, and gain insights into how your brand’s presence evolves over time.
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Channels to Measure Share of Voice
The best part about share of voice is that it isn’t tied to just one campaign or even channel. If you’re falling behind on one platform, you can make up for it on another.
So, let’s review the key channels where your brand should be present and measured.
Social media mentions
69% of people say they see the most engaging brand content on Instagram, and almost half wish brands used it more often. That alone shows how important social media is for your brand’s share of voice.
Every tag, comment, or mention is a signal of how present your brand is in daily conversations. Tracking these social media mentions across platforms like Instagram, X, LinkedIn, or TikTok helps you see not only how often your brand appears but also what people are saying.
Consider a local café that appears in customer stories. One post leads to another, and soon the brand is part of a larger conversation. This is how a brand’s share of voice grows.
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Search engine visibility (SEO share of voice)
Some say SEO is less effective now. People are skimming Google’s AI summaries or turning to tools like ChatGPT instead of scrolling through long lists of links. But that doesn’t make search engine visibility irrelevant. It just means it has changed.
To stay visible, your brand now needs to show up not only in the top search results but also in the answers that AI tools pull from. This is why having a strong SEO share of voice remains crucial.
The more often your site appears for relevant keywords and topics, the more likely it is that both search engines and AI assistants will surface your content.
When most of the organic traffic for a keyword goes to your site, it shows you own a strong share of voice in that space.
Paid media (PPC and display ads)
Online advertising is another place to measure share of voice. Google Ads accounts give you metrics such as impression share to show how often your ads appear compared to the competition.
If your brand wins more impressions for the right search queries, you are taking up more ad space and improving your presence. A drop in impression share may indicate the need to adjust bids, refine targeting, or rethink campaign settings.
This is important because research shows that targeted ads and promotions capture the attention of about a third of people, and that number climbs to nearly 50% for Gen Z.
PR and news coverage
Every time your brand shows up in an article or on a news site, it adds to your share of voice. This type of earned media builds credibility and shapes your brand reputation in ways ads cannot.
Tracking news mentions and PR coverage helps you see whether your efforts are putting your brand in front of the right audience.
Industry forums and community discussions
Niche forums, review sites, and online communities are often where people share honest thoughts.
By monitoring discussions in these spaces, you can measure how often your brand comes up compared to competitors.
These mentions are valuable because they show genuine consumer interest and user sentiment. Being present and responsive in these conversations helps strengthen your brand’s position.
📌 Example: Imagine a new fitness app being discussed on Reddit’s r/Fitness forum. Dozens of users recommend it over bigger competitors, giving the brand a noticeable boost in share of voice within that community.
How to Calculate Share of Voice: Step-by-Step Guide
Let’s imagine you’ve just launched a new coffee brand. This month, people mentioned you about 50 times online. Simultaneously, your competitors collectively received 450 mentions. You want to know how much space you hold in that bigger conversation. That’s where share of voice comes in.
Here’s how you can figure it out step by step:
Step 1: Decide what to measure
It could be social media mentions, ad impressions, website traffic, or even news coverage. Pick the channel (or channels) where you want to assess your brand’s presence.
Step 2: Collect your brand’s numbers
Count how many times your brand was mentioned, how many clicks your ad received, or how much traffic your site got in that channel.
Step 3: Collect the total numbers
Now add up the same data for all of your competitors in that space. This gives you the full picture of the market.
Step 4: Do the math
Here’s the simple formula:
Share of Voice = (Your brand’s number ÷ Total number) × 100
In our coffee brand example:
50 ÷ (50 + 450) × 100 = 10%
That means your brand holds 10 percent of the conversation in that market right now.
The beauty of this formula is that it works everywhere. On social media, you can measure mentions. With ads, you can use impression share from Google Ads. For search, you can look at how often your site appears compared to others. And for PR, you can track how often your brand shows up in articles or news coverage.
Key Metrics and KPIs to Track for SOV
Looking to really understand how to measure the share of voice for your brand?. Here are the essentials, what they mean, and how to use them.
1. Total mentions vs. competitors
This is the classic share of voice view. Count your brand mentions in a channel, add competitor mentions, then calculate your percentage.
Formula: SOV = (Your brand mentions ÷ Total market mentions) × 100
This same idea works for other signals too, like clicks or traffic.
Here’s how it helps:
- Shows your brand’s presence in the conversation compared with others
- Works for social media mentions, PR coverage, and even paid or organic traffic slices when you want a simple way to measure and calculate share
2. Impressions and reach
Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content. Impressions are the total times it was shown, including repeats. Track them both to understand how widely your brand is seen and how often it appears.
💡 Pro Tip for performance marketers: In Google Ads, add the impression share columns to see what percent of eligible impressions you actually captured. Your impressions, divided by total eligible impressions, give a clean, SOV-style visibility signal for paid campaigns.
3. Engagement rate
Engagement rate tells you how actively people interact with your content relative to your audience size or reach. Think likes, comments, shares, saves, and clicks. It is a helpful quality check alongside raw mention counts.
Consistent engagement is a strong indicator of brand health and active online presence.
Formula: Engagement by reach = (Total engagements/Reach per post) X 100
Quick ways to read it:
- Rising engagement with steady reach usually means your content is resonating
- Use the same method for you and for competitors to keep the comparison fair
4. Sentiment analysis
Not all mentions are equal. Sentiment analysis classifies conversation as positive, negative, or neutral, so you can see how people feel when they talk about you.
Pairing volume with tone gives a truer picture of your brand’s presence.
Here’s how to use it:
- Watch for swings after launches or PR efforts
- Compare your customer sentiment with competitor sentiment to spot openings in messaging
5. Keyword rankings and search visibility
As we saw earlier, the SEO share of voice estimates the proportion of potential organic search traffic for a specific set of keywords directed to your site, compared to that received by competitors.
It connects rankings and clicks to a simple visibility share so you can see your place on the results page.
Topics where you rank often and win clicks show strong search visibility, while gaps, where competitors rank higher, show you where to improve or create content.
Here are a few helpful places to look:
- Google Search Console for impressions, clicks, and average position, which grounds your SOV estimates in real data
- Rank trackers like Ahrefs and others for competitor positions and automated SOV-style visibility metrics
Are you worried about “using enough keywords” in your writing? This Reddit thread captures a helpful balance. One view reminds us to write for people and not force exact phrases:
Another view says to give each article a clear target so it stays focused:
Both ideas play nicely together. Choose a clear topic, write something genuinely useful, and let your language be natural. Then use share of voice techniques to see if your pages are earning their fair share of organic search traffic.
Here’s a quick summary of the metrics we’ve just covered:
| Metric | What it shows | Why it matters |
| Total mentions vs. competitors | How often your brand is mentioned compared to others | Reveals your slice of the conversation and helps calculate share |
| Engagement rate | How people interact with your content | Shows if your audience finds your content meaningful and engaging |
| Impressions and reach | How many people saw your content, and how often | Highlights your brand’s visibility and ad performance |
| Sentiment analysis | Whether mentions are positive, negative, or neutral | Helps monitor brand reputation and customer sentiment |
| Keyword rankings and search visibility | Where you stand in search results and traffic share | Indicates your SEO share of voice and opportunities to improve visibility |
Measuring share of voice might sound tricky at first, but there are plenty of tools that make it much easier. These tools gather the mentions, impressions, and search data for you, so you can spend more time understanding the story behind the numbers.
Ready to explore your options? Let’s start.
1. Social listening platforms
One of the easiest ways to keep track of your brand’s share of voice is through social listening tools. Instead of manually scrolling through endless feeds, use these platforms to pull in all the conversations about your brand and your competitors so you can see the bigger picture.
Tools like Brandwatch and Sprout Social let you track brand mentions, hashtags, and even customer sentiment across different social media accounts. They highlight when people are talking about you, what they’re saying, and how your presence stacks up against others in your space.
With customer sentiment analysis, you can understand if people are excited, frustrated, or neutral when they mention your brand. That context helps you make smarter decisions.
💡 Pro Tip: These platforms’ real value is in their ability to show you patterns over time. Track these to spot which topics spark the most engagement, how your share of voice shifts during campaigns, and where you have the biggest opportunities to grow your brand’s presence.
2. SEO tracking tools
If you want to understand how visible your brand is in search, SEO tools are your best friend.
Platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs let you calculate your SEO share of voice by showing how much of the potential search traffic for a set of keywords is going to your site versus others.
You can see which topics you’re winning, where competitors are ahead, and which new keywords might be worth creating content around.
What makes these tools especially helpful is that they put your search performance into context. Instead of just knowing you rank #5 for a keyword, you can see how much traffic you’re likely capturing at that position and how that changes if you climb higher.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Semrush or Ahrefs to spot gaps where competitors rank higher than you. Those gaps often point to the exact topics your audience cares about, giving you a clear roadmap for new content.
3. PR monitoring tools
When your brand appears in the news, blogs, or industry publications, you must ensure you keep track of all that coverage. However, doing this on your own can feel overwhelming. That’s where PR monitoring tools come in.
Platforms like Meltwater and Cision collect mentions of your brand across news sites, online magazines, and even podcasts.
These tools also show each piece’s reach and the sentiment behind it. This helps you assess whether your PR efforts are putting your brand in front of the right audience and shaping a positive reputation.
📌 Example: Imagine a tech startup that just launched a new app. Using Cision, the team notices their story has been picked up by three major industry blogs, generating positive sentiment and thousands of impressions. They also see a competitor mentioned in a national newspaper, which helps them decide where to pitch next to grow their own share of voice.
4. for centralizing SOV tracking and reporting
Keeping tabs on your share of voice (SOV) across channels can easily get out of hand. The problem is that social spikes, SEO dips, news mentions, and competitor chatter all come in at once…and the data often lives in different tools.
pulls these threads into one cohesive fabric so your team can stop scrambling and start steering the conversation.
Centralize SOV tracking and reporting
Think of Docs as your team’s living notebook. Instead of scattered files or static PDFs, you can keep all your SOV reports in one place that updates as you go.
Add and compile your SOV data in Dashboards, and suddenly, those numbers are alive. A graph showing your social mentions sits next to a chart of competitor activity, and both are linked back to the raw notes and insights your team has been gathering.
📌 Example: Imagine a marketing team at a SaaS company. They set up a “Share of Voice” folder in with separate lists for social, SEO, PR, and paid media. Each report becomes a task inside those lists, complete with fields for mentions, sentiment, and competitor share. When the team looks at their dashboard in a Monday meeting, they can see exactly how their share is shifting across every channel without having to click through a dozen spreadsheets.
Automate data imports from social listening
The beauty of is that it doesn’t stop at organization.
Manually copying numbers from different marketing dashboards is not only exhausting, it’s also a recipe for errors. This is where Integrations and Automations shine.
By connecting to tools like Brandwatch, Sprout Social, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Google Sheets, your data can flow straight into your workspace. Then automations kick in to update tasks, custom fields, or even dashboards the moment new numbers appear.
📌 Example: A digital agency links Brandwatch to using an integration. Every time Brandwatch detects a sudden spike in competitor mentions, an automation instantly creates a new task in their “Competitor Watch” list. That task comes pre-loaded with mention, volume, sentiment, and a link to the original posts.
Find patterns in the data
Brain combines artificial intelligence with contextual knowledge to spot things you might miss. It can highlight unusual jumps in mentions, summarize weekly activity, or suggest what to do next.
For instance, a fashion retailer notices steady numbers across their dashboard, but Brain points out that TikTok mentions are climbing fast after a micro-influencer posted about them. It flags the trend while also suggesting doubling down on TikTok content. With one click, the marketing teams using can assign tasks to the content team to seize the moment.
💡 Pro Tip: When you’re buried under share of voice reports, it’s easy to miss the story behind the numbers. That’s where Brain MAX makes it easier.
You can simply ask a question, like “Who mentioned us the most this week?” and get a clear answer without digging through reports.
Teams that use Brain Max save about a full day every week, finish their work up to three times faster, and cut costs by as much as 86%. It works across several top AI models, including GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini, so you get different angles instead of one narrow view.
Here’s a live scenario of how Brain MAX can help:
You are preparing for a weekly meeting. Instead of piecing together notes from half a dozen tools, you ask Brain to pull together highlights. In seconds, you have a neat summary that you can drop into a Doc and share with your team. It feels less like another task and more like a helping hand that keeps you focused on what matters.
How to Improve Your Share of Voice
For brands, attention is everything. People remember the names that show up often, in the right places, and in ways that feel genuine.
Here are some tips on how to earn meaningful attention that sticks:
- Join cultural or industry trends in ways that feel natural to your brand, adding your perspective instead of just copying what everyone else is doing
- Create content people want to pass along to their own circles, whether that’s helpful how-tos, inspiring stories, or something that simply makes them smile
- Build partnerships with influencers or like-minded brands so your message travels through voices your audience already trusts
- Encourage your employees to share their experiences and stories, since mentions from real people often feel more genuine than polished campaigns
- Keep an eye on what competitors are doing, then look for gaps or angles they’ve missed so your brand can show up in places where theirs doesn’t
Common Mistakes When Measuring SOV
In 2017, United Airlines faced a massive backlash after a passenger was forcibly removed from a flight. Mentions of the airline skyrocketed, but not for the right reasons.
If someone had only looked at their share of voice volume, it might have seemed like United was dominating the conversation. In reality, the brand’s reputation was taking a serious hit because sentiment was overwhelmingly negative.
Share of voice isn’t just about being talked about. It’s about what people are actually saying.
Here are the most common mistakes to watch for:
- Looking only at volume and ignoring sentiment, which can make a flood of negative mentions look like progress when it’s really a warning sign
- Tracking every platform equally instead of focusing on the channels where your audience actually spends time and engages with your brand
- Comparing yourself only to the biggest players in your industry, which can make small but important wins feel invisible
- Treating SOV as a one-time report instead of a living metric that changes with trends, campaigns, and consumer behavior
- Forgetting to connect the share of voice to real outcomes like engagement, website traffic, or sales, leaving your analysis without a clear next step
Measure and Increase Your Share of Voice With
Share of voice (SOV) serves as a platform for your brand’s narrative to stand out in a noisy world. When you measure it with care and act on it with intention, you give your business the chance to not only join the conversation but also lead it.
This is where shines ✨.
With its ability to bring all your SOV data under one roof, it automates the tedious parts and surfaces insights you might have missed.
Another advantage of is its collaborative features and AI assistant. With them, you can work with your team in real-time to refine keyword and campaign settings for ads, manage advertising spend across different marketing channels, and review total market advertising, amongst other things.
Combined with the ability to review social media monitoring data and generate SEO insights through Brain, makes it easier to see how a particular brand performs across channels.
See how much easier it feels when all your share of voice tracking lives in one simple, powerful space. Sign up on today!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Not technically. It will always come out as a percentage of the whole. But if most of your mentions are negative, it can feel negative because the attention you’re getting isn’t the kind you want.
Think of it like checking in on your well-being. Monthly tracking gives you a pleasing, steady picture, while weekly check-ins help you catch surprises from new campaigns or breaking news. You can use the share of voice formula to accurately measure your market share growth consistently.
The simplest way is to divide your brand’s mentions by all mentions in your industry, then multiply it by 100. So if you had 500 mentions and competitors together had 1,500, your share of voice would be 2%. Tools can perform the calculations for you, but it’s beneficial to understand the underlying dynamics
Engagement makes your voice louder. When people like, share, or comment, it stretches your reach and helps more people hear about you. This kind of ripple effect really boosts your visibility in conversations. You can use social listening tools to get these data points more accurately.
Not always. Being discussed more often puts you top of mind, but sales come when that attention is paired with trust, good experiences, and products people truly want. Use market research to understand consumer trends, and then run digital marketing campaigns to boost your sales for your target audiences.
Yes. AI can scan through mountains of posts, news, and even images with your logo in them. It helps you not only count mentions but also understand how people feel when they talk about you.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
