Share of Voice: Definition and How To Measure It

Share of voice (SOV) measures how many people are talking about your brand compared to competitors. Tracking this metric can tell you whether potential customers are interested in your offering and marketing efforts. The higher the SOV, the more you control attention in a specific space.

Keep reading to learn how to measure SOV and use share of voice marketing to increase your reach on social media.

What’s Share of Voice?

SOV shows how dominant your brand is in a specific niche. Traditionally, you’d calculate it by dividing your brand’s ad spend by the total cost across the market. So, if ABC toy company put $1 million into promoting a new drone and the total industry spend was $10 million, ABC’s SOV would be 10%.

Today, you can track SOV in digital spaces, too. In addition to monitoring ad spend, you can also keep an eye on specific comparisons, like brand mentions and social media reach. With the right tools and platforms, even small content creators and teams can measure how often their company appears in online conversations.

Market Share vs. Share of Voice

SOV and share of market (SOM) sound similar, but they offer different insights:

• SOV measures brand awareness compared to your competitors.
• SOM measures how much of the total sales your brand owns in an industry.

Although the terms are different, SOV and market share go hand-in-hand — the more people talk about your brand, the more likely you are to generate sales.

4 Benefits of Measuring Share of Voice

SOV is a vital metric, as it helps you measure your visibility in online conversations. Reasons to measure SOV include the following.

1. Perform Competitive Analysis

Tracking SOV helps you see how you stack up against the competition. Let’s say you keep an eye on your competitors’ keyword rankings — you’ll start to notice which terms they consistently show up for and which ones they ignore. That gives you a chance to go after the keywords they’re missing. Over time, you can identify industry trends that you can turn into creative marketing ideas to increase your SOV. 

2. Segment Your Audience Using SOV

While SOV is most useful for measuring overall brand visibility, it also offers insight into specific customers. SOV tools can break down data by audience type, location, and topic. You can use this data to tailor marketing campaigns to what your audience cares about most, creating content they connect strongly with.

3. Evaluate Campaign Success

Measuring SOV allows you to gauge how well your ad campaigns perform. By calculating SOV before and after a digital campaign, you can see whether advertising improved your visibility and earned a positive return on investment.

4. Improve Future Campaigns

Monitoring SOV over time helps you decide where to spend your time and money. For example, if you have a high SOV TikTok but not on Facebook, you know that you need to adjust your advertising strategy. When done consistently, measuring SOV can shape your brand as you make tweaks to improve brand awareness and growth.

How Do You Calculate SOV?

The SOV formula varies slightly depending on what you want to measure, such as SEO and paid ads. Here’s how to calculate it on different platforms. 

Share of Voice Formula

To calculate SOV, divide your company’s metrics by the total market metrics for the channel you want to measure. Multiply this number by 100 to get the percentage. For instance:

• Your brand earns 2,000 brand mentions in a month. 
• Competitor A has 1,500, and Competitor B receives 2,500.
• The total number of mentions is 6,000.
• Your SOV formula is (2,000/6,000) x 100 = 33.33%

Using a SOV tool can help you gather the data for specific channels, simplifying the calculation.

Social Media Share of Voice

Your social media SOV provides key information about your video marketing on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. To calculate your social SOV, you must use a tool to measure mentions, hashtags, impressions, and reach. Once you have your brand metrics, simply divide this number by the total for the category on that platform.

Media Share of Voice

Media SOV tracks your brand mentions in news articles, blogs, and other media. It also covers your public perception and credibility. 

Comparing your SOV to your competitors in different media lets you determine which publications provide the best return. To calculate media SOV, you’ll likely need specialized PR and media software.

Paid Advertising Share of Voice

Paid advertising is the traditional space for SOV analysis. Simply divide the amount you spent on advertising by the total spent in the marketplace and multiply the result by 100. Alternatively, you could look at a different metric, such as shares, to see how your visibility compares to others.

SEO Share of Voice

SOV in SEO refers to how often your brand appears in search result pages. Calculating your SOV in organic search results typically requires specialized tools to measure your rankings for relevant keywords. With these platforms, you can highlight SOV metrics such as clicks, impressions, and organic keywords to check your brand’s visibility. 

4 Methods to Increase Your Share of Voice on Social Media

Increasing social media SOV can quickly improve your visibility online. Try these tips to boost your SOV on social media. 

1. Develop Your Content Calendar Around Key Brand Priorities

Rather than chasing every new trend, you should identify your brand’s primary focus areas and tailor your content to those themes. Once you've set your priorities, use SOV data to see which topics your audience engages with most, and adjust your content strategy to better capture their attention. 

The easiest way to manage your social media plan is with AI. Captions’ Social Studio automatically creates, schedules, and posts videos across your accounts, saving you time and money while growing your online presence. 

2. Create Social Media Content That Drives Shares

In addition to getting more active on social media, you need to make content that drives follower growth and engagement. Post questions, join conversations, and ask your followers to post user-generated content using branded hashtags. Explore your competitors’ pages to see what they do right (and wrong), and use this knowledge to inspire and improve your uploads.

With Captions’ Online Video Editor, you can create quality videos in seconds without a learning curve. Our generative AI capabilities make it easy to create images, B-roll, music, sound effects, and voiceovers for your content, streamlining your marketing video production. 

3. Follow Trends Strategically

When done well, following trends can significantly improve your brand’s SOV. Track industry news and social media trends in real time to find themes that connect with your followers. Once you discover a relevant topic, add it to your digital strategy with a personal twist to ensure your content remains authentic and valuable.

Help your content go viral with Captions’ AI Hashtag Generator. Simply upload a video and watch as AI generates hashtags using broad and niche keywords. Use AI to save time on editing and boost your reach, making your content easier to find online.

4. Collaborate With Influencers of Your Niche

Influencer marketing involves hiring content creators to promote your brand and services. Partnering with people in your niche can establish credibility with your target audience and boost authentic engagement, improving your SOV in key conversations online. 

With Mirage, you can create digital social media influencers to promote your brand — no camera or filming required. Simply paste a script, cast your talent, and let AI do the rest. Use an AI influencer to represent your brand on social media and improve your SOV with engaging UGC-style content. 

Increase Your Social Media SOV With Captions

SOV helps you compare yourself to the competition, evaluate your ad campaigns, and improve your digital marketing strategy. With the right tools and careful planning, you can boost your SOV on social media and raise your profile with your target audience.

Captions and Mirage make it easy for brands to create high-quality content that increases their SOV. With Captions, you can access a whole suite of generative AI tools that speed up the video production process.

Mirage is our latest development that lets you generate professional-looking ads automatically. Develop, edit, and reimagine ads all in one studio to boost performance and grow your digital marketing campaigns. 

Sign up for Captions and Mirage today, and start growing your share of voice online with compelling AI content.