Share of Voice (SOV)

The term Share of Voice (SOV) refers to the visibility of a brand or product within its market relative to competitors.

To be precise, it expresses the percentage value of brand visibility relative to the total media exposure of all competitors.

Originally used in the context of traditional advertising to describe the percentage of ad space or airtime occupied by a brand, the concept has been extended to digital marketing.

In the online context, Share of Voice includes a brand’s presence in search results, social media, online mentions, reviews and other forms of digital media. Measuring SOV helps companies understand the impact of their marketing campaigns and their position in the market dialogue, providing insight into how to increase their market share and influence.

Put simply, a high SOV indicates that a brand has a dominant presence in the market, while a low SOV may suggest a need to increase marketing efforts to improve visibility and impact.

To measure SOV, companies use analytics and monitoring tools that collect data from various channels and compare them with those of competitors; these tools can track keywords, hashtags, URLs and other brand-specific identifiers to provide a comprehensive view of the company’s online presence. However, there are specific differences depending on the channel:

• Traditional Advertising. In the context of traditional advertising, SOV is calculated as the percentage of a brand’s total advertising expenditures relative to total advertising expenditures in its industry.
• Search Engines. In SEO and PPC, SOV can be measured in terms of visibility in search results, as the percentage of impressions or clicks obtained for certain keywords compared to the total available.
• Social Media. In social media, SOV can be determined by the number of brand mentions, reach of posts, and engagement obtained, compared with those of competitors.
• Online Mentions and Earned Media. SOV can be calculated by analyzing the frequency and context of brand mentions in online media, blogs, forums, and other discussion platforms.