Share of Voice
Share of Voice (SOV) is a measurement of the market share that a brand holds in relation to its competitors. This is a gauge for a brand’s visibility and the amount of control of the dialogue. The popularity and authority among users and potential clients are likely to increase as market share increases.
What is Share of Voice?
Share of Voice, commonly referred to as SOV, is a measure of how much your organization owns in its specified market in comparison to various competitors. The more you post ideal content such as new blogs, guest articles, and thought leadership posts, the more you own the market and dominate the industry-related conversation.
In marketing, Share of Voice has traditionally been defined as a brand’s advertising investment divided by the total advertising investment in a particular category. For example, if a brand spends $100 million and the total category advertising spending is $1 billion, then it has a 10% share of voice.
Today, a better definition for Share of Voice would be less connected to spend and more about who can dominate the conversation across the digital channels that matter most. After all, with the right data, strategy, and execution, savvy digital marketing can help a brand leapfrog category leaders who might spend significantly more on advertising.
What are Share of Voice metrics?
Measuring Share of Voice requires the collection and analysis of a wide range of data, both surrounding your brand’s presence in the space and that of your competitors.
Audience insights look at what people are saying about a certain brand or topic and use that information to determine consumer opinions and preferences. With Share of Voice data, you may be able to identify exactly why people are choosing your brand over the competition or vice versa. Brands can utilize social listening tools and platforms to collect and analyze audience insight data.
Competitor research is key to making your brand stand out. Using SOV calculation, you can find out exactly where you stack up to the competition. Which brand is dominating the conversations in your industry? How much Share of Voice do they have compared to yours? Where are the conversations happening? And what’s the sentiment around those conversations?
Understanding the answers to these questions will help you identify opportunities to improve and set your brand apart. Marketers can uncover new opportunities by conducting in-depth competitor analysis with a Share of Voice lens.
Brand reputation and management allows you to collect and analyze Share of Voice data and benchmark your brand against competitors. Changes in those benchmarks could indicate a brewing controversy or a potential product issue. It’s particularly important to track while running a new campaign. This helps prepare you to quickly develop an appropriate response and manage your brand reputation.