What Is Share of Voice in Digital Marketing and Why It Matters
Businesses are lucky because there is a myriad of innovative channels on how to promote a product nowadays, and the ways of tracking how each method fairs also see no shortage. As a result, marketers are often bombarded with the available amount of performance data. Hence, the need to identify which metrics work better than the rest is in demand in order for businesses to know which to focus on.
Share of Voice (SOV) is a kind of statistic that allows you to know where your brand placements in the market are, making it an excellent starting point for your digital marketing plans. This metric collates all your performance data and aligns it into different contexts, such as your organic search data, PPC performance, and social media; you can be aware of your brand position and online visibility. In this way, you may compare your data to your competitors and create a competent assessment for your marketing strategies.
As you analyze your brand today, do you stir conversations relating to the relevance of your products? Or do people recognize your brand as one of the leaders in your niche? If not, then you might need to reevaluate your brand’s Share of Voice.
In this article, you will discover and examine this metric deeply and how to increase your SOV, making it beneficial for your digital marketing endeavors.
What is Share of Voice?
Share of Voice (SOV) can be simply described as the frequency your brand was brought up on the internet versus your competitors. It takes into account brand awareness and consumer involvement, as it indicates how regularly a brand is evident online and to the extent to which they interact with their customers with their content. Digital marketing platforms have grown over time, especially in recent years. Along with it is the evolution of the definition of SOV, as it now includes the entirety of online visibility. It currently involves social media references, website traffic for particular keywords, and digital publishing.
Many might confuse SOV from market share as it usually correlates with market share and revenue. For example, the more you dominate online conversations, the more market share you have and the more influence you can gain from your audiences.
SOV was primarily utilized for measuring performance in paid advertising, but now, there lies more ahead. In addition, you may already determine your SOV for social media and organic traffic as well, aside from just paid advertising.
You may have a deeper grasp on the number of people exposed to your brand when you calculate your share of voice, and at the same time, you can identify which areas need extra attention. For instance, having a high SOV in your social media engagement compared to your organic traffic will prompt you to improve your strategies for the latter.
Why Does Share of Voice Matter in Digital Marketing?
Share of Voice continues to hold a relevant position on digital marketing because it measures your brand’s popularity and your target market’s awareness and perception. Hence, it is one of the finest and practical approaches to get an idea of your present market standing. Being aware of your position makes it easier to project your next plan.
Brands, before the introduction of digital marketing, were confined to the use of radio, TV advertising, and print, making SOV important due to the influence it delivers to the consumers. It directs the consumers on which products to reach out for in a store with similar-looking product displays. Despite evolving into the digital era, SOV still holds the same level of influence. However, this time, it is through your brand’s advertisement on various social media platforms.
Now more than ever, SOV matters as brands rival in customers’ attention even for a brief second. The competition has leveled up a notch because they aren’t just competing in their own niche but also to their visibility on every search page. Having an insufficient share of voice may not let you penetrate the buzz online and reach customers.
Digital SOV calculation can be very challenging as it is calculated differently by every marketer. Digitally, SOV for search may be calculated organically or paid, on the other hand, SOV for social media can be calculated simply with just the use of the formula. The only setback with digital media is that for every involved platform, from websites, mobile applications, to social media, there is not a centralized body that collates the data.
Putting it into context, different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and such do not share their data. More so, confidentiality is also an issue since no one shares their advertising date, hence, the total display advertising volume cannot be calculated. In effect, we are limited to estimate SOV within only each digital platform and are not able to completely compare the statistics across various platforms; which is quite similar to radio, print, and TV, in which data is tracked by a monitoring research company.
How to Calculate Share of Voice?
To calculate Share of Voice (SOV), follow these steps:
1. Define Your Metrics: Choose the metrics you want to measure, whether it's online mentions, advertising spend, or social media activity.
2. Choose a Timeframe: Decide on the timeframe for your SOV analysis, such as a week, month, quarter, or year.
3. Identify Your Competitors: Determine who your main competitors are and collect data on their advertising or mentions.
4. Gather Data: For online mentions and social media, use tools to monitor mentions and calculate total mentions. For advertising spend, collect data from platforms like Google Ads.
5. Calculate SOV: For online mentions and social media, use this formula: SOV = (Your brand's mentions / Total brand mentions) * 100. For advertising spend, use: SOV = (Your ad spend / Total ad spend) * 100.
6. Calculate Competitor SOV: Repeat the calculation for each competitor.
7. Interpret the Results: Analyze the SOV data to understand your market position. Higher SOV suggests greater market presence.
8. Continuously Monitor and Adjust: SOV changes over time, so regularly monitor it and adapt your strategies as needed. Remember to use SOV alongside other relevant metrics and market insights for a comprehensive assessment of your marketing performance.
What You Can Measure With Share of Voice?
With Share of Voice (SOV), you can measure your brand's or product's presence and visibility compared to competitors in a specific market or industry. It provides insights into competitive positioning, the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, market trends, and opportunities for growth. SOV can also help assess the return on investment (ROI) of marketing efforts and inform strategic decision-making.
Why you should measure share of voice?
Measuring Share of Voice (SOV) is essential for businesses and marketers as it provides valuable insights into a brand's presence and visibility in the market. Firstly, SOV helps in competitive analysis by comparing a brand's visibility to that of competitors. This assessment aids in understanding market positioning and identifying areas for improvement.
Secondly, SOV serves as a performance benchmark, allowing organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. It helps in optimizing media planning, budget allocation, and strategy adjustments. By continuously monitoring SOV, businesses can stay agile and adapt to market shifts, ensuring they maintain or improve their competitive advantage.
In summary, measuring SOV is crucial for assessing market share, making informed strategic decisions, and optimizing marketing strategies to enhance a brand's visibility and competitiveness.
Pros of Measuring Share of Voice
Measuring Share of Voice (SOV) offers several benefits, including insights into competitive positioning, the effectiveness of marketing efforts, and market trends. It helps in optimizing resource allocation and supports data-driven decision-making, enabling businesses to maintain or improve their market presence.
Final Thoughts
Share of Voice can be a strong instrument to guide your digital marketing and PR efforts. However, it must be emphasized that this metric only traces the frequency of your mentions online rather than the quality. If you’re often referenced in small sites with limited followers, this won’t really drive you into Google’s top results. Meanwhile, if you caught attention from your interesting stories, then you might receive a great SOV, but that does not imply that your brand will benefit from it. Nevertheless, SOV is the nearest you can use to measure your market share and know your industry position, especially with the advent of social media, tracking your brand mentions and calculating the noise you have online definitely makes so much sense.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
What are examples of share of voice?
Share of Voice (SOV) is a crucial metric used in marketing and advertising to measure a brand's or product's presence and visibility compared to competitors within a specific market or industry. It provides valuable insights into market share, competitive positioning, and the effectiveness of marketing efforts. SOV can be calculated in various ways, depending on the context:
In digital advertising, SOV can be determined based on ad impressions, clicks, or ad spend. This helps assess the brand's online advertising performance relative to the market.
Social media SOV is calculated using metrics like mentions, engagement, or follower count, indicating a brand's visibility and impact in the social space.
PR and media monitoring involves calculating SOV based on media mentions or articles, while SEO and content marketing assess SOV through organic search traffic, keyword rankings, and content performance. Traditional media like TV and radio measure SOV by ad duration and frequency. Email marketing SOV evaluates open and click-through rates.
These diverse SOV calculations offer businesses valuable insights into their market position, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and adapt their strategies for better competitiveness and brand visibility.
What is share of voice and share of market?
Share of Voice (SOV): SOV measures a brand's or company's presence and visibility within a particular market or industry. It quantifies the portion of the total advertising, marketing, or communication space occupied by a specific brand or product. SOV is typically expressed as a percentage and can be calculated based on various metrics such as advertising spend, online mentions, or media coverage. It helps businesses understand their competitive position by comparing their visibility to that of their competitors. A higher SOV often indicates a larger share of consumer attention and can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing efforts, guide strategic decisions, and assess campaign performance.
Share of Market (SOM): Share of Market represents a brand's or company's portion of the total sales or revenue within a specific market or industry. It is a measure of market share and is typically expressed as a percentage. SOM reflects the brand's actual performance in terms of capturing customer demand and generating revenue compared to its competitors. It is a critical indicator of a brand's success in the market and is often used to assess market competitiveness, track growth, and make informed decisions about product development, pricing strategies, and market expansion. Unlike SOV, which measures visibility, SOM measures tangible market success in terms of sales and revenue.
Is share of voice the same as brand awareness?
Share of Voice (SOV) and brand awareness are related but not the same. They both deal with a brand's visibility and presence, but they focus on different aspects and metrics.
SOV is a quantitative metric that assesses a brand's visibility in the market, while brand awareness is a qualitative concept that evaluates how well a brand is recognized and remembered by consumers. While there is a correlation between the two (higher SOV can contribute to greater brand awareness), they represent distinct aspects of a brand's position in the market