Share of Voice

What Is Share of Voice?

Share of voice (SOV) refers to the amount of engagement your brand receives within your target market. It also specifies the sentiment behind the engagement—that is, whether people feel positively or negatively about your company.

Why Is It Important to Have a Good Share of Voice Dataset?

The total number of mentions or interactions your brand has online does not accurately reflect the popularity or respectability of your company. This is particularly true if you sell products that only a certain portion of the population uses (for example, medical equipment). Share of voice, however, compares your online visibility with your competitors providing a better picture of your standing among customers.

What Internal Data Should I Have for a Good Share of Voice Dataset?

Since the share of voice is a measure of customer sentiment, there is not a lot of internal data necessary. However, among the important internal data are transaction history, customer feedback, and marketing/advertising campaign history. These measures show the effectiveness of your branding and ad campaigns. Additionally, they point you toward ideas for future products or campaigns.

What External Data Is Essential for a Good Dataset?

The main sources of external SOV data can be divided into three types: direct website feedback, indirect feedback via keywords, and analytics software.

Direct feedback from websites include review sites, product comparison sites and apps, and your own and your competitors’ social media pages.

Indirect feedback comes from keyword tracking, hashtag tracking, and NLP technologies that measure the sentiment behind keyword or brand mentions.

Finally, analytics like Ahrefs or Google Analytics provide detailed information on your company’s online impressions and CTR (click-through-rate) per ad campaign or keyword. However, while these are excellent data sources, note that many require payment for full services, even if you don’t submit a paid campaign through them.

What External Data May Prove Useful for a Good Dataset?

Additional external SOV data may include market or industry reports. General marketing trends may also help you design your next promotion or advertising campaign.

What Are the Main Challenges of this Use Case?

There are three main challenges of this use case. First, many analytics software has a price tag, which may be a hurdle for newer companies.

Second, measuring the success of an ad campaign takes months. This is especially true for established brands whose existing clientele rely on past feelings toward them to inform their buying decisions.

Third, there is no way to get complete information on the SOV of your competitors, who have their own customer feedback and transaction histories that inform their measurements and decisions; analysis of competitors must always be inferred to some extent.

Interesting Case Studies and Blogs to Look Into

Brandwatch: How to Measure Share of Voice: PPC, SEO and Social Media
Bright Edge: Kroll Increases Share of Voice by 285%

Tangible Examples of Impact

Apple Siri continues to maintain a market share lead among voice assistants used on smartphones in the U.S.…

Results show that voice assistant use on smartphones rose from 51.5% in the fall of 2018 to 56.4% today.

That might seem like a modest rise. However, the population and smartphone ownership both expanded while frequency of use climbed. That lead to an 11% rise in total users and a 23% increase in daily active users of voice assistants on their smartphones.

Voicebot.ai: Voice Assistant Use on Smartphones Rise, Siri Maintains Top Spot for Total Users in the U.S.