Measurement

Share of voice

SOV · earned share of voice

Definition

Share of voice is your brand’s slice of a defined conversation: mentions, coverage, or ranked queries, divided by the total for a competitor set in a period. PR teams count stories or mentions. SEO teams count impression share on a keyword list. The denominator is the whole point. Without a named set and a period, SOV is a vibe.

Pick one object and stay there. Mixing “we had 40% of the clips” with “we had 12% of Google impressions” in one chart is two metrics.

How it works

Name the competitors, the outlets or queries, and the dates. Deduplicate syndications. Sentiment can be a second cut, not a substitute. Paid items do not belong in earned SOV unless you label a combined chart.

Worked example

Six cybersecurity vendors, U.S. trade coverage, Q2. 180 unique stories. You appear in 27 = 15% earned SOV. The category leader is at 31%. Your SOV rose from 11% in Q1 after a data study. That is a usable sentence. “We dominate the conversation” is not.

How it differs

Share of model is the AI analog on a prompt set. Citation share is the source-URL version of that. Reach is people, not story count. AVE is a dollar fiction and should not be used to weight SOV.

Common errors

Leaving the competitor set unnamed. Counting every Google Alert as unique. Putting paid native into earned SOV. Changing the outlet list when the number looks bad.

Sources