Share of Voice Calculator
Compare your brand's share of voice against competitors using media mentions, social mentions, impressions, or total coverage volume.
Press articles, news stories, blog mentions
Your brand
Competitors
What Is Share of Voice?
Share of voice (SOV) measures the portion of brand conversation, coverage, or visibility that belongs to your brand in a defined competitive set. It applies to press mentions, social mentions, ad impressions, search results, and any other quantifiable channel where brands compete for attention.
Share of Voice = (Your brand volume ÷ Total category volume) × 100
What Counts as a Healthy SOV?
A general rule from the “Excess Share of Voice” framework is that brands with SOV above their market share tend to grow, while brands with SOV below market share tend to shrink. In a 4-brand category, anything above 25% is above the baseline. In fragmented categories with 10+ visible competitors, 10–15% is often a leader position.
How to Source the Inputs
- Media mentions: Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack, or Google News alerts over a fixed period.
- Social mentions: Brandwatch, Talkwalker, Sprout Social, or native platform analytics for hashtag and @-mentions.
- Impressions: Sum of estimated reach across press and social — use the Media Impressions Calculator for a structured estimate.
- Coverage volume: A combined press + social count when you need a single composite number.
Pair With These PR & Earned Media Tools
- PR Coverage Value Calculator — translate your coverage into dollars.
- Media Impressions Calculator — total reach across outlets and social amplification.
- Earned Media Value Calculator — combined EMV across press and engagement.
- Social Media EMV Calculator — quantify the dollar value of social mentions.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is share of voice?
- Share of voice (SOV) measures the portion of brand conversation, coverage, or visibility that belongs to your brand within a defined competitive set. It applies to press mentions, social mentions, ad impressions, search results, and any quantifiable channel where brands compete for attention.
- How do you calculate share of voice?
- Share of Voice = (Your brand volume ÷ Total category volume) × 100. Volume can be press mentions, social mentions, impressions, or total coverage. The total includes your brand plus every competitor you are tracking — so the same data set across competitors is critical for an accurate comparison.
- What is a good share of voice percentage?
- A useful rule from the Excess Share of Voice framework is that brands with SOV above their market share tend to grow, while brands with SOV below market share tend to shrink. In a 4-brand category, anything above 25% is above the baseline. In fragmented categories with 10+ visible competitors, 10–15% is often a leader position.
- Is share of voice the same as market share?
- No. Market share measures actual purchase or revenue dominance. Share of voice measures attention and conversation share. SOV is a leading indicator — over time, brands with consistently high SOV tend to gain market share, but the two metrics move on different time scales.
- What tools can I use to measure share of voice?
- Common SOV tracking tools include Meltwater, Cision, Brandwatch, Talkwalker, and Sprout Social for media and social mentions. For search SOV, use Semrush, Ahrefs, or Similarweb. Pull the same metric over the same time window across every brand for a fair comparison.
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