What is share of voice?
Share of voice, or SOV, is your brand's portion of total presence in a market. Presence can be measured many ways, but the principle is the same: how much of the available visibility is yours.
It works as a competitive benchmark. On its own a number means little; against the market and over time it shows whether you are gaining or losing ground.
The formula.
Share of voice = (your presence ÷ total market presence) × 100. The unit has to be consistent, whether that is impressions, ad spend, mentions, or search volume.
Pick one measure and apply it to you and the whole market. Mixing units, like your spend against the market's impressions, breaks the comparison.
A worked example.
Your brand accounts for 30,000 of 120,000 total impressions in the category. Share of voice is 30,000 ÷ 120,000 × 100, which is 25%.
What is a good share of voice?
The benchmark is your own market share. The widely cited pattern is that brands holding a share of voice above their market share tend to grow, while those below it tend to shrink, and the gap between the two is often called excess share of voice. So a good SOV is one comfortably ahead of where your sales currently sit. Track it against competitors quarter over quarter.
Share of voice is one read on presence; impression share is the paid-search version of the same idea. Comparing them shows where you are visible and where you should own the impressions you are not buying.
How to grow it.
Increase visibility where your audience already looks, and do it consistently rather than in bursts. Sustained presence compounds into a larger share over time.
Paid presence ends when the budget does. Organic visibility keeps working, which is how you earn share of voice in search that holds.