Share of Voice (SOV) is a marketing metric that shows how much visibility your brand gets compared to others in your industry, usually calculated by collecting content via social listening. It represents the percentage of total mentions, impressions, or content volume your brand captures across digital and traditional channels.
What is share of voice?
Share of Voice is used to measure a brand’s presence in the market relative to competitors. It answers the question: How much of the conversation do we own?
Brands can track SOV across:
- Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), and YouTube
- Paid ads (Google Ads, Meta Ads)
- Organic search visibility
- News and blog mentions
- Review sites
In EmbedSocial, Share of Voice is tracked using API-powered data from social media posts that mention your brand (via hashtags or @mentions). The platform aggregates this across multiple accounts and platforms to give you a centralized view of your brand’s footprint.
How is share of voice calculated?
By simply using a share of voice calculator, there are usually two common ways to calculate SOV:
Mentions-based SOV
This is calculated by dividing your brand’s number of mentions by the total number of mentions in your industry.
Formula:Your brand mentions / Total industry mentions × 100
Example: If your brand is mentioned 500 times, and total mentions across competitors are 5,000, your SOV is 10%.
Impressions-based SOV
If data is available, SOV can also be calculated using total impressions from paid or organic reach.
Formula:Your brand impressions / Total industry impressions × 100
Why is share of voice important?
For marketing and brand teams, Share of Voice is more than a metric—it’s a strategic insight. Here’s why:
Competitive benchmarking
Understand how your brand stacks up against key players in your space. With EmbedSocial, you can track competitors using public mentions and hashtags.
Brand awareness
An increase in SOV often signals growing brand awareness. It’s a pulse check for how visible and talked-about your brand is.
Campaign tracking
Use SOV to assess the impact of influencer campaigns, hashtag launches, or product drops. EmbedSocial helps you monitor mentions and impressions in real-time.
Strategic planning
Knowing where you stand helps you decide where to invest more—whether that’s paid ads, content, or community engagement.
How to improve your share of voice
Here are ways to increase your SOV using a tool like EmbedSocial:
Launch hashtag campaigns
Encourage UGC using branded hashtags and track them across platforms.
Leverage influencer partnerships
Partner with creators to expand your brand’s reach and mentions.
Invest in content marketing
Publish high-value, shareable content that builds awareness and earns engagement.
Respond and engage
Use EmbedSocial’s review response and comment moderation tools to boost visibility and build community trust.
Track competitors
Monitor competitor mentions in the same dashboard to spot gaps and opportunities.
