Share of Voice (SOV)

What is Share of Voice (SOV)?

Share of voice (SOV) is the share of the conversation or visibility in your market that belongs to your brand. If people mention your restaurant brand 540 times in a month and mention you and three rivals 2,000 times in total, your share of voice is 27%.

The idea comes from advertising, where it originally meant a brand's share of all advertising in its category. Today, the same formula is applied to social mentions, reviews, search results and even AI answers, wherever you can count your brand's presence next to your competitors'.

For a multi-location restaurant brand, share of voice answers a practical question: when guests nearby talk about, search for or read about places to eat, how often do they come across you? It's a signal of awareness, and it often moves before sales do.

How to calculate share of voice

The formula is the same for every type of share of voice:

Share of voice = your brand's mentions ÷ total mentions of you and your competitors × 100

"Mentions" can be social posts, reviews, ad impressions, local search appearances or searches, as long as you count every brand the same way, from the same sources and over the same period.

A share of voice example

Suppose a fast casual brand compares itself with its three closest competitors in one metro area over a month. Its listening tool counts public social posts and reviews that name each brand.

Your share of voice is 540 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 27.0%, second of four brands. That's above the 25% an equal split would give, and 11 points behind the leader.

Share of voice calculator

Enter the mentions for your brand and up to three competitors for the same sources and period. Leave a competitor at 0 to leave it out. Your market share is optional; add it to see your excess share of voice. The default values are only an example.

The ranking counts only competitors with at least one mention. The excess share of voice line compares your share of voice with your market share in the same area, which the next sections explain.

Types of share of voice

Social and earned share of voice

This is the most common meaning today: your share of public posts, articles and comments that name brands in your set. It's usually measured with a social listening tool, which counts each brand's mentions from the same sources.

Earned share of voice can also be weighted by reach or engagement, so a post seen by 100,000 people counts for more than one seen by 200. Weighted and unweighted figures answer different questions, which is why it helps to say which one you're reporting.

Review share of voice

Review share of voice compares the number of new reviews each restaurant receives in a period. Reviews are tied to a specific location, which makes this one of the most useful versions for restaurant operators.

Suppose your downtown location received 85 new Google reviews last quarter, while its three nearest competitors received 140, 60 and 55. Your review share of voice is 85 ÷ 340 × 100 = 25.0%. Tracking each location's review velocity shows whether that share is growing.

Paid share of voice

In its original sense, share of voice is a brand's share of all advertising spend or impressions in its category. For search ads, Google reports a closely related metric: impression share, the impressions your ads received divided by the impressions they were eligible to receive.

Impression share describes your own campaigns. Google's auction insights report adds how often competitors' ads appeared in the same auctions, which brings it closer to a true share of voice.

Search and local share of voice

Local share of voice measures how often your locations appear in the map results for searches such as "tacos near me". Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that review count and links contribute to prominence.

A common approach is to check a fixed list of searches from several points around each store. If your four locations appear in the local pack for 18 of 40 checks, they show up in 45% of those searches. Because the pack usually shows three businesses, your share of the 120 slots is 15%.

Share of search

Share of search is the share of branded searches in a category that are for your brand, usually measured with Google Trends. The IPA reports that Les Binet presented share of search in 2020 as a cheap, fast measure that correlated with market share in the categories he tested.

AI answer share of voice

AI answer share is an emerging practice with no standard method. Brands run a fixed set of prompts, such as "best burger in Austin", through AI assistants and count how often each brand is named. Answers vary between runs, models and locations, so these figures are best treated as directional.

Share of voice vs. market share

Share of voice measures how much of the conversation or visibility you have. Market share measures how much of the category's sales you win. The gap between the two is called excess share of voice (ESOV) = share of voice − market share.

A 2009 Nielsen study of 123 brands in 30 categories found that, on average, 10 points of ESOV went with about half a point of extra market share growth over a year. Nielsen also noted large differences between categories and brands.

Most of this research looked at advertising spend for consumer goods brands. For restaurants, where location, price and the guest experience drive choice, ESOV is best read as a directional signal.

If your share of voice in a city is 27% and your market share is 24%, an ESOV of +3 points suggests your visibility is running slightly ahead of your size.

How to measure share of voice per location

Guests choose between the restaurants near them, so share of voice means most at location level. A brand-wide figure can look healthy while individual stores are being drowned out by local rivals.

1. Choose a competitor set for each location. Three to five restaurants that guests genuinely consider, usually nearby and in the same category.
2. Fix the sources. For example, Google reviews, public social posts and a list of local searches.
3. Fix the period. Monthly or quarterly counts are steadier than weekly ones.
4. Count every brand the same way. The same queries, filters and location radius for everyone.
5. Track sentiment alongside. A spike in your share of voice from complaints is a warning sign.
6. Compare the trend. Your own change over time is more reliable than any single reading.

In this example, the airport location trails its rivals, which suggests where to focus review requests and local marketing first.

What is a good share of voice?

There is no universal benchmark for share of voice, because the figure depends on how many competitors you include and which sources you count. Adding a fifth competitor lowers everyone's share without anything changing in the market.

Two references help. An equal share is 100% divided by the number of brands, which is 25% for four brands. Your market share in the same area is the second, since a share of voice above it suggests your visibility is running ahead of your size.

Limitations of share of voice

• It depends on the competitor set. Changing which rivals you include changes every number.
• Volume ignores sentiment. A viral complaint raises your share of voice as much as a viral compliment.
• Coverage is incomplete. Listening tools see only the sources platforms let them access.
• Big brands dominate brand-wide figures. A national chain may lead in mentions while a local favorite wins in its neighborhood.
• It measures attention. Sales still depend on price, location, the menu and the experience itself.
• Methods differ between tools. Figures from two tools are rarely comparable.

How to improve share of voice

Earn more reviews. Inviting every guest to share their experience through review solicitation raises review volume honestly, and fresh reviews add to your local visibility.

Strengthen local search. Complete, accurate listings and steady reviews support relevance and prominence, which is what local SEO for restaurants focuses on.

Give guests something worth posting. Distinctive dishes, limited-time offers and memorable service create the moments people photograph and share.

Work with local creators. Creators who already like your food can reach audiences your own accounts don't.

Fix what drives complaints. Growing your share of voice through positive conversation lasts longer than any campaign, and it protects your brand health.

Best share of voice tools

Choosing a share of voice tool starts with your sources. Social listening platforms are strongest on social posts and news, while local reputation tools focus on reviews and listings by location. Multi-location brands benefit most from a tool that can compare each store with its own local competitors.

Each tool counts mentions from a different mix of sources, so the same brand can show different shares in each. Testing a tool against a few of your locations and their competitors, over the same period, is the most reliable way to choose.

Common share of voice mistakes

• Changing the competitor set between periods. It makes the trend meaningless.
• Reporting share of voice without sentiment. A rise driven by complaints looks like success.
• Measuring only brand-wide. Guests choose locally, so location figures matter most.
• Comparing numbers from different tools. Each tool's sources and filters differ.
• Counting your own posts. Your brand's posts inflate the figure; most brands count only what others say.
• Treating AI answer share as precise. It's an emerging practice, and answers change from run to run.

History of share of voice

Share of voice began as an advertising measure. James O. Peckham of A.C. Nielsen studied grocery brands for many years and proposed that a new brand's share of advertising should be about 1.5 times the market share it aimed to reach, a guideline known as Peckham's formula.

In 1990, John Philip Jones published "Ad Spending: Maintaining Market Share" in Harvard Business Review, comparing brands' market shares with their shares of voice. His work made the relationship between the two a standard part of advertising budget planning.

In 2009, Nielsen published its study of 123 brands linking excess share of voice to market share growth. Les Binet and Peter Field's analysis of the IPA Databank, published by the IPA in 2013 as The Long and the Short of It, found that brands whose share of voice exceeded their market share tended to grow.

Social media and review sites extended the idea from paid advertising to earned conversation, and listening tools began reporting share of voice from mentions. In 2020, Binet presented share of search at the IPA's EffWorks Global, and AI answer share is the most recent extension of the same idea.