About the Share of Voice Calculator
This share of voice calculator shows what fraction of the total visibility in your market belongs to your brand. Pick the metric you track — social mentions, ad impressions, advertising spend, branded search volume or organic clicks — enter your figure and up to five competitors’, and it returns your share of voice (SOV), your rank, the leader’s share and the gap you would need to close to match them.
Marketers use SOV to benchmark campaigns, report brand awareness to leadership and set budgets. If you also enter your market share, the calculator works out excess share of voice (ESOV = SOV − market share), a figure widely used in advertising effectiveness research: brands whose share of voice exceeds their market share have tended to grow share over time.
Always compare like with like — the same metric, the same channels and the same time period for every brand. Competitor figures typically come from social listening tools, ad intelligence platforms or keyword tools, so treat the result as an estimate.
With the default inputs, the your share of voice is 17.14%. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the share of voice calculator
- 1Choose the metric you are measuring.
- 2Enter your brand’s volume for the period.
- 3Enter the same metric for up to five competitors.
- 4Optionally add your market share to see excess share of voice.
- 5Read your SOV, rank and the gap to the market leader.
Formula and method
Share of voice divides your brand’s volume on a chosen metric by the total volume for every brand in the comparison set. The metric can be mentions, impressions, ad spend, branded searches or clicks, but every brand must be measured the same way over the same period and channels.
Excess share of voice compares SOV with market share in percentage points. A positive ESOV means you are louder than your size; advertising effectiveness studies have linked positive ESOV to gradual market-share gains. The gap to the leader is simply the top competitor’s volume minus yours.
- SOV
- Share of voice, %
- ESOV
- Excess share of voice, percentage points
- Volume
- Mentions, impressions, spend, searches or clicks for one brand
Worked examples
Social mentions against four competitors
Your 1,200 mentions out of 7,000 total give a 17.14% share of voice, third behind competitors with 2,500 and 1,800. With a 15% market share, ESOV is +2.1 points. You would need 1,300 more mentions to match the leader.
Paid search ad spend
Spending $40,000 of the category’s $100,000 gives a 40% share of voice and the top rank. Against a 30% market share that is +10 points of ESOV.
Branded search, no market share entered
8,100 monthly branded searches out of 53,300 is a 15.2% share of search. The leader takes 62.1%. ESOV is skipped because no market share was entered.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate share of voice?+
Divide your brand’s volume on one metric — mentions, impressions, ad spend or searches — by the combined volume of your brand and all competitors, then multiply by 100. For example, 1,200 of 7,000 mentions is a 17.1% share of voice.
What is a good share of voice?+
There is no universal benchmark. A useful rule is to aim for a share of voice at or above your market share. Being the leader in your niche, or growing SOV steadily over time, matters more than any fixed number.
What is excess share of voice (ESOV)?+
ESOV is share of voice minus market share, in percentage points. The idea was set out by John Philip Jones in Harvard Business Review (1990) using share of ad spend, and later developed by Les Binet and Peter Field for the IPA: brands with positive ESOV tend to grow market share over time, all else being equal.
Which metric should I use for share of voice?+
Use the metric that matches the channel: ad spend or impressions for paid media, mentions for social and PR, branded search volume for demand, and organic clicks or rankings-weighted visibility for SEO. Do not mix metrics in one comparison.
Where do I get competitor data?+
Social listening tools estimate mentions, ad intelligence platforms estimate spend and impressions, and keyword research tools estimate branded search volume. Use the same tool and date range for every brand for a fair comparison.