Share of Voice: What It Is and How to Calculate It
What share of voice means, the formula, worked examples across mentions, media, search and reviews, and how to use it without letting a volume metric mislead you about reputation.
By Editorial Team
7 min read
Share of voice is the portion of the conversation in your market that belongs to you, compared with a defined set of competitors over the same period. The basic formula is your brand’s measure (mentions, articles, ad impressions or similar) divided by the total for you plus those competitors, multiplied by 100. It shows how visible you are relative to others. It doesn’t show on its own whether that visibility is good or bad, which is why sentiment needs to sit next to it.
This guide explains the formula, walks through worked examples, shows how to add a sentiment layer, and covers the mistakes that make share of voice misleading.
What share of voice measures
The term started in advertising, where it meant a brand’s share of total ad spend or ad impressions in a category. It is now used more broadly for any comparison of visibility: social mentions, news coverage, search visibility and even reviews.
Whatever the channel, share of voice always has three parts:
- A measure. What you are counting, such as mentions or articles.
- A competitor set. Who you are comparing against. The same brand can have a large share against local rivals and a tiny one against national players.
- A time period and source set. The dates and the sources (platforms, outlets, search terms) you counted across.
Change any of those and the number changes. That’s why it only makes sense to compare share of voice figures that were measured the same way.
The share of voice formula
The core calculation is:
Share of voice (%) = your brand’s measure ÷ total measure for your brand and your chosen competitors × 100
If you had 300 mentions in a month and you and three competitors had 1,200 mentions in total, your share of voice is 300 ÷ 1,200 × 100 = 25%.
The total only includes the brands you chose to compare. It is not your share of everything said online, and it shouldn’t be described that way.
Worked examples by channel
The figures below are made up to show the method. They aren’t benchmarks, and there is no universal “good” share of voice; it depends on your market, your size and who you compare against.
Social and web mentions
An illustrative regional furniture retailer, not a real client, counts brand mentions across social platforms, forums and blogs for one month, using the same monitoring tool and search rules for each brand.
| Brand | Mentions | Share of voice |
|---|---|---|
| The retailer | 420 | 28% |
| Competitor A | 600 | 40% |
| Competitor B | 330 | 22% |
| Competitor C | 150 | 10% |
| Total | 1,500 | 100% |
The retailer’s share is 420 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 28%. Competitor A is ahead on volume. Whether that is good news for Competitor A depends on what those mentions say, which we come back to below.
Media coverage
For earned media, count articles or segments that mention each brand in a set of outlets over a quarter. If the retailer appeared in 12 of 48 relevant articles about local home furnishing, its media share of voice is 12 ÷ 48 × 100 = 25%. Some teams weight articles, counting a feature about the brand more than a passing mention in a list. If you weight, write the rules down and keep them consistent. Our guide to media monitoring covers how to collect this data.
Search visibility
For search, pick a fixed list of non-branded queries your customers use, such as “sofa store near me” or “solid wood dining table.” Record which brand appears in each of the top positions and give each brand a score for its rankings, often weighted by estimated clicks at each position. Each brand’s share is its score divided by the total. Keyword research tools can do this automatically; a simple manual version is to count how many of the top ten results each brand holds across your list.
Advertising
For paid media, share of voice is usually your impressions (or estimated spend) divided by the total in the category. Many ad platforms report a related figure, impression share, which compares your impressions with the impressions you were eligible for. That is a useful number, but it is not the same as share of voice against named competitors.
Reviews
You can apply the same idea to reviews: your new reviews in a quarter divided by new reviews for you and your nearest competitors on the same platform. This is a rough indicator of how actively customers are talking about each business. Pair it with review velocity and ratings to see the full picture.
Add sentiment: why volume alone misleads
A brand in the middle of a scandal can have a huge share of voice. That’s why share of voice should always be read alongside what people are saying.
A simple way to add sentiment is to classify mentions as positive, neutral or negative (at least a sample of them, checked by a person) and then calculate a sentiment-adjusted figure. One common approach is “net positive share”: positive mentions minus negative mentions for each brand, compared across the set.
Continuing the illustrative furniture example, suppose a reviewed sample gives these splits:
| Brand | Mentions | Positive | Negative | Net positive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The retailer | 420 | 210 | 40 | 170 |
| Competitor A | 600 | 150 | 300 | -150 |
| Competitor B | 330 | 130 | 50 | 80 |
| Competitor C | 150 | 60 | 20 | 40 |
Competitor A leads on raw share of voice, but half its mentions in this example are complaints about late deliveries. The retailer has less volume but by far the strongest net positive position. If you only reported the 40% versus 28%, you’d draw the wrong conclusion.
Automated sentiment tools misread sarcasm, slang and context, so treat their labels as a starting point. Our guide to social media sentiment analysis covers how to check them.
How to measure share of voice step by step
- Choose your competitor set. Three to five brands your customers genuinely compare you with. Keep the set stable so trends mean something.
- Choose the channel and measure. Mentions, articles, search rankings, ad impressions or reviews. Report them separately rather than blending them into one number.
- Define your sources and search rules. The same platforms, outlets, languages and regions for every brand, with the same care over misspellings and false matches. Our guide to tracking brand mentions explains how to build clean searches.
- Pick a fixed period. Monthly works for most; quarterly for media coverage if volumes are low.
- Collect and clean. Remove irrelevant matches, spam and duplicates for every brand, not just your own.
- Calculate share of voice. Your measure divided by the total, times 100.
- Add sentiment. Label a sample, calculate positive, neutral and negative splits, and note the main themes.
- Record and compare over time. Keep the method identical each period and note any events, such as a launch or a news story, that explain spikes.
Not sure where to start?
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Get a free auditHow to use share of voice for reputation decisions
- Spot problems early. A sudden rise in your share of voice driven by negative mentions is an early warning. Investigate before it becomes a bigger story.
- Judge campaigns fairly. If a campaign aimed to raise visibility, compare share of voice before and after, and check sentiment didn’t fall.
- Find gaps. If a competitor dominates a topic you’re strong in, that’s an opportunity for content, press outreach or thought leadership.
- Learn from competitors. Read what drives their positive and negative mentions. Our guide to competitor reputation analysis shows how to do this fairly.
Share of voice is one line on a wider scorecard. Our guide on how to measure online reputation shows where it fits alongside reviews and search results. If you want mentions tracked and reported for you, our brand monitoring service covers that.
Common mistakes
- Treating more as better. Visibility driven by complaints is not a win.
- Changing the competitor set. Adding or dropping a brand changes everyone’s share, making trends meaningless.
- Uneven data collection. Cleaning your own mentions carefully but not competitors’ skews the result.
- Blending channels. Adding ad impressions to social mentions to news articles produces a number nobody can interpret.
- Quoting invented benchmarks. Claims that a certain share “should” be a set percentage aren’t useful without your own market context. Compare against your own history.
- Buying visibility dishonestly. Bot accounts, fake reviews or undisclosed paid posts can inflate share of voice, and damage your reputation badly when discovered.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate share of voice?
Divide your brand’s measure (such as mentions, articles or ad impressions) by the total for your brand and a defined set of competitors over the same period, then multiply by 100. For example, 200 mentions out of a combined 800 gives a 25% share of voice.
What is a good share of voice?
There is no universal figure. It depends on how many competitors you include, their size and your market. The most useful comparison is your own share over time, alongside sentiment, measured the same way each period.
What's the difference between share of voice and market share?
Market share is your portion of sales or customers in a market. Share of voice is your portion of visibility or conversation. They can move together, but a brand can be talked about a lot without selling more, especially if the talk is negative.
Can I measure share of voice for free?
Roughly, yes. You can count mentions manually for a few competitors using platform searches and news alerts, or count search rankings for a fixed keyword list. Paid monitoring tools make it faster and more complete, especially for larger volumes.
