Share of search (SoS) is the share of all brand-name searches in your market that point out your model. To search out it, rely what number of instances individuals searched on your model title, add up the searches for each competing model, then divide your quantity by that whole and multiply by 100.
For instance, let’s say your model will get 20,000 searches in a month, and your three principal rivals get 15,000, 10,000, and 5,000 searches, respectively. The full branded search quantity in your class is 50,000. To calculate your share of search:
20,000 ÷ 50,000 × 100 = 40%
As a result of SoS displays actual search habits, it provides you fast suggestions on model consciousness—a lot quicker than surveys or gross sales reviews.
In case your share of search rises, curiosity in your model might be rising and should quickly flip into a better market share. If it falls, rivals are gaining floor, so you could want to regulate your message or content material earlier than gross sales slip. Checking this metric each month or quarter will enable you to spot traits early.
These are related metrics that may simply be confused, particularly as a result of all of them measure aggressive visibility, however in very completely different contexts.
- Classical Share of Voice (SoV) tells you ways a lot paid-media publicity you’re shopping for versus rivals.
- Natural SoV reveals how a lot of the natural search visitors you win in your key phrase set.
- Share of Search reveals how usually individuals seek for your model title in contrast with rivals—an early sign of brand name demand.
Right here’s a extra detailed comparability to make clear the variations:
| Side | Classical Share of Voice | Natural Share of Voice | Share of Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core query | How loud is our paid media in contrast with rivals? | How seen is our web site in natural SERPs on a key phrase set? | How salient is our model in customers’ search behaviour? |
| What’s measured | % of whole promoting impressions, spend, or GRPs your model captures | % of whole natural clicks/visitors your website receives throughout tracked key phrases | % of all branded‑search queries within the class that point out your model |
| Major information supply | Media-buying logs, Nielsen/Comscore, advert‑server reviews | Rating & CTR fashions (e.g., Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker) | Google Traits or key phrase analysis instruments like Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer |
| Calculation | Model advert impressions ÷ whole market impressions (or spend) | Web site Explorer: your est. visitors ÷ sum of visitors of you + rivals; Rank Tracker: your clicks ÷ whole clicks throughout SERP outcomes for tracked key phrases | Model’s search quantity ÷ whole branded‑search quantity for competitor set |
| Replace cadence | Weekly – month-to-month (advert information lag) | Each day – weekly (is dependent upon rank‑examine schedule) | Month-to-month – quarterly (smooths model‑search noise) |
| Key strengths | Funds benchmarking & media‑combine planning; covers all paid channels | Granular, key phrase‑degree diagnostics; captures search engine optimisation/content material wins & losses shortly | Main indicator of market‑share shifts; tied to actual demand, not spend |
| Foremost limitations | Publicity ≠ consideration; usually lagging/pattern‑primarily based information | Solely natural Google outcomes; wants nicely‑chosen key phrase basket | Works finest for distinctive model names; doesn’t clarify why demand modified |
| Typical house owners | Model & media planners | search engine optimisation and content material groups | CMOs, model & insights groups |
Tip
Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker mechanically calculates natural share of voice for your whole goal key phrases.
It additionally calculates Share of Visitors Worth (SoTV)—the share of your goal’s natural search visitors worth in comparison with the entire natural search visitors worth for all tracked key phrases.
What’s extra, you may observe the progress of accelerating your natural share of search utilizing the historic information.
First, you might want to get the info on branded search quantity. For this, you should utilize a device like Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer.
- Enter your model title within the search field. Select one nation at a time.
- Go to the matching phrases report.
- Be aware down the numbers: SV (search quantity for all key phrases containing your model title within the chosen nation), and GSV (search quantity for all key phrases containing your model title in all 217 nations from Ahrefs’ database).
Repeat the identical steps on your rivals and key areas.
Lastly, add all volumes collectively, divide your model’s quantity, and multiply by 100. The quickest option to crunch the numbers and visualize outcomes is by utilizing an LLM like ChatGPT.
For model names that would imply various things (like “Apple” or “Delta”), you should utilize Ahrefs’ Mum or dad Subject function to filter out unrelated searches. This helps you focus solely on the subjects which might be clearly about your model. When you’ve narrowed it down, you may export the related information to calculate your SoS extra precisely.
The SoS proportion alone solely tells you ways a lot curiosity you get. To really decide model energy in search, you may pair it with different associated metrics.
Class penetration
This metric tells you ways your brand-name searches stack up towards whole searches for the entire product class.
If most individuals already trying to find you continue to make up solely a small slice of all class queries, your model is well-known to current followers however nonetheless hidden from the broader market.
By watching each branded and generic searches collectively over time, you may see whether or not you’re reaching new audiences past your present base and the way you stack up towards rivals.
You possibly can calculate it like this:
Class penetration (%) = (Branded search quantity ÷ Whole class search quantity) × 100
For instance, let’s say you’re within the venture administration area. If:
- Your model will get 90K branded searches/month.
- Whole month-to-month searches for all associated key phrases (together with rivals and generic phrases like “venture administration instruments”) is 1.5M.
Then:
Class penetration = (90,000 ÷ 1,500,000) × 100 = 6%
This tells you that 6% of all curiosity in your class goes to your model. In case you’re seeing excessive branded search quantity however your class penetration is low, it means you’re well-known amongst current customers, however have restricted attain past your base.
In Ahrefs, go to Web site Explorer > Overview, add rivals, and examine the Common branded vs. non-branded natural visitors part. From there, add up branded searches throughout rivals to get the class whole.
Momentum
Momentum appears at how your model’s search quantity rises or falls every month and stacks that development towards your rivals.
Quicker progress means you’re gaining consideration; slower progress means others are pulling forward. By lining these shifts up with the dates your campaigns started, you may see which promotions actually lifted your visibility.
As an example, within the chart under, you may see how shortly Monday.com started to achieve momentum in branded search in 2022. They’re on an excellent trajectory to meet up with Asana.
To quantify momentum:
Momentum = % change in branded search quantity over a interval
Suppose:
- Your branded search visitors went from 80K to 100K over the past 6 months = 25% progress.
- A competitor went from 50K to 90K = 80% progress.
Regardless that you could have extra whole quantity, they’ve extra momentum. This helps you establish rising challengers early.
Conversion-oriented intent
Even when your total branded search quantity is small, rating nicely for high-intent queries can nonetheless drive gross sales. Including this layer to your share-of-search monitoring turns it right into a sensible device, letting you see model features, rising rivals, or slipping demand sooner.
To measure this, use:
Excessive-intent visitors ratio = Visitors from industrial/transactional queries ÷ Whole visitors
Let’s say Ahrefs reveals:
- Whole natural visitors = 200K
- Visitors from industrial + transactional intent key phrases = 40K
Then:
Excessive-intent visitors ratio = 40,000 ÷ 200,000 = 20%
A excessive ratio right here means you’re not simply attracting consciousness—you’re attracting potential patrons.
In Ahrefs, use Web site Explorer >Overview > Natural key phrases by intent to see visitors breakdown by intent. You too can examine this throughout manufacturers to see who’s capturing demand.
You too can use Ahrefs to check key phrase intent between your model and rivals. In the identical Overview report, you may visualize this on a chart, exhibiting how a lot of every model’s key phrase footprint targets informational, navigational, industrial, or transactional intent.
Share of Search in Google’s AI Solutions
As Google strikes towards AI-powered search outcomes, the way in which individuals seek for manufacturers may begin to change. With AI giving on the spot summaries on the search web page, customers would possibly get solutions quicker, with out absolutely typing a branded question or clicking via to a web site.
If you wish to see how usually Google recommends your model vs your rivals, check out Ahrefs’ Model Radar. Merely enter your and your rivals’ model names, and set the mode to AI overviews.
It will present you what number of instances your model has been talked about in comparison with rivals and calculate your share over all mentions.
Listed here are 4 concepts for utilizing SoS information in your advertising and marketing technique.
Validate strategic course early
Share of search helps verify whether or not your model technique is resonating. In case you enter a brand new market and see an uptick in branded searches earlier than gross sales seem, it’s an indication that individuals are paying consideration and your positioning is working. It acts as an early pulse examine on market match.
Monitor marketing campaign momentum
Search curiosity builds throughout a number of touchpoints. Manufacturers that mix wide-reach campaigns (like TV or social) with helpful content material usually see compounding progress in branded search quantity.
By monitoring this over a number of weeks or months, you may see how briskly your viewers responds and regulate your messaging cadence accordingly.
Spot aggressive shifts early
Evaluating your share of search development with rivals over time reveals who’s gaining or shedding visibility, particularly round seasonal occasions or product launches. This helps you reply to market adjustments earlier than they have an effect on click on share, visitors, or engagement.
Observe long-term model influence
Share of search may be very helpful for measuring the influence of brand-building campaigns. You possibly can observe adjustments in branded search quantity on your personal area to see how consciousness shifts over time, however the true perception comes from evaluating that development towards your rivals.
This helps you perceive whether or not the raise you’re seeing is actually market-moving or simply a part of a broader class development. In case your SoS rises whereas others stay flat or decline, it’s a robust sign that your marketing campaign had a significant influence on model visibility.
If you would like extra individuals Googling your model, you might want to present up in the suitable locations earlier than they even suppose to go looking.
Which means getting talked about in trusted articles, critiques, and on-line communities the place potential prospects are already hanging out. Let’s take a look at a number of examples.
Run campaigns that spark branded searches
Run campaigns that stick in individuals’s minds. Whether or not it’s a cool product drop, a collaboration with an influencer, or a narrative within the media, give them a motive to look you up later.
For instance, when Duolingo introduced the demise of the Duolingo mascot throughout a viral marketing campaign in February 2025, the search quantity for the time period “duolingo” peaked to a brand new all-time excessive, and so did the branded visitors to the location (see charts under).
Discover competitor mentions utilizing backlinks
Take a look at the place your rivals are talked about on-line and intention to get your model featured in those self same locations. This can be a confirmed option to construct consciousness in the suitable context, so when individuals are prepared to go looking, your model is already on their radar.
A method to do that is by following backlinks to your rivals. Right here’s the way it works in Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer.
- Enter your competitor’s URL.
- Go to the Backlinks report.
- Enter the phrase “device” within the Ref. web page URL filter.
- Set the mode to Group by related and kind the pages by Web page visitors (to indicate the pages with essentially the most natural visitors first).
Open referring pages and see if you will get an excellent angle to pitch your product.
Discover competitor mentions utilizing model mentions in AI overviews
One other efficient option to discover high-profile model mentions is to make use of Ahrefs’ Model Radar.
- Click on on the Filter dataset button and set the market scope to AI overviews that don’t include your model title, and Key phrase doesn’t include [your competitors].
- Plug in your rivals within the subsequent part and set the mode to AI overviews.
Now, take a look at the key phrases the place Google recommends your rivals however not your model. These are the subjects the place you’re being unnoticed of the dialog. Attempt to get your merchandise or model talked about on those self same pages. This might imply pitching your product to the writer, providing skilled enter, or creating content material that’s much more useful.
Create content material for non-branded searches
In fact, you don’t have to attend for others to say your model. You possibly can take the lead by focusing on non-branded key phrases that relate to your viewers’s issues. Then, place your model as the answer immediately inside that content material.
To do that successfully, you’ll want strong key phrase analysis to search out the suitable phrases and subjects. We’ve acquired a full information on how to do this, so you can begin creating content material that not solely ranks but in addition earns consideration on your model.
For instance, I wouldn’t naturally hyperlink a advertising and marketing analytics model like PostHog with the time period “search engine optimisation for startups.” However because of a pointy, well-written article on the subject, they now rank within the high 10 for that key phrase. By doing this, they’ve expanded their attain, boosted model consciousness, and launched their product in a extremely related context.
Monitor missed model point out alternatives
And if you wish to keep on high of what’s occurring, instruments like Ahrefs Alerts are good for conserving your finger on the heart beat. You possibly can set them as much as monitor the online for pages that point out your rivals however not your model. This helps you see potential hyperlink or point out alternatives you may be lacking out on.
You too can add filters, like Area Ranking or estimated visitors, to focus solely on high-quality websites (these may offer you an even bigger search engine optimisation increase).
Optimize your branded search expertise
Final however not least, when somebody does look you up, be sure that your website is prepared: clear pages for issues like returns, pricing, or assist, and simple navigation that helps them discover what they’re in search of quick. A listing of your branded key phrases will enable you to with that.
Merely go to Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer, open the Natural key phrases report, and plug in your model title. Then see if the seemingly motive behind the key phrase matches the web page that ranks for it.
Whereas the share of search is a robust option to gauge model curiosity and spot early shifts in market visibility, it’s vital to grasp its limitations.
- It’s a directional metric, not a exact one—information may be affected by device sampling, algorithm adjustments, or noise.
- Model title ambiguity can skew outcomes, particularly for generic or multi-meaning names, so branded phrases must be vetted rigorously.
- Not each branded search displays shopping for intent; some could also be for assist or normal information, so it helps to section queries.
- It’s additionally not superb for all manufacturers—smaller manufacturers could lack quantity, whereas bigger ones can face information dilution throughout merchandise or areas.
- Exterior components may also trigger sudden spikes or drops unrelated to precise advertising and marketing efforts, like information, seasonality, or viral occasions.
- SoS most likely shouldn’t be utilized in isolation—combining it with different metrics like direct visitors, social mentions, and gross sales information provides a extra full image.
Lastly, do not forget that third-party instruments have limits in accuracy and protection, so at all times cross-check the place attainable.
Ultimate ideas
No metric is flawless and share of search has its quirks. But it surely’s one of many few methods to peek contained in the minds of potential prospects at scale. Observe it, cross-check it, and mix it with what you already know. Over time, it’ll enable you to perceive not simply how your model is performing, however why.
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