Glossary

Share of Voice (SOV)

Share of Voice (SOV) is the share a brand occupies in the total noise of its industry on a given channel — social mentions, search queries, AI citations — expressed as a percentage relative to competitors.

Also known as

  • SOV
  • share of voice
  • share of voice

Historically an advertising concept (share of media spend), SOV has expanded to cover all digital surfaces. 2026 variants: **Social SOV** (share of mentions on Twitter/LinkedIn/Reddit in the category), **Search SOV** (share of Google impressions on category keywords, measurable via Semrush or GSC), **AEO SOV** (share of citations in ChatGPT / Claude / Perplexity / Gemini responses on relevant queries — the most strategically critical emerging metric).

Foundational research: **Les Binet and Peter Field** (IPA, 2013) demonstrated that brands whose SOV exceeds their market share tend to gain market share over 2-3 years (the "excess share of voice" effect). Rule of thumb: target an excess SOV of **+5 points** for sustained growth. In B2B, SOV has become critical with the arrival of LLMs: if ChatGPT cites 3 competitors but not you on the query "best tool for [category]", you lose the decision intent before a single click.

In the getchatsocial.com product

getchatsocial.com measures SOV via `brandyze_brand_radar` (AEO SOV: citations in 4 AI engines), `brandyze_competitor_intel` (social SOV: mentions vs competitors), and the GSC integration (search SOV: Google impressions).

FAQ

  • How do you calculate your AEO Share of Voice (AI citations)?

    Across a list of 50-100 relevant queries for your brand, measure how many times your site is cited among the sources in ChatGPT / Claude / Perplexity / Gemini responses, divided by the total number of brands cited on those queries. Dedicated tools: Brandyze brand_radar, AthenaHQ, OtterlyAI.

  • What is the relationship between SOV and market share?

    Demonstrated by Binet and Field (IPA): a brand whose SOV exceeds its current market share by +5 points tends to gain market share over 2-3 years. This is the "excess share of voice" effect — one of the theoretical foundations for investing in long-term brand awareness.