Free tool
Share of voice calculator
Share of voice (SOV) is your brand's share of all conversation in your category: your mentions divided by the total mentions of you and your competitors, times 100. If your brand had 1,200 mentions last month and two competitors had 2,800 between them, your share of voice is 1,200 ÷ 4,000 = 30%. Enter your counts below for an instant result, with optional engagement and sentiment weighting. No signup, and nothing leaves your browser.
Share of voice
- Your brand30%
- Competitor A40%
- Competitor B30%
| Brand | Mentions | SOV |
|---|---|---|
| Your brand | 1,200 | 30% |
| Competitor A | 1,600 | 40% |
| Competitor B | 1,200 | 30% |
Your brand held 30% share of voice (1,200 of 4,000 mentions) against 2 competitors; Competitor A leads with 40%.
Calculated in your browser. Nothing is sent to Sentinely.
Definition
What is share of voice?
Share of voice measures how much of the conversation in your market is about you rather than your competitors. It started in advertising as your share of total ad spend or impressions. Today it usually means share of earned attention: mentions in social media, news, forums and reviews. It's a relative measure, so it only makes sense against a defined set of competitors, channels and dates.
Formula
How do you calculate share of voice?
Share of voice = your mentions ÷ total mentions of all tracked brands × 100. Three variants are common, and the calculator does all three:
- Mention SOV: 1,200 of 4,000 mentions = 30%.
- Engagement-weighted SOV: your likes, comments and shares ÷ total engagement. A brand with fewer mentions but more engaged audiences can lead here.
- Positive SOV: your positive mentions ÷ all positive mentions. It shows share of favourable attention, which matters more than raw volume during a crisis.
Benchmarks
What is a good share of voice?
There is no universal target. Compare share of voice with your share of market. A long-standing rule of thumb from advertising research is that brands whose share of voice exceeds their share of market tend to grow, and brands below it tend to shrink. For earned media, track the trend month over month against the same competitors and channels. A rising share matters more than any single number.
Data quality
Why does my share of voice look wrong?
Usually the inputs, not the formula. The most common causes:
- Noise:keyword matches that aren't about the brand (a brand name that is also a common word), syndicated copies of one article, and press releases counted as coverage.
- Missed coverage:a tool that doesn't see a channel, market or language will under-count the brands that are strong there.
- Mismatched inputs: different date ranges, channels or query strictness for different brands.
Fix the inputs first: use one query style per brand, the same channels and dates, and de-duplicate syndicated items before you calculate.
By channel
How do you measure share of voice on social media vs news?
Calculate each channel separately before combining them. Social volume is usually far larger than news volume, so a blended number hides what's happening in the press. Report social SOV, news SOV and, if you need one figure, a weighted blend where you choose the weights deliberately rather than letting raw volume decide.
Automate it
Track share of voice every week without the spreadsheet
Sentinely tracks your brand and competitors across social media, news, forums and the web. An AI relevance gate filters out mentions that aren't really about the brand before they're counted, which is the noise that usually distorts share of voice. Plans are billed monthly with no annual contract.