What Is Share of Search? The Metric Every Brand Builder Needs to Know
Share of Voice (SOV) has long been a key brand metric. It’s useful—it shows how much presence your brand has compared to others. But Share of Voice can be expensive to measure and slow to reflect changes.
Brand builders today need faster, more actionable signals. Enter Share of Search (SoS)—a practical, real-time indicator of brand interest and relevance.
What Is Share of Search?
Share of Search is the percentage of total search volume for a category that your brand captures.
Formula: Brand Search Volume / Total Category Search Volume
It tells you how often people are looking for your brand versus your competitors—making it a powerful proxy for mental availability and market momentum.
Why It Matters
Correlates with Market Share: Share of Search trends have been shown to align closely with shifts in market share.
Reflects Real Behavior: Search data shows what people are actually curious about—faster than brand tracking surveys.
More Accessible: Unlike Share of Voice, you don’t need a media agency or giant budget. You just need the right tools.
Use Cases for Brand Builders
Track Launch Momentum: See if your new product or campaign is driving attention.
Benchmark Against Competitors: Find out if you’re gaining or losing ground.
Measure Campaign Impact: Watch for post-launch spikes or declines in search demand.
How to Start Tracking Share of Search
While you can get directional signals from tools like Google Trends, effective Share of Search tracking requires:
A defined set of competitors
Clean, normalized data
Contextual alignment with brand terms
That’s why we built MyTelescope—an AI assistant that automates Share of Search tracking, compares trends, and even recommends content ideas based on what’s gaining traction.
If you're building a brand and want to understand how demand is shifting in real time, Share of Search is your signal.
Try MyTelescope's AI Assistant now →
FAQ
Q: What is Share of Search?
A: Share of Search is the percentage of total branded search volume in your category that your brand receives. It’s a modern metric for measuring attention and interest.
Q: Why is Share of Search important?
A: Because it closely aligns with market share trends, provides insight into brand momentum, and reflects actual consumer behavior.
Q: How is Share of Search calculated?
A: Divide your brand’s search volume by the total branded search volume for your category. This shows your portion of total brand interest.
Q: Can I track Share of Search manually?
A: You can get rough estimates from tools like Google Trends, but for real insights, you need proper competitor sets, clean data, and normalization—tools like MyTelescope automate that.