What is Share of Voice?

Share of voice is one of the oldest metrics in marketing, and still one of the best predictors of growth. It tells you how loud your brand sounds compared to the competition.

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What does Share of Voice involve?

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Share of voice means measuring what portion of all advertising in your category is yours. You divide your own media spend by the total media spend in your market and multiply that by 100. If your advertising budget is one fifth of what all coffee brands spend on advertising combined, your share of voice is 20 percent.

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Instead of spend, you can also look at visibility, such as the number of ads, mentions or impressions. Online, brands sometimes also use share of voice for mentions on social media or visibility in search engines.

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In DOOH, share of voice has a second meaning: your share of the airtime on a screen. On a digital screen, several ads play one after the other in a loop. If your ad plays once in a loop of six spots, you have a share of voice of around 17 percent on that screen. This is also known as share of time.

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What does 100% Share of Voice mean?

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100 percent share of voice means you are the only advertiser: all the advertising in your category or on a screen is yours. Across an entire market, this almost never happens. In out-of-home advertising it is possible, namely when you buy all the spots on a screen or all the screens at a location. This is also called exclusivity or domination.

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With 100 percent share of voice, you have no competition on the screen. Every traveller who looks sees your brand. That makes it suitable for launches and campaigns that really need to take over a location.

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What is a good share of voice percentage?

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A good share of voice percentage is higher than your market share. Research into hundreds of campaigns shows a consistent pattern:

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• If your share of voice is greater than your market share, your brand usually grows.
• If they are roughly equal, your brand stays stable.
• If your share of voice is smaller, your brand usually shrinks.

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The difference between your share of voice and your market share is called excess share of voice. As a rule of thumb, every 10 percentage points of extra share of voice delivers, on average, about half a percentage point of market share per year. That is an average, not a guarantee. The quality of your creative and how consistently you stay visible also determine the result.

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For a smaller brand, this is good news. You don’t have to spend the most, as long as you show up more than your market share. On a single screen or in a single city, that is easier to achieve than nationally.

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Why measure share of voice?

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You measure share of voice to find out whether you are visible enough to grow. Your marketing budget says little on its own: spending ten percent more sounds good, but if your competitors spend twenty percent more, you lose ground.

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Share of voice helps you to:

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• compare your budget with that of your competitors;
• see whether your growth ambitions match what you invest;
• determine by channel, region or period where you make the most impact;
• spot shifts in the market early, for example when a competitor steps up its advertising.

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In out-of-home advertising, share of voice also helps you decide how often your ad plays in the loop. The higher your share, the more often people see your brand.

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Getting started with Share of Voice

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Want to know how large your share of voice could be in the Amsterdam or Rotterdam metro? Get in touch with CSDM. We’re happy to help you think through screens, frequency and timing.