The Ultimate Guide to Share of Search in 2025
What is Share of Search?
While most brands obsess over Market Share (and rightly so), the really smart brands are already one step ahead, focusing on Share of Search. In this guide, you'll learn why and how to start measuring it yourself.
Share of Search (SoS) is the share of total branded searches that one brand gets, relative to all brands in their category. Think of it as a brand's market share on search engines.
Because search engines play such a crucial role in both B2B and B2C purchasing processes, Share of Search has risen to become one of the really important brand metrics to measure. It's also a very agile and cost-efficient way of measuring brand health, performance and popularity as it's digital-first and realies on data that is readily available.
The Share of Search formula
The formula to calculate Share of Search is very simple:
Share of Search = (Your branded searches / Total branded searches in your category) * 100
So if your brand gets 1000 branded searches in a month, and your competitors gets a combined 9000 searches, your Share of Search would be 10 %.
(1000 / 10000) * 100 = 10 %
Share of Search is closely related to Search Volume, with the core difference that Share of Search is a metric relative to other brand's Search Volume. This has the benefit of giving important context to the volume that often leads to much more valuable insights than to just observe the rise and fall of volume.
Why Share of Search emerged
The Share of Search metric didn't emerge in a vacuum—it was born from a pressing need in the digital marketing era. Around nine years ago, a colleague approached Les Binet, Group Head of Effectiveness at Adam&eveDDB, with a simple but challenging request: "we need a share of voice for the digital era."
Traditional Share of Voice measurements had become virtually impossible as advertising shifted into "dimly lit corners of the internet." With the rise of retail media, OTT advertising, product listing ads, and countless digital platforms, reliable data on total advertising spend within categories simply wasn't available anymore. As Binet explains, "most people no longer trust the data" from traditional share of voice calculations.
After six years of experimentation and research, Binet unveiled Share of Search at the IPA-led EffWorks Global 2020 Conference as a "fast, cheap and predictive" alternative. His analysis across three diverse categories—automotive, energy, and mobile phones—revealed that share of search could predict market share "sometimes up to a year ahead," with research by James Hankins later showing that share of search represents up to 83% of a brand's market share.
In our data-driven age, Share of Search addresses the fundamental challenge of modern marketing measurement: moving beyond short-term metrics to understand long-term brand health through what Google and other search engines has become—"the world's biggest database of human intentions."
Why Share of Search matters in 2025
While Share of Search has been around for a couple of years now, and is based on well known and frequently used underlying data, it's certainly extremely relevant in 2025. Measuring brand performance and health is still a major challenge to marketers and businesses around the globe, and with it's additional benefits of being able to predict changes in the market, Share of Search holds a strong position as a vital tool in the Marketing toolbox of metrics.
Leading Indicator of Market Share
As previously mentioned, Share of Search is proven to be a leading indicator of Market Share in many verticals. This makes it an extremely important tool for business leaders as it unlocks opportunities to not only follow Market Share on a month-by-month basis, but to also predict its future movements.
Research by Les Binet shows that share of search can predict market share changes 6-12 months ahead, with the timing varying by industry:
Automotive: 9-12 months predictive window
Mobile phones: 6 months advance warning
Energy brands: 0-3 months lead time
James Hankins' research for the IPA found that share of search represents 83% of a brand's market share across 30 case studies spanning 12 categories and seven countries.
Binet's analysis of Volkswagen demonstrates this perfectly. Share of search forecasts for the automotive company were "incredibly close to what actually happened" in sales. When compared against "four or five different forecasting methods," share of search "won every time."
Businesses that are able to predict upcoming changes in their competitive landscape and act on those insights quickly have a strong first-mover's advantage and can pivot their marketing strategy to quickly combat negative forecasts or take advantage of positive ones.
Advantages Over Traditional Metrics
Share of Search, as a digital-first metric, has many advantages over traditional ways of assessing and measuring brand strength, popularity and health. While it of course has its drawbacks, it can act as a powerful tool for smaller businesses or as an additional perspective in combination with other metrics and methods of measurement.
Frequency and Speed
As Share of Search is based on digital-first data, it's at our fingertips whenever we need it. Setting up a first report to get insights into brands can be done in as little as five minutes with tools like Branquo.com.
While traditional survey-based methods can take weeks or even months to produce results, Share of Search provides updated data monthly (or even weekly with Google Trends), which makes it extremely useful for seeing the short-term impact of a campaign or to quickly identify trends or changes in the market.
Cost-Effectiveness
Traditional brand surveys can cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars to run—not something emerging brands can afford. Share of Search, on the other hand, can be calculated for free using Google Trends, or for a fraction of the cost if you're using professional tools like Branquo.com for your reporting.
This democratizes brand measurement, making brand metrics available to a much wider range of businesses and offering deep insights into brand performance without taking budget away from the activities that actually drive growth.
Global Reach
With Share of Search, you have access to as many local markets or even global statistics as you please, without any increase in cost or processing time. This is unprecedented compared to traditional metrics, where reaching a global audience would increase both time and resources immensely.
As Les Binet notes, this accessibility allows brands to tap into what has been described as "the world's biggest database of human intentions" without the traditional barriers of market research.
Examples of Business Applications
Share of Search is a versatile metric that can be used in many different ways by marketers, business leaders, product developers, and others to understand their market, their competitors, and their products.
Here are some examples of ways that Share of Search is applied to reach real business impact:
Brand Health Monitoring
Perhaps the most obvious and widespread use of Share of Search as a metric is to track brand popularity and interest over time. As Share of Search measures how many organic searches a brand gets in relation to competitors, it efficiently filters out noise such as changes to the overall market and seasonal fluctuations in market interest. This makes Share of Search an extremely intuitive but also agile and powerful early-warning system for brand decline.
Campaign Effectiveness Measurement
Measuring campaign effectiveness can be really tricky, time-consuming, and expensive. Many marketers have been in a position where they have to sacrifice a significant portion of their media spend to instead measure the effect a campaign has on their brand. With Share of Search, this is no longer the case.
Because Share of Search updates monthly and tracks all branded searches, it's easy, efficient, and fast to get feedback on any campaigns that are expected to move the needle when it comes to brand awareness. Additionally, because we have access to historical data going back to 2004 with Google Trends, there's no need to do multiple surveys before and after a campaign—you can even analyze the impact of campaigns that you ran years ago!
Competitive Intelligence & Investment Decisions
Share of Search is frequently used to research competitor momentum and future investment or development decisions. This may include expanding to new markets, developing new products, or acquisitions of other brands. Because of the easy access to data, a new competitive analysis can be set up within minutes with a tool like Branquo.com.
This real-time competitive intelligence makes it affordable and efficient to research:
Shifts in consumer behavior and search patterns
The relevance of a brand or product in new markets
The competitive position of brands relative to their competitors
Early indicators of market share changes before they appear in sales data
Share of Search vs Other metrics
Share of Search is often compared to other metrics available to marketers. While this can sometimes be useful to understand the pros and cons of different metrics, we encourage you to use multiple metrics to get a clear understanding of your brand and performance.
Share of Search vs Share of Voice
Share of Voice (SoV) is a metric that holds two meanings in the current landscape. Traditionally, Share of Voice has been defined as the share of ad spend a brand has in their category. Lately, especially with the reach of social media, some also define it as the share of mentions a brand gets.
Traditional SoV (Ad Spend) vs. Share of Search: Measuring Share of Voice in the traditional definition (share of media spend) has become increasingly difficult with the rise of hyper-targeting and algorithms that make it extremely difficult to assess how much different brands are spending on advertising. Therefore, Share of Search is a great alternative to Share of Voice in the traditional sense, as it's easily measurable and also tracks actual brand interest.
Modern SoV (Mentions) vs. Share of Search: Regarding the more recent definition of Share of Voice (share of mentions), Share of Search is quite similar. The key difference, however, and what makes Share of Search stand out, is that Share of Search measures only actual consumer interest, while Share of Voice can easily get distorted by bought mentions and featured content.
Key Distinction:
Share of Search = consumer-initiated searches (demand signal)
Share of Voice = brand-initiated messaging (supply signal)
When to Use Each: Use Share of Voice for campaign tracking and measuring your marketing presence. Use Share of Search for understanding genuine consumer demand and predicting market movements.
Share of Search vs Market Share
Market Share Definition: Percentage of total sales in category
Studies have shown that Share of Search and Market Share are closely related in the sense that Share of Search can predict Market Share by up to 12 months. However, this doesn't mean that Share of Search is Market Share, and it's very important to continuously follow up on actual Market Share and compare it to Share of Search. Doing so will give you even more data on exactly how you can correlate Share of Search to Market Share in your particular industry and competitive landscape.
he fundamental difference lies in timing. Share of Search acts as a leading indicator, showing consumer interest and intent before it translates into purchases. Market Share, on the other hand, is a lagging indicator that reflects what has already happened in terms of sales.
By using Share of Search as a predicting metric, you can quickly react to changes and trends that are likely to affect your Market Share in the coming months, positioning you to mitigate negative developments or enhance positive ones.
Use Cases Where SoS Beats Market Share:
Early trend detection: Spot emerging competitors before they impact sales
Campaign impact: Measure brand-building effects months before sales data shows results
Market entry: Assess brand interest in new markets without waiting for sales data
Share of Search vs Brand Awareness Surveys
Traditional Brand Tracking Limitations
Traditional brand awareness surveys have been the gold standard for measuring brand health for decades. These surveys typically measure aided and unaided brand awareness, brand consideration, and purchase intent through consumer panels and questionnaires.
However, traditional brand tracking comes with significant drawbacks:
Expensive: Professional brand studies can cost $50,000-$200,000+ annually
Slow: Results often take 6-8 weeks to compile and analyze
Sample-limited: Usually based on 500-2,000 respondents per market
Recall bias: People don't always accurately remember their behavior or intentions
Share of Search Advantages
Share of Search addresses many of these limitations:
Real-time data: Updated monthly or even weekly
Comprehensive coverage: Measures actual behavior of millions of users
Cost-effective: Free with Google Trends, or affordable with professional tools
No sample bias: Based on actual search behavior, not stated intentions
What Share of Search Doesn't Measure
It's important to understand that Share of Search has limitations. Unlike traditional surveys, it doesn't measure:
Brand sentiment: Whether searches are positive or negative
Purchase intent strength: How likely searchers are to actually buy
Brand attributes: What consumers think about your brand's specific qualities
Consideration set: Whether your brand is being considered alongside competitors
The Complementary Approach
The most effective strategy combines both metrics. Use Share of Search for continuous monitoring, trend detection, and quick campaign feedback. Supplement this with periodic brand awareness surveys to understand the "why" behind the search trends and measure qualitative brand health dimensions that search data cannot capture.
This hybrid approach gives you both the speed and cost-effectiveness of Share of Search plus the depth and context of traditional research.
How to Calculate Share of Search
The formula to calculate Share of Search is extremely simple - the tricky part can be to get the underlying data to power the calculation. Luckily, there are multiple sources of this data, some free and some to a very reasonable price.
Before you Calculate Share of Search
Regardless of the data collection method you decide to use, there are certain things you need to consider and steps that needs to be taken.
Define your Market
The very first step before starting to measure Share of Search is to define who you are comparing yourself to. As Share of Search is a relative metrics, it's extremely important that you define your competitors and geographical market correctly. Remember that the competitors that are relevant to measure against may be different depending on the geographical market you choose. Therefore, you may need to adjust your competitors if you change your geographical scope.
It's very important that you include all relevant competitors in your calculation. Even if you may see only brand X, Y and Z as your closest competitors, perhaps because you're a very large or very small brand, don't make the mistake of not including brands A, B and C who are also in your category.
Excluding brands that are in fact competitors, regardless of their size, will just risk making your reporting look better or worse than it actually is.
Define Search Terms
Share of Search reporting is based on the search volume for specified terms, and while the basics are quite simple (include brand searches), the actual terms may require some planning. For example, it's important to include variation of brand names (Coca-Cola, Coke, Cola), abbreviations and common misspells. All of these should contribute to the same total Share of Search of a brand.
Share of Search Data Collection Methods
To calculate Share of Search, you need to first collect Search Volume (or Relative Search Interest) data. Luckily, this data is readily available, either for free or as part of a specialized tool.
Google Trends (free)
Google Trends is probably the most accessible and user-friendly tool for getting started with Share of Search analysis. It's completely free and provides a wealth of data that can give you valuable insights into your brand's performance relative to competitors.
Getting Started with Google Trends
To begin your Share of Search analysis, navigate to trends.google.com and enter your brand name in the search box along with any competitors you want to compare to. There's a limit on the number of brands you can compare in the same search, so if you need to compare more you'll have to download data multiple times.
For detailed instructions on how to calculate Share of Search using Google Trends, read our article here.
Pro Tips for Better Analysis
Make sure to adjust the geographic settings to match your target market – global data might not be relevant if you're a local business. Use the category filters to narrow down your industry, which helps eliminate irrelevant searches. The "Related queries" section at the bottom often reveals valuable insights about what people are actually searching for when they look up your brand.
Understanding the Limitations
Google Trends shows relative search volume, not absolute numbers. A score of 100 represents peak popularity for your search term, while 50 means half as popular. This makes it perfect for comparing brands against each other, but you won't get exact search volumes. Historical data is also somewhat limited for smaller brands that don't generate significant search volume.
Best Use Cases
Google Trends excels at competitive monitoring and identifying trends over time. It's perfect for getting a quick snapshot of how your brand performs against competitors and for spotting seasonal patterns or the impact of major campaigns or events.
Google Keyword Planner (free, requires account)
Google Keyword Planner offers more precise search volume data than Google Trends, making it valuable for Share of Search calculations when you need actual numbers rather than relative comparisons.
Getting Access
You'll need a Google Ads account to access Keyword Planner, but you don't need to run any ads or spend money. Simply sign up for Google Ads, verify your account, and you'll find Keyword Planner under the "Tools & Settings" menu. The setup process takes just a few minutes.
Extracting Search Volume Data
Enter your brand name and competitors' names as keywords. The tool will show you average monthly search volumes, typically presented as ranges (like 1K-10K or 10K-100K). For Share of Search calculations, you'll want to use the midpoint of these ranges or be consistent in how you interpret them across all brands you're comparing.
Working Around the Limitations
Keyword Planner's data is primarily designed for advertisers, so it focuses on commercial keywords and may underestimate brand search volumes. The broad ranges can also make precise calculations challenging. To get more accurate data, try adding location-specific terms or use multiple related keywords for each brand, then aggregate the results.
Improving Data Accuracy
Create separate searches for different variations of brand names (including common misspellings), and consider seasonal variations in your analysis. If you're comparing international brands, make sure to set the same geographic and language settings for all searches to ensure fair comparisons.
The combination of historical consistency and actual volume estimates makes Keyword Planner particularly useful when you need to present Share of Search data with concrete numbers to stakeholders or when planning marketing budgets based on search volume projections.
Branquo.com (free for basic dashboard)
Branquo.com is a specialized tool designed to make Share of Search data accessible and actionable. By using a Branquo.com you'll save time doing calculations and can instead focus on actual analysis.
Getting started
To get started, simply sign up for an account and choose your plan. You can start out with the free Starter plan that allows you to create one basic dashboard to get started. If you need more advanced dashboards or more than one dashboard, upgrading is affordable. Check out the complete pricing here.
Easy setup, reliable data
The main difference of using a tool like Branquo compared to manual methods like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner is that you don't have to do any data manipulation yourself. All you have to do is define the brands you want to compare, the geographical region and the data sources and the tool does all the heavy lifting of calculations and visualizations for you.
With other tools you also have to repeat the process every month, but with a dedicated tool you can trust that your dashboards will always be ready for you whenever there's new data.
Intuitive dashboards
The dashboards and reports generated with Branquo.com are designed to be easily understandable for marketers and management alike. As these dashboards focus only on Search Volume and Share of Search, clutter is kept to a minimum to.
You also get access to smart features such as notations, sharing dashboards, AI assisted analysis and automatic email notifications as soon as new data is available.
Summary
Share of Search has emerged as one of the most valuable brand metrics for modern marketers, offering a fast, cost-effective way to measure brand health and predict market movements. Unlike traditional metrics that are expensive and slow to produce, Share of Search provides real-time insights into consumer demand that can forecast market share changes 6-12 months ahead.
Key Takeaways:
What Share of Search Measures: The percentage of total branded searches your brand receives compared to competitors in your category—essentially your brand's market share on search engines.
Why It Matters: Research shows Share of Search can predict up to 83% of a brand's market share, making it an invaluable leading indicator for business planning and competitive strategy.
Major Advantages: Real-time data availability, cost-effectiveness (free with Google Trends), global reach without additional costs, and the ability to democratize brand measurement for businesses of all sizes.
Best Applications: Brand health monitoring, campaign effectiveness measurement, competitive intelligence, and investment decision research. It's particularly powerful for early trend detection and quick campaign feedback.
Getting Started: You can begin measuring Share of Search today using free tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner. For more advanced analysis and automated reporting, specialized tools like Branquo.com streamline the process with intuitive dashboards and regular updates.
The Bottom Line: Share of Search doesn't replace traditional brand metrics—it enhances them. By combining Share of Search for continuous monitoring with periodic brand awareness surveys for deeper insights, you get both the speed and cost-effectiveness of digital-first measurement plus the context of traditional research.
Whether you're a startup looking to compete with established brands or an enterprise seeking better market intelligence, Share of Search provides the data-driven insights you need to make informed decisions and stay ahead of market changes.
Ready to get started? Create a free account at Branquo.com and generate your first Share of Search report right now!
