Why Agencies Are Turning to Share of Search to Prove Brand Impact
Marketing agencies have long been under pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work—especially when it comes to brand-building. Traditional brand lift studies and long-term tracking surveys can be costly, slow, and often fail to provide the agility modern campaigns demand.
In recent years, an alternative has gained serious traction among forward-thinking agencies: Share of Search.
Share of Search provides a dynamic, scalable way to track brand performance over time by analyzing search interest data. It's not a silver bullet—but used wisely, it offers powerful insights that help agencies justify their strategies, refine their tactics, and create compelling stories for clients.
What Is Share of Search—and Why Does It Matter?
Share of Search refers to the proportion of search queries a brand receives relative to its competitors. While it might sound like a niche metric, research has increasingly shown a strong correlation between Share of Search and market share—particularly in categories with high purchase intent and well-established competitors.
For agencies, the appeal lies in several factors:
It’s fast: You can detect brand momentum in near real time.
It’s public: The data (often sourced from tools like Google Trends) is readily available.
It’s flexible: You can track any brand, in any market, with almost no setup time.
It’s scalable: It works across clients—from startups to global brands.
Unlike traditional surveys, which rely on limited samples and lag behind reality, Share of Search reflects actual consumer interest as it happens.
How Agencies Are Using Share of Search in Practice
1. Tracking Campaign Impact Over Time
Share of Search can reveal whether a campaign is increasing a brand’s visibility relative to competitors. Agencies use this to:
Compare pre- and post-campaign visibility.
Monitor campaign longevity beyond initial media bursts.
Identify which campaigns (or messages) correlate with increased interest.
This kind of tracking works especially well for brand awareness and upper-funnel initiatives, where harder performance metrics like conversions may be months away.
2. Demonstrating Strategic Effectiveness
By building Share of Search into reporting frameworks, agencies can elevate conversations from “clicks and impressions” to broader brand relevance:
“Our campaign drove a 15% lift in SoS over 3 months.”
“We outpaced Competitor B in brand interest during launch week.”
“Client X regained momentum after two years of decline.”
These data points give clients a concrete narrative about how their brand is performing in the marketplace—and how your agency is driving that change.
3. Proactive Brand Monitoring
Share of Search also helps agencies identify early signals of brand slippage or emerging competitive threats:
A sudden dip in SoS might indicate negative press or customer dissatisfaction.
A rival gaining traction might signal a new campaign or positioning shift.
Agencies that track this data can proactively advise clients and pivot faster, offering real strategic value beyond campaign execution.
Why Share of Search Is Especially Valuable for Agencies
Cost-Efficient
Compared to ongoing brand tracking surveys or bespoke studies, Share of Search is incredibly cost-effective. It leverages existing public data, reducing the need for big research budgets—especially useful for smaller clients or those with leaner marketing teams.
Time-Efficient
Where surveys or sales data may take weeks or months, Share of Search updates almost instantly. That allows agencies to respond in real time, run experiments, and optimize strategies on the fly.
An Upsell Opportunity
Beyond performance, agencies are packaging Share of Search into premium analytics offerings or using it as a foot in the door during new business pitches:
“We’ll set up a monthly SoS tracker for your brand vs. key competitors.”
“Let’s audit your Share of Search over the past year to spot patterns.”
It's a high-value insight that’s easy for clients to grasp—and hard for them to ignore.
What Share of Search Doesn’t Tell You
While powerful, Share of Search isn’t a standalone solution. It doesn’t account for:
Sentiment: A spike in searches could be negative.
Intent: Search doesn’t always imply intent to purchase.
Context: Media spend, PR coverage, and product availability all affect results.
That’s why smart agencies use it as part of a wider measurement framework, triangulating SoS with other indicators (like brand uplift, social listening, and sales data) for a more complete view.
Final Thought: Share of Search as a Strategic Agency Tool
For agencies, Share of Search offers more than just a new KPI—it’s a strategic lens for understanding brand momentum and a compelling way to communicate value to clients. Especially in fast-moving sectors, it can bridge the gap between brand and performance, between strategy and execution.
Tools like Branquo are making this kind of tracking easier, more customizable, and more accessible than ever—letting agencies set up tailored dashboards for each client, benchmark competitors, and share real-time insights in a few clicks.
As measurement expectations evolve, agencies that adopt tools like Share of Search won’t just report results—they’ll shape the narrative.
