Share of Voice PR: What It Is and How to Dramatically Increase It

Share of voice PR, or SOV, measures how much of the total media coverage in your category features your brand compared to your competitors.

You put time, money, and strategy into earning press coverage. But how much of the media conversation in your market belongs to your brand?

That is the question share of voice PR answers, and for most brands, the honest answer is both surprising and instructive.

SOV tells you whether you are dominating the conversation, holding your own, or getting drowned out by louder brands with bigger PR budgets.

More importantly, it tells you what to do about it.

A published Nielsen Research in March 2025, said that brands with a share of voice higher than their current market share are statistically more likely to grow revenue over time.

This relationship, where excess share of voice predicts future market share gains, is one of the most powerful arguments for investing in sustained, consistent PR activity rather than one-off campaigns.

Additionally, a 2025 analysis by Leapsly found that brands with 25 to 30% share of voice in their category typically show strong market presence, while brands below 10% lack adequate visibility to compete effectively.

This article explains exactly how share of voice PR works, how to measure it across every channel, and the specific tactics that move your number upward.

What is Share of Voice PR and How Does Is it Measured?

Share of voice PR is often described simply as the percentage of media mentions your brand earns versus competitors. That description is accurate, but it undersells the metric’s strategic depth.

Think of it this way. Every day, journalists write articles, bloggers publish posts, and podcasters record episodes about topics in your industry.

Collectively, these create a finite pool of editorial attention within your market. Share of voice PR measures how large a slice of that pool belongs to your brand at any given time.

The formula is straightforward: Share of Voice = (Your Brand’s Media Mentions ÷ Total Mentions of All Tracked Brands in the Category) × 100. The result is a percentage that reflects your brand’s relative presence in earned media conversations.

At 9-Figure Media, we position share of voice position as a competitive intelligence tool that reveals where your brand is winning attention, and where deliberate PR intervention is required to reclaim it.

However, modern share of voice PR measurement extends well beyond traditional news coverage.

As Brandwatch’s November 2025 guide explains, share of voice now encompasses multiple channels where brands compete for attention.

Understanding each channel is essential for building a complete picture of your competitive position.

The Five Channels of Share of Voice PR

Each channel contributes differently to your overall brand presence. Here is what each one measures and why it matters for your share of voice PR strategy:

• Earned media SOV: the percentage of news articles, press releases, blog features, and third-party editorial mentions your brand earns versus competitors. This is the core of share of voice PR and the channel most directly influenced by your public relations activity.
• Social media SOV: the percentage of social media conversations, mentions, hashtags, comments, and tags, about your category that include your brand. Tracked across platforms like LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and TikTok.
• SEO SOV: your estimated share of organic search traffic for a defined set of target keywords compared to all competitors tracked. Measured using tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.
• Paid media SOV: also known as impression share in Google Ads, this measures how often your paid ads appear compared to the total available ad inventory for your target keywords.
• AI answer engine SOV: an emerging and increasingly critical channel. This measures how often AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite or mention your brand compared to competitors when answering questions in your category. According to BrightEdge research cited by AirOps in 2025, Google’s AI Overviews appeared for roughly 84 percent of queries in early US rollout analysis, making AI SOV a metric no brand can afford to ignore.

Share of Voice PR: Formulas, Channels, and Best Tools

SOV Channel	Formula	Best Tool(s)
PR / Earned Media	Your brand mentions ÷ Total category mentions × 100	Brand24, Meltwater, Cision
Social media	Your brand mentions ÷ All tracked brands’ mentions × 100	Brand24, Brandwatch, Hootsuite
Organic Search (SEO)	Your estimated traffic ÷ Total keyword traffic × 100	Semrush, Ahrefs
Paid Media (PPC)	Your impressions ÷ Total available impressions × 100	Google Ads (Impression Share)
AI Answer Engines	Your brand citations ÷ Total AI citations in category × 100	Manual testing, Semrush

Sources: Brand24 SOV Guide (Nov 2025), Brandwatch SOV Guide (Nov 2025), Prowly SOV Guide (Apr 2025), AirOps AI SOV Analysis (2025)

Why Share of Voice PR Is a Leading Indicator

One of the most important things to understand about share of voice PR is how it relates to market share. Nielsen’s March 2025 analysis makes the relationship clear.

SOV is a leading indicator of future business performance, while market share is a lagging indicator of past results.

Think of it as looking through a windshield versus a rearview mirror. Your market share tells you where you have been, how much revenue you earned compared to competitors over the last reporting period.

Your share of voice PR tells you where you are likely headed, whether your brand is gaining or losing ground in the conversations that precede buying decisions.

Brands that maintain a share of voice above their market share, what strategists call Excess Share of Voice, or ESOV — consistently outperform competitors in market share growth over time.

In 2025, Nike demonstrated this at scale: the brand captured 49% of all shares of voice in the sportswear market while Adidas held 47%, a close battle that directly mirrors their market position competition, according to Brand24’s November 2025 analysis.

Furthermore, Michael Brito’s August 2025 analysis on share of voice measurement argues that SOV functions as a relevance indicator.

It shows how present your brand is in conversations that matter, even before direct buying intent appears.

Consequently, brands that grow their share of voice PR today are building future pipeline that will not show up in CRM data for months.

The Excess Share of Voice Principle

The Excess Share of Voice, or ESOV, concept is one of the clearest strategic frameworks available for justifying PR investment to skeptical leadership.

The principle, supported by long-term IPA databank research and cited consistently by Nielsen and other marketing effectiveness researchers, states:

When your Share of Voice exceeds your Share of Market, your market share tends to grow. When SOV falls below your market share, your market share tends to decline over time.

For startups and early-stage brands, this principle is particularly actionable. You are unlikely to outspend established competitors on paid media.

However, through consistent, high-quality earned media coverage, particularly in authoritative publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and industry-specific outlets.

You can build a share of voice PR position that punches well above your market share.

That imbalance becomes the engine of future growth.

Read Also: 2025 Ultimate Guide to Public Relations for Startups

How to Measure Share of Voice PR Step by Step

Knowing what share of voice PR is and knowing how to track it accurately are two different things. Here is the step-by-step process for building a reliable SOV measurement system for your brand.

1. Define Your Competitive Set

Before you can calculate your share of voice PR, you need to decide which brands you are measuring against.

This is your competitive set, the three to six brands that compete most directly with yours in earned media, search, and social conversation.

Choose competitors carefully. Your competitive set should include brands your prospects compare you to, not just every brand in your broader industry category.

A too-wide competitive set dilutes your SOV percentage and makes the metric less actionable. A too-narrow set gives you a misleadingly high number.

Additionally, your competitive set should be reviewed every six months. Newer brands can enter your category quickly, especially in fast-moving industries like technology and fintech.

Step 2: Set a Measurement Period and Baseline

Share of voice PR is most useful as a trend metric, not a point-in-time snapshot. Set a consistent measurement period, typically monthly, and establish a baseline before making any significant changes to your PR strategy.

Your baseline share of voice PR percentage is your starting point.

Every future measurement is compared against it to show directional movement.

Without a baseline, you cannot prove that any PR activity moved your SOV in either direction.

Record your baseline in a central document alongside the date, the competitive set, and the monitoring tool used.

This creates an audit trail that makes your share of voice PR reporting credible over time.

3. Choose the Right Monitoring Tools

Manual SOV tracking is feasible for very small competitive sets over short time periods.

However, for any meaningful ongoing share of voice PR measurement, you need a dedicated monitoring tool. Here are the most reliable options in 2026:

• Brand24 Pro at $199 per month annually: strong for earned media and social SOV tracking. Provides real-time mention alerts and a clear competitive breakdown by brand. Good starting point for growing teams.
• Semrush and Ahrefs: essential for SEO share of voice PR measurement. Both tools track keyword rankings and estimated traffic share across your competitive set. Semrush’s Market Explorer and Position Tracking features are particularly useful.
• Brandwatch: best for deep social listening and competitive SOV analysis across large data sets. Entry plans start at around $800 per month.
• Meltwater or Cision: enterprise-grade platforms that combine earned media, social, and broadcast monitoring for comprehensive share of voice PR tracking across all channels.

Furthermore, for AI answer engine SOV, manual testing remains the most accessible method. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask.

Note which brands are cited most frequently. This gives you directional read on your AI SOV even without a dedicated tool.

4. Calculate and Track Monthly

Once you have your monitoring tool set up, tracking share of voice PR is straightforward. Most tools provide a competitive breakdown automatically.

For each monthly report, record:

1. Your brand’s total media mentions for the period
2. Each competitor’s total media mentions for the same period
3. Total combined mentions across all tracked brands
4. Your SOV percentage: your mentions divided by total mentions, multiplied by 100
5. Month-over-month change versus your baseline and prior period

Present this data as a trend chart over three, six, and twelve months. The trend line tells a more powerful story than any single month’s number.

Proven Tactics to Dramatically Increase Your Share of Voice PR

Measuring share of voice PR is only valuable if you act on what it tells you. Here are the most effective strategies for growing your SOV in 2026.

Earn Consistent Coverage in Tier-One Publications

The fastest and most durable way to grow your share of voice PR is to appear consistently in high-authority publications.

A single Forbes article about your brand creates an indexed, authoritative page that AI engines, search algorithms, and journalists all recognize.

Multiple Forbes articles, combined with Business Insider, Bloomberg, and Entrepreneur features, build a pattern of presence that competitors without a dedicated PR strategy simply cannot match.

Consistency is the key word. A burst of coverage followed by months of silence does not build share of voice PR. It creates a spike and a decline.

Instead, aim for at least two to four significant media placements per month in relevant publications.

This cadence, sustained over six to twelve months, is what consistently moves SOV percentages upward.

Guaranteed PR placements, where your story is confirmed for publication in a specific outlet before any budget is committed, remove the uncertainty from this cadence.

Instead of pitching and hoping, you know your Forbes feature is running next month, your Business Insider piece the month after.

That predictability is what builds sustained share of voice PR growth.

Dominate Conversations Around Specific Topics

Rather than trying to compete with established brands across every topic in your category, identify two or three specific conversations where you can realistically dominate.

Brand positioning research from Brandwatch and Michael Brito’s 2025 SOV analysis both confirm that brands achieve higher SOV impact by concentrating voice in focused conversations rather than spreading thinly across many.

For example, if your brand operates in the HR tech space, you might focus your share of voice PR efforts specifically around conversations about remote work productivity, employee retention, and HR data privacy.

Focus on the topics where you have genuine expertise and where fewer competitors are actively pursuing coverage.

Over six months, your SOV in those topic areas grows significantly, even if your overall category SOV remains moderate.

9-Figure Media helps brands win by narrowing focus and owning high-value conversations where authority can be established quickly.

This targeted dominance strategy ensures that SOV gains translate directly into relevance with the right audience segments.

Read Also: Earned Media PR: Powerful Metrics That Reveal Growth and ROI

Activate Your Founders and Executives as Media Sources

Journalist outreach for executive quotes, commentary, and expert opinion is one of the most underused share of voice PR tactics available to brands of any size.

When your CEO appears in a Wall Street Journal piece as an industry expert, that creates a media mention for your brand.

When your CTO comments on an emerging technology trend in TechCrunch, that is another mention. Each of these contributes to your share of voice PR without requiring a full press release or media pitch campaign.

Platforms like HARO, Qwoted, and SourceBottle connect journalists actively looking for expert sources with brands willing to provide commentary.

For growing brands, these platforms offer a low-cost, high-output path to consistent share of voice PR growth.

They require discipline , responding quickly to relevant journalist queries, but the payoff in regular brand mentions across credible publications is significant.

Use Earned Media to Fuel Owned and Social Content

Every piece of earned media your brand receives is an asset that can be repurposed to amplify its share of voice PR impact.

When Forbes publishes a story featuring your brand, share it actively on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. Send it to your email list. Add it to your email signature. Feature it on your website homepage.

9-Figure Media treats every media placement as a distribution asset, not a one-time win.

By systematically amplifying coverage across owned and social channels, we multiply its impact and expand share of voice across multiple touchpoints.

The original press feature earns you a mention in earned media SOV. The social sharing campaign earns you additional mentions in social SOV. One piece of coverage, tracked across two channels.

Share of Voice PR Is Your Competitive Compass

Share of voice PR is not a vanity metric. It is a strategic compass that tells you where your brand stands today and where it is likely to go.

Brands that grow their SOV ahead of their market share consistently end up growing their market share.

At 9-Figure Media, share of voice PR is the metric that connects visibility to growth with clarity and precision.

We use it as a strategic compass to guide brands toward sustained market leadership through consistent, data-driven PR execution.

Start by defining your competitive set, establishing your baseline, and choosing the right monitoring tools. Then focus your PR activity on the two or three topic areas where you can realistically dominate.

Finally, report your share of voice PR monthly, show it as a trend line, and connect it to your market share data.

That combination tells a complete story about where your brand is going, and gives you the data to justify the investment that gets you there.