What is Share of Voice, why does it matter, and how do I measure it in ecommerce?

What is share of voice?

Share of voice measures the percentage of media spending by a company compared to the total media expenditure for the product, service, or category in the market.

In the past, share of voice was simpler to measure as there were less channels of communication a brand could be present in, television, radio, billboards, etc. With the growth of digital marketing, the definition has come to include all online visibility.  This can include social media mentions, keyword traffic, paid social advertising, etc.

Why does it matter and how do I use it in my ecommerce activities?

Measuring your brand’s share of voice gives you a view of how your brand fits into the bigger picture.  You can see where your brand stand in amongst your competitors.  Leveraging the data gives you the ability to identify opportunities for growth.

Specifically in ecommerce, knowing your share of voice in a specific retail channel comes down to tracking banner ads across the retailer’s site.  Closely following this data can effectively guide your marketing ad spend in that channel.  

When designing a retailer specific ad campaign, you can:

• Check the current position of the brand and measure it with help of Share of voice (SOV)
• Set a goal, a benchmark, comparing your own brand to competitors and evaluate your share and spend
• Plan for your own campaigns they analyze the competing campaigns, both in terms of quantity and quality
• Ensure the retailer delivers on the agreement by checking all site pages and locations where your ads appear, while also confirming the agreed upon time frame

You can also understand the impact on your brand when a retailer runs a campaign promoting multiple brands:

• Understand how long the campaign lasts
• Know which of your SKUs were included in the campaign
• Check how it influences traffic, sales and CR% of your brand on this retailers website, other retailers’ and your own
• Align campaigns on other websites or in brick & mortar locations accordingly

How do I measure it in my ecommerce channels?

Measuring share of voice when you have multiple unowned ecommerce channels is very difficult because it is time-intensive and error-prone. You will need to visit every retailer page and take screenshots of banner ads while also logging their location, placement, brands included in the landing page, etc. Without an automated solution, you are likely to miss or incorrectly log information and the frequency of your data collection will be difficult to maintain. 

There are solutions, such as Brandquad’s Banner Analytics, that automate this data collection, so that you can focus on how to leverage that data instead.  Collecting data daily ensures that you have the right data at the right moment.  If you are interested in learning how Brandquad’s solution for Banner Analytics works, reach out to us and book a demo.