What is share of search?
Share of search is a brand's share of all branded search volume in its category. It divides searches for one brand's name by the total searches for every brand in its competitive set.
It became popular as a brand metric because it's cheap, fast, and unaided. Nobody is asked a question. The metric just records how many people chose to look a brand up. Brand researchers have found it tends to move with market share in many categories.
How do you calculate share of search?
- Define the competitive set. List the brands buyers actually choose between.
- Collect branded search volume. Pull search volume for each brand name over the same period and region.
- Divide. Your brand's volume divided by the total for the set gives your share.
- Trend it. Track the share over time. The movement matters more than any single reading.
| Brand | Monthly branded searches | Share of search |
|---|---|---|
| Brand A | 50,000 | 50% |
| Brand B | 30,000 | 30% |
| Brand C | 20,000 | 20% |
What is an example of share of search?
An early signal
A brand's sales are flat for a quarter, but its share of search has climbed steadily since a new campaign launched.
More people are looking the brand up relative to competitors, which suggests growing demand that may show up in sales later. The team holds its brand investment rather than cutting it.
Share of search vs. share of voice
| Share of voice | Share of search | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | How much a brand advertises or is talked about | How much people seek out the brand |
| Signal type | Input | Demand |
| Data source | Spend, impressions, mentions | Search volume |
| Question it answers | Are we being heard? | Is anyone looking for us? |
What are the limits of share of search?
Share of search is useful, but no single signal captures brand strength.
- Category fit. It's strongest in considered purchases and weaker where people buy without searching.
- Name noise. Brands with common-word names pick up searches that aren't about the brand.
- Competitive set. A wrong set of competitors produces confident, wrong answers.
- One signal of several. It works best combined with sentiment, traffic, pricing, and other signals.
How does Alli do this?
Share of search is one of up to nine signals in Alli Brand Equity. Each signal is tracked as your share of the competitive set and as your own two-year trend, indexed from 0 to 100, and weighted per brand by how well it predicts your primary business KPI. Nobody sets the weights by hand.
Combined with signals like sentiment, direct traffic, pricing power, and Share of LLM Presence, it rolls up into a weekly brand equity score.
Explore Alli Brand EquityShare of search FAQ
How do you calculate share of search?
Divide your brand's search volume by the total search volume for all brands in your competitive set, over the same period and region.
Does share of search predict market share?
Brand researchers have found the two tend to move together in many categories, sometimes with share of search moving first. It's strongest where people search before buying.
What are the limitations of share of search?
It's weaker in categories where people buy without searching, noisy for brands with common-word names, and only as good as the competitive set it's measured against.
Is share of search a brand metric or a performance metric?
It's a brand metric. It reflects demand for the brand, which affects how efficiently performance marketing converts.
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