Why share of search matters
People search what they’re considering: marketing researchers popularized share of search as a brand-health measure after finding it tracks with market share and often moves ahead of it. It’s also nearly free, built from search data anyone can pull, making it the rare brand metric a small team can trend monthly without a research budget.
Using share of search
- Define the setYour brand plus the rivals buyers actually compare
- Trend itThe trajectory means more than any single reading
- Watch it after campaignsBrand work should bend the line
- Read divergenceShare of search rising ahead of sales suggests growth coming
Questions
How is share of search different from share of voice?
Voice measures your share of advertising presence, what brands push out; search measures your share of buyer curiosity, what people pull. Pull is the harder evidence, since it costs the searcher effort.
What are its limits?
It’s brand-level and correlational: navigational quirks, news spikes, and shared brand names add noise, and searching isn’t buying. Treat it as a leading indicator to corroborate, not a scoreboard to worship.