Share of Search: The Buzzworthy Metric of Interest for Businesses

Authored by Novus Insights 06/08/2024

‘Share of Search’ is increasingly being adopted as one of the newest but finest market research techniques to understand where a brand stands when compared to competitors. It can provide significant insights into your market share and enable you to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, and brand awareness. There's a reason why modern marketing research technology experts are betting big on share of search as one of the leading indicators of a brand’s success. Now you might be wondering, “what exactly is ‘Share of Search’? And why does it matter?” Continue reading to learn more on how to measure this unique metric and leverage it to enhance your business strategy.

What is Share of Search?

Share of search (SoS) is one of the newest market research techniques introduced by seasoned marketers Les Binet and James Hankins in 2020. This particular metric explains the number of organic search queries made for your brand compared to all searches made for similar brands in the same category. The concept of this brand performance metric is simple–

• You have to decide who you are competing against
• Find the searches for all these brands
• Check the searches made for your brand
• Compare those search volumes, and
• Calculate the percentage of searches

Share of Search allows you to figure out how your brand measures against your competitors, using the volume of brand search terms as the base for comparison. It provides you with a rough idea of the market share of your own brand compared to others in the same space as yours. All of this without looking at sales, revenue, and other confidential business data – imagine the utility.

Reasons Why Share of Search Matters

Share of search can be an effective metric to measure your brand’s performance as it directly correlates with overall market share. It also brings together a large amount of data and information into a single, easy-to-understand entity for measuring brand awareness. Here are some key reasons why the share of search matters in market research, especially for highly competitive sectors like technology market research:

1. Indicates the success of your marketing & PR efforts: This metric can help you assess how effective your overall marketing and PR strategy is, its strengths & weaknesses, what optimizations are required, and how to get the best ROI.
2. Analyzes if your SEO game is strong: Share of search also helps to figure out the efficiency of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. It helps you conveniently monitor brand recognition and reputation, which are usually the key goals for SEO campaigns.
3. Helps you predict sales revenue growth: There is a direct relation between the share of search, market share, and sales. A study by MyTelescope found that the average correlation between the share of search and share of market was 83% across various countries, categories, and languages, which indicates a high correlation of this metric with sales.
4. Leads to improvements in conversion rates: By focusing on this metric, you can improve marketing and outreach efforts to boost conversion rates, as branded search traffic usually has considerably higher chances of purchasing than non-branded ones.
5. Improves brand recall and recognition: You can use SoS to assess if your brand recall and recognition performance is up to the mark. If not, you can work on it to improve them, leading to more organic search traffic, higher conversion rates, and more sales.

How to Leverage Share of Search for Business Strategy

When you have access to your share of search data, you can leverage it to fine-tune your business strategies based on valuable insights into your market position, your competitor’s market dominance, and the awareness & recognition of different brands. Share of search can help your business develop data-driven strategies that will improve your brand visibility. But you need to intelligently use this particular metric. Here’s how you can ensure leveraging SoS for enhancing business strategy:

Accessing Share of Search Data

Leveraging share of search (SoS) data allows businesses to gain critical insights into their market position, competitor’s market dominance, and the awareness and recognition of various brands. By understanding where your brand stands in relation to competitors, you can identify strengths and weaknesses in your market strategy. This data provides a clearer picture of your brand’s visibility and perception among consumers, which is essential for making informed strategic decisions.

Analyzing Search Results

When analyzing search results, focus on identifying topics where your brand has strong visibility. This analysis helps in recognizing areas where your brand already has a competitive edge. You can then expand your product or service offerings to align with new and evolving audience expectations. By addressing the interests and needs that emerge from this analysis, you can better meet customer demands and stay ahead of market trends.

Utilizing Data for Predictions

For technology market research companies, integrating SoS data into your knowledge base is invaluable for making robust predictions about future business returns. This data helps in understanding market dynamics and consumer behavior trends. By leveraging these insights, you can provide your clients with accurate forecasts and strategic recommendations, thereby enhancing the value of your consultancy services.

Replicating Successful Outreach Campaigns

SoS data is instrumental in identifying successful outreach campaigns. By analyzing what has worked well for your brand, you can replicate these strategies to increase your SoS percentage. This not only helps in maintaining a strong market presence, but also in establishing and reinforcing your brand’s reputation. Consistent success in outreach efforts builds trust and loyalty among your audience.

Understanding Customer Queries and Expectations

Analyzing SoS data provides a deep understanding of customer queries and expectations. This insight allows you to gauge whether your brand is effectively addressing consumer concerns. Understanding these aspects helps in refining your customer service and product development strategies, ensuring that your brand meets or exceeds customer expectations, thus enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Developing Data-Driven Strategies

SoS data is a powerful tool for developing data-driven strategies aimed at improving brand visibility, increasing market share, and boosting sales and revenue growth. By basing your strategic decisions on concrete data, you can create more effective marketing campaigns and product offerings. This approach ensures that your strategies are aligned with market realities and consumer needs, leading to more successful outcomes.

Continuous Monitoring

To get the best results from SoS data, continuous monitoring is essential. Regularly tracking this metric ensures that you stay updated on changes in market dynamics and consumer behavior. This ongoing vigilance allows you to adapt your strategies in real-time, ensuring sustained effectiveness and optimal results. Continuous monitoring also helps in identifying new opportunities and potential threats early on, enabling proactive decision-making.

Hire Market Research Companies to Leverage Share of Search to Its Fullest

Partnering with market research companies specializing in share of search (SoS) analysis can enhance your ability to extract actionable insights. These experts bring advanced analytics capabilities and industry-specific knowledge to interpret SoS data effectively. Collaborating with such firms can help businesses gain deeper insights into competitive landscapes, consumer behavior trends, and strategic opportunities. A reputable technology market research company is adept at deploying gold standard market research techniques for more informed decision-making and empowers businesses to develop targeted strategies that maximize their SoS percentage and market impact.

How Does a Technology Market Research Company Measure Share of Search?

Technology market research firms enable businesses to leverage SoS data effectively in shaping informed business strategies and achieving sustained growth in competitive markets. These experts measure SoS through a structured approach that involves the following steps:

• Data Collection and Aggregation: Market research firms gather search query data from major search engines like Google, Bing, or others relevant to the market in question. They aggregate this data to capture the volume of searches related to specific brands or products over a defined period.
• Calculation of Market Share: Using advanced analytics tools, these companies calculate the share of total search queries that mention a particular brand compared to its competitors. This calculation provides a quantitative measure of brand visibility and consumer interest relative to the market as a whole.
• Trend Analysis: Beyond static measurements, market research companies analyze trends in SoS over time. They track changes in search volumes, shifts in consumer preferences, and fluctuations in brand awareness to identify emerging patterns and market dynamics.
• Competitive Benchmarking: To provide actionable insights, firms benchmark a brand's SoS against its competitors. This benchmarking helps businesses understand their relative market position and competitive strengths or weaknesses in terms of online visibility and consumer interest.
• Strategic Recommendations: Based on their analysis, market research companies offer strategic recommendations. These may include optimizing digital marketing campaigns, refining product offerings, or adjusting branding strategies to improve SoS and enhance overall market competitiveness.

Final Word

Keeping track of your share of search is a wise approach to measure brand awareness and market share. It offers valuable insights about market dominance and predict the volume of sales, which is very useful for any business. This is why it is vital to have a technology market research company by your side. Looking for reputable market consulting firms with proven expertise? Look no further than Novus Insights. We possess over two decades of diverse experience and a track record of success in market research consulting. Our team excels in providing effective solutions for clients' challenges. For more information on how we can assist you, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at +91 1244142292, +91 7428225350, or via email at contactus@novusinsights.com. You may also fill out our contact form and our representatives will reach out to you at the earliest.