For years, businesses have relied on traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategies to drive lead generation through Google. However, the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) has changed dramatically—especially after the launch of ChatGPT.
Today’s searchers are increasingly turning to alternative platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers. In response, Google has introduced AI Overviews at the top of search pages and has made the search page experience increasingly visual.
In retail, the SERP now resembles an Amazon Product Listing Page, filled with AI results, Merchant Listings, Maps, Reddit content, and more. Traditional blue links are pushed far below the fold, and AI-generated content is now surfacing in multiple areas of the search page.
In this new paradigm, brands must baseline, track, and optimize their presence on Google. The most reliable way to measure and manage this? Google Share of Voice (SOV) is the key measure to track. This metric is critical for understanding your brand’s presence in Google’s evolving landscape. Visibility is the first step toward brand awareness and conversion. Lose visibility, and you risk losing market share.
A robust Share of Voice solution is your insurance policy—helping you baseline, defend, and grow your visibility in the era of Google AI.
What is Share of Voice?
First, let me describe in simple terms what Share of Voice means. A brand’s Share of Voice on Google refers to how frequently your brand’s URLs appear on the search results page compared to your competitors. Share of Voice tools and metrics take many, many samples from many different locations, times of day, devices and keywords to give you a representative view.
If a brand has a higher Share of Voice than competitors, it means it’s showing up more often and more prominently on search results pages.
I will bring this to life with running shoes as an example, but this applies to every industry:
If someone searches “running shoes,” Nike cares to appear more often and more visibly on the search results page than Adidas, New Balance, or other competitors.
Nike wants prime Google real estate—at the top of the page, across ads, free product listings, videos, images, AI results, and so on.
So, Nike’s Share of Voice indicates how often they appear on the page compared to their competitors.
If Nike’s Share of Voice is lower than Adidas’, that means Adidas is more visible.
And that visibility is everything: If a brand is more visible, it’s more likely to get the click. Hence, if you are concerned about retaining and growing traffic from Google, maintaining and growing your visibility is vital—and Share of Voice is the metric that can help you track that.
Now, you may say that this insight is based on a single search—and you’d be right. That’s why a reliable Share of Voice metric is based on many, many, not just one.
As a brand manager, you want to understand your Share of Voice across your top-performing markets and business lines.
In the Nike example, the brand manager wants to understand tracking visibility across relevant terms like “running shoes,” “women’s running shoes,” “winter running shoes,” “best running shoes”, etc.
The business manager will also want to monitor and track visibility in top markets: the U.S., China, U.K., Japan—and understand Share of Voice within top metros like NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Tokyo, and so on.
Share of Voice helps the brand stakeholders understand whether they, or their competitors, are visible when a buyer searches their important products in their top markets.
Why is this important? You want to be more visible than competition on Google search results, get the click, and then – ultimately – convert. Share of Voice is the metric that helps you understand whether you are even visible in the first place to get that competitive click.
Why is Share of Voice Important?
Without tracking Share of Voice, you are in the dark on your marketing performance. You have no idea whether you are doing good or bad versus competitors.
Google has been summarizing content on its SERPs for years, and that trend has rapidly accelerated with the introduction of AI-generated results. Many search leaders are seeing drops in website clicks, unsure of the cause or what to do next. Many are scrambling to figure out why, and what to do about it.
Wouldn’t you want to know if everyone—including your competitors—is experiencing the same issue? Or if some competitors are gaining traction? And if so, wouldn’t you want to know how they’re defying these trends and getting more clicks?
Don’t you want to understand if everyone (including your competitors) is facing the same issue, and what those defying these trends and getting more clicks doing?
Google Share of Voice is your shining torch in the age of Google AI. When Google keeps making sweeping changes without sharing data, Share of Voice gives you clarity, insight, and a plan of action.
Search Visibility in the Age of AI: Why Share of Voice Matters Now
Google is making many changes and surprising marketers.
If your business hasn’t been impacted yet, that’s great. However, you don’t want to get complacent. Things are fast changing and you’ll want to retain and grow your market leadership.
If Google makes a change tomorrow and replaces you with your top competitor, you want to know asap to diagnose what they did, make changes on your side and recapture your market. This is a known tactic in search.
To arm search strategists for this era of Google AI, you need a robust Google Share of Voice solution that constantly tracks Google. You want to immediately be informed when your Google Share of Voice tanks on your top search terms, categories and markets.
You want to know which competitor took your business. And, you want to quickly understand why – without needing your team to spend days trying to figure out what happened.
Going back to the Nike example: Did Adidas have a major sale at an unexpected time? Did New Balance launch a major ad campaign? Are retailers like Zappos and Foot Locker now promoting Hoka shoes more aggressively as opposed to Nike? Are search results dominated by videos and images of New Balance products?
As a brand leader, you need quick, specific answers. You can’t afford to wait days for your team to manually diagnose what happened. And you shouldn’t have to break the bank to get these insights.
You need visibility into competitive shifts, Google’s changes, and actionable insights—so your team can respond fast, regain ground, and grow.
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