What is Share of Voice?
Search Term Share of Voice
The proportion of a search term's visibility or purchases that belongs to you rather than to competitors.
The Formula
Impression Share = Your Impressions ÷ Total Impressions on the Search Term × 100
Share of voice is the proportion of a search term that you hold rather than a competitor. It is a useful idea and a badly abused number, because at least three different things travel under the name.
The three measurements
| Measurement | Source | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Paid impression share | Amazon advertising reports | Your share of all advertiser impressions on that search term |
| Organic presence | Rank tracking of the results page | How many of the visible slots you occupy on the query |
| Purchase share | Search Query Performance | Your purchases on the query divided by all purchases on it |
These answer different questions and will not agree. A brand can hold a large slice of the ads on a term and almost none of the purchases, which is an expensive position to be in and invisible if you only look at impressions.
Purchase share is the one that pays
Our doctrine treats purchase share as the opportunity metric. High search volume with low purchase share and genuine relevance is the gap worth attacking, because the demand is proven and you are simply not capturing it. Raw search volume on its own is a trap: a large term you cannot convert costs more to chase than a smaller one you own.
The aggregation rule
Impression rank and impression share are ratios, so they aggregate by average or maximum, never by sum. Adding share percentages across keywords, days or campaigns produces a number with no meaning, and it is one of the most common errors in seller reporting. If a report shows a share figure above one hundred per cent, this is usually why. Even an average needs care, since a plain mean across keywords treats a term with a handful of impressions as equal to your biggest one. Weight by impressions where the report lets you.
Treat inferred share with suspicion
A share of voice figure calculated from a rank position is an estimate produced by a heuristic, not a measurement of anything Amazon reports. It can be directionally useful for tracking movement over time. It should not be quoted as a fact, and before relying on any tool's share number it is worth asking which of the three measurements above it is derived from.
Using it
Share is a diagnostic, not a target. If purchase share falls while impression share holds, the problem sits after the impression: price, main image, rating, or the detail page itself. If impression share falls, the problem is visibility, which is a bid, budget or relevancy question.
Examples
- →Holding a large paid impression share on a term while capturing a small share of its purchases
- →Occupying two organic slots on the first page of results for a term while a competitor occupies six
Related Terms
Organic Rank
The position a product holds in Amazon's unpaid search results for a specific search term in a specific marketplace.
Impressions
The number of times your ad was displayed to shoppers.
Search Term Isolation
Structuring campaigns and negatives so a search term is served from one place, giving clean data and one bid to control it.
Listing Conversion Rate
The share of listing sessions that end in a sale, covering all traffic to the detail page rather than ad clicks alone.
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