The power of Share of Search for consumer insights

Unlike popular belief, AI-driven consumer research leverages much beyond Social Media. Yes, Social Media is an absolute rich source of data, but there is so much more that is leveraged to address complex business questions. Think of anything you do online, the Google searches, the ratings, the reviews, the chatbot conversation, the blogs you read, the online news you consume and whatever else, active or passive, work or non-work. All that is data. All that is authentic data. All that data is real time behavior. None is 'claimed'! That is AI for you!

Share of Search

While all of it is exciting, lately I have been particularly excited about the possibilities of Google Share of Search (SOS). It has become a marketing buzzword, perhaps the word of the year! So here we are, trying to understand what the hype is all about. The SOS metric is the output of a simplistic calculation, that is the Google searches a brand (or a topic) receives divided by the searches for all brands within a competitor set. Unlike any other metric, the beauty of SOS is how easy it is to understand, explain and interpret. For those wondering if everything about the metric is so simple, is it of any use? The answer is a loud yes, it is VERY effective! THERE ISN’T A METRIC AS VALUABLE AS THE SOS and I’ll tell you why.                       A research based on 30 case studies representing 12 categories across 7 countries in different languages showed a strong correlation between share-of-search and market share. While the correlation varied by category and market, on an average SOS was found to represent 83% of a brand’s market share! In the digital era we live in, SOS is easily the lead indicator of market share. When the SOS goes up, market share will follow suit. For that matter, with the effectiveness that the SOS has, many consider it a potential replacement for more costly metrics like share of voice (SOV). The share-of-search is a practical metric that should be reviewed in assessing your brand equity, marketing effectiveness, predicting growth and evaluating performance vs. competition. The hype around SOS is totally worth it, if at all we aren’t talking enough about it. Market Share in one use-case, but, the more I think about the use cases of share-of-search, the concept becomes all the more alluring. At the end of the day what we want is to generate an interest in our brand, and the quantum of searches on our brand tells us exactly that. With all the possibilities of SOS data, at D/A we have been leveraging its power along with other data sources for understanding usage behaviors, consumer attitudes, brand positioning, trends and predictive analysis and much more. Contact us today and see how we can help you.   Faisal Khan, VP Strategy & insights. D/A.