Platform How-Tos
Share of Voice: Tracking Whether You're Gaining or Losing Ground
Published October 10, 2026
Share of voice is the portion of AI mentions that are yours, counting only you and the competitors listed for your business. It is a share of mentions, not of answers, so it reads best beside your mention rate. This guide shows how it is worked out, how to tell whether you are gaining or losing ground, why it can move on its own, and how to use it to set priorities.
What does share of voice actually count?
Each month the audit puts a fixed panel of buyer prompts (questions a customer might ask) to the AI engines we test. For every answered check (one prompt put to one engine), you count once if the answer named you, and each listed competitor it named counts once too. Share of voice is your count divided by your count plus every one of those competitor counts, pooled across the month. Only the competitors listed for your business count. Any other business an answer names is ignored, and a listed rival counts whenever it is named, including in an answer that also names you.
An illustrative example, not client data: a month has 40 answered checks. You are named in 10 of them, and your two listed rivals are named 6 and 4 times. That is 20 mentions in all, so your share of voice is 10 of 20, or 50%. Your mention rate, the share of answered checks that named you, is 10 of 40, or 25%. Same top number, different bottom number, so the two can move in opposite directions.
That is also why being named in every answer does not mean 100%. If you and three listed rivals were named in every answer, your mention rate would be 100% and your share of voice 25%. Our own October 2026 report shows the gap the other way: share of voice 63%, mention rate 40%. Prompts that name you directly count too, so this is not a measure of unprompted recommendations. Share of voice makes up 25% of your AI visibility score.
With no competitors listed, the report shows "vs. 0 tracked competitors" under the number. The bottom of the fraction is then just your own mentions, so a single mention makes it 100%. That 100% compares you with nobody, yet it still counts toward your score. Read it as no comparison yet, never as a win.
How do you tell whether you're gaining or losing ground?
By the change line on your own share between two comparable reports. It prints in percentage points, such as "+3 pts", against your previous report, and no line prints when the number held. The "Latest numbers" row on your client portal never shows one. A missing line can also mean the comparison was skipped. That happens when a competitor was added or removed, when no competitors are listed, or when this month or the last was a partial panel (fewer than 80% of checks answered). If a report prints no line but its number differs from your previous report's, the comparison was skipped, so do not read the gap as progress or a slide. There is no share-of-voice trend chart and no per-competitor history. For a longer view, set your past reports side by side, keeping only full months your account team confirms had the same list.
The report shows only your own share of voice, with no competitor figures. Once a listed competitor has been measured, your live dashboard adds one picture the report does not have: a panel titled "Share of voice vs competitors". Your bar comes first and is highlighted, then one bar per listed competitor, all from the latest audit. The bars carry no printed numbers, so hover over or tap one to see its value.
Why can the number move when nothing about your business changed?
Because the bottom of the fraction depends on who is listed. Adding a rival puts their mentions into the sum, so your share usually drops. Removing one usually raises it. Neither says anything about your business.
- A competitor added or removed: the number of listed rivals changed, so the report skips that month's share-of-voice comparison. Your score and mention rate still show their changes, though either can move because of the edit itself. A new rival appears on the chart only after the next audit.
- One rival swapped for another, or the list reordered: the count is the same, so the change line still prints, even though the measurement may have shifted.
Who belongs on your competitor list?
The rivals you actually lose jobs to, spelled the way your customers know them, up to five. You cannot edit the list in the dashboard: tell your account team, and they make the change.
- Pick by lost jobs, not by size. A big name you rarely compete with can shrink your share without telling you anything you can act on.
- Use the name customers use. A misspelled name on the list can score zero every month while looking like a real measurement.
- Remember who is invisible. A business you never listed is ignored, so your share can look healthy while an unlisted rival takes the work.
- Think per location. Each location gets its own share of voice against its own market's rivals; multi-location visibility covers the rest.
How do you use share of voice to set priorities?
Read it with mention rate and the competitor chart, then take a specific question to your account team. We don't rank your work by share of voice, and nothing is triggered by it. The number tells you where to look.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to ask your account team |
|---|---|---|
| Mention rate up, share of voice flat or down | You are named more, but listed rivals are named more too | Which prompts named a rival but not us? |
| Mention rate flat, share of voice down | Listed rivals are named more often, alongside or instead of you | Which prompts named the rival with the longest bar? |
| High share of voice, low mention rate | You are rarely named, but listed rivals are named even less, or the list is short or empty | Is our list missing anyone we lose jobs to? |
| High mention rate, low share of voice | You are named often, alongside several listed rivals | Which rivals are named alongside us most? |
A real example of the first row: at Anywhere Infusions, mention rate went from 48% to 53% while share of voice went from 80% to 75%, against three tracked competitors. Both runs were partial panels, so the movement is directional only, and our own monthly report declines to call it a trend.
Then use the chart. The longest rival bar shows which listed competitor the engines named most. Ask your account team which prompts named that rival and not you, and whether any missed prompts named none of your listed rivals. That separates questions a listed rival wins from ones you miss for other reasons, unlisted rivals included. Your action plan is written with those misses in view, and getting cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity covers what an answer-ready page looks like.
Share of voice comes with the monthly audit, not the free Visibility Check. Not a client yet? Book a demo and we will run a few of your buyer prompts live and show you which businesses come up.
Questions people ask
Not on its own. If the report shows "vs. 0 tracked competitors", nobody is listed, so 100% only means you were named at least once. It compares you with nobody, yet it still counts toward your score. With competitors listed, 100% means none of them was named that month, which says nothing about businesses that are not on your list.
Usually because listed rivals were named more too. Share of voice divides your mentions by your mentions plus every listed competitor's, so it falls when their mentions outpace yours. A competitor added to your list has a similar effect, and in that month the report skips the share-of-voice comparison.
No. Only the competitors listed for your business count, and any other business an answer names is ignored. A rival you never listed can show up in answers without moving your share of voice at all. Keep the list to the rivals you actually lose jobs to.
No. The chart on your live dashboard shows each listed competitor's share from the latest audit only. The monthly report carries only your own number and its change, when one prints. To follow your own share, use the change line on each report or compare reports from full months with the same list.