---
title: "Share of search"
url: https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/share-of-search
type: Page
---

# Share of search

Share of search explained: how Les Binet's metric is calculated, what IPA research found about its link to market share, and how to measure it for a brand.

Integrated search glossary

## Share of search

Share of search is a brand's search volume as a percentage of the total searches for every brand in its category, usually measured with Google Trends. Les Binet presented it in 2020 as a cheap, fast metric that tracks a brand's market share and can predict where that share is heading.

## Where does the metric come from?

Les Binet presented share of search at the IPA's EffWorks Global conference on 14 October 2020. Using free Google Trends data, he showed that a brand's share of search queries correlated with its market share in three categories: cars, energy and mobile phone handsets. Changes in share of search tended to come first, by up to a year in the car market.

The metric counts searches people make for brand names. It has nothing to do with paid search ads or with where a brand ranks.

## What has research found since?

An IPA think tank reported in October 2021 on 30 case studies across 12 categories and seven countries. On average, share of search represented 83% of a brand's share of market, though the ratio varied by category and country. The think tank stressed that the findings are correlations, not proof of cause, and recommended a 6 to 12 month rolling average to smooth the data.

## How to measure it

- Fix a competitor set and keep it the same over time
- Include common misspellings and shortened brand names
- Use one data source, such as Google Trends, for every brand
- Report a rolling average rather than single weeks
- Watch for spikes caused by bad news, which raise searches without raising demand

## Example

Three UK mattress brands get 40,000, 25,000 and 15,000 searches a month for their names. The first has a 50% share of search. If its share drifts to 44% over a year while a rival's TV campaign lifts that rival from 31% to 37%, the IPA's research suggests the leader's market share may follow.

## Related terms

- [AI share of voice](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/ai-share-of-voice)
- [Impression share (IS)](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/impression-share)
- [Search engine marketing (SEM)](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/search-engine-marketing)
- [Digital PR](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/digital-pr)

## Further reading

- [How to Measure Performance in AI Search](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/how-to-measure-performance-in-ai-search)

Our [Integrated Search](https://marketingsignals.com/service/integrated-search) service puts this into practice for brands in the UK and US.

## Sources

- [Binet presents fast, cheap, predictive Share of Search metric, IPA (14 October 2020)](https://ipa.co.uk/news/binet-presents-fast-cheap-predictive-share-of-search-metric/)
- [Les Binet urges marketers to measure Google searches to predict brand health, Campaign](https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/les-binet-urges-marketers-measure-google-searches-predict-brand-health/1697288)
- [IPA share of search data reveals SoS represents 83% of a brand's share of market on average, LBB Online (12 October 2021)](https://lbbonline.com/news/ipa-share-of-search-data-reveals-sos-represents-83-of-a-brands-share-of-market-on-average)
- [In search of benchmarks for Share of Search, IPA](https://ipa.co.uk/effworks/monitoring-marketing/in-search-of-benchmarks-for-share-of-search/)

## Ready To Run Search And GEO As One Programme?