Share of Search is an extremely versatile metric that can create value in a number of different ways, just by knowing what competitors to pick. Here are some tips on selecting the right competitors for different use cases:
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1. Tracking your brand or reporting market share:
The first thing to think about is: how is the market defined at your company. For most companies it is basically looking at the competitors who work in the same industry as you do. In those cases, choose your 4 most direct competitors, but also make sure that the biggest player in your industry is part of it. It will work as a benchmark and also help you indicate whether the entire market is growing or not.
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2. Category observation:
Not all Share of Search has to be on the general brands, but can also be about a particular category or subsection of your offering you want to investigate. The common mistake is to take the competing offers such as products names or services, and trying to compare them. Remember though to also combine it with the generic search term of the category you’re looking for. As an example, make sure to insert “steam oven” when connecting it to a brand instead of simply the oven name.
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​3. Tracking key topics:
Occasionally we as marketers find that our brand can piggyback or is fully a part of a larger topic. For Nike it was running at first which then transitioned to basketball as they saw it gaining larger traction. By tracking multiple relevant topics against each other you will know how to leverage them to your advantage, as well as when it’s time to abandon ship and align yourself with a new topic. To set this Share of Search analysis up just add the relevant search terms for each topic, keep an eye on the related search terms for inspiration and get started.
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​4. Challenger analysis
There will always be some new hip kids on the block that might be challenging your position in the market. If you want to know whether they are a real concern, it’s probably best to set up a search with those competitors clustered and one of your larger direct competitors into the mix. That way you can benchmark to what extent the challengers are hurting your market position, whilst also checking the impact on your main competitor will tell you how big the challenger’s impact on the overall market is.
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These are just a few ways of using Share of Search to get more insights into your market position. If you use it in different ways and have an interesting approach, we would love to hear more about it! Write to us and let us know.