Is Share of Voice the Ultimate ROI for Content?

Content budgets are booming right now — 11% of managers are planning to spend over $45,000 per month in 2025 — up from 4% last year, according to a report by Wynter and Siege Media. 

But as investment grows, a familiar challenge remains: measuring the return on that investment. With so many recent shifts in search and content discovery, how do we move past murky metrics toward clearer value?

Traditional Metrics: Losing Meaning Fast

Search is evolving rapidly: think AI engines, zero-click search, and shrinking referral traffic. Content marketers feel less confident than ever about where to spend. The Wynter report found that 3 in 4 content marketers now say getting content to rank is their top frustration.

If clicks and rankings aren’t what they used to be, what does count?

Why Traditional ROI Metrics Fall Short 

We’re facing a measurement conundrum that originates from several factors:

• Page views and vanity metrics offer only surface-level data. They don’t tell us about whether the content is actually meaningful or building brand equity.
• High-value content (thought leadership, editorial, brand journalism) is naturally a slow burn. It works over a “long funnel” — audiences may engage many times before ever clicking or purchasing, making attribution tricky.
• Zero-click search further obscures content attribution. A user may get all the info they need in a search engine’s answer summary, with no click required. That can boost brand awareness, but it’s near-impossible to track. Early estimates warn of a 20–60% drop in organic traffic from zero-click searches. 

Meme credit: Mariya Delano

Is Share of Voice the Answer?

Given the upheaval, some marketers are looking to Share of Voice (SoV) as a clearer, more future-proof signal of ROI. SoV measures how much attention your brand commands compared to competitors across search, social, and media.

The Value of Share of Voice

Originally a PR metric, SoV quantified how much coverage or discussion a brand attracted versus peers—across owned, earned, and social media.

IPA and Nielsen research found a direct correlation between share of voice and company value: Increasing SoV by 10% points over category competitors typically generates 0.5% more total market share.

But there’s a catch — not all attention is created equal. Superficial SoV (sheer volume, not substance) is just an ego boost. 

In today’s landscape, it’s the quality of awareness — where and how you’re cited, and who trusts you — that counts.

Redefining Share of Voice in the AI Era 

Now that generative AI is reshaping the web, it’s time to redefine SoV. It’s no longer about quantity, but trust-weighted visibility in search, how often you appear as a reliable source, especially in reputable third-party editorial, and increasingly, in AI-generated answers on platforms like Google SGE, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.

Why Editorial & Earned Media Matter Most

Google’s EEAT framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) determines what content ranks. Third-party editorial mentions, backlinks from trusted domains, and visibility within online communities are powerful trust signals.

Owned media, like your website and social channels, help nurture customers, but without external pick-up, it struggles to influence SoV at scale. Earned media (editorial coverage, influencer commentary, and community discussions) not only validates your brand implicitly but feeds into how search and AI systems gauge credibility.

Bottom line: In a zero-click, AI-powered world, it’s less about winning the click—more about being the cited source and trusted authority.

Comparison: Owned, Earned, Paid

The Flywheel Effect of SoV vs Paid

Here’s how earned SoV creates a compounding effect for brands: 

1. The more your brand is cited and trusted, the more AI summarizers and journalists pick you up.
2. These mentions drive more authority and brand salience, helping you be “top-of-mind” even without a click.
3. This snowballs, building long-term equity—unlike paid media, which yields direct but temporary results.

For example, brands using Stacker, like LawnStarter, have earned AI citations and authoritative coverage without paying for placement. 

Read more about how LawnStacker earned reach and solidified its standing in search

How to Build and Measure SoV 

While the redefined formula of Share of Voice is still evolving alongside AI, there are a few tips and tools to see how your brand is competing against the rest. 

Share of Voice Audit Checklist

Getting a feel for your brand’s Share of Voice can be pretty straightforward:

✔️Are you being mentioned alongside key competitors in trusted outlets?

✔️Can you see the ripple effect (e.g., spikes in coverage or audience activity following key mentions)?

✔️Can you track what influenced those swings, like news cycles, themes, or partnerships?

✔️Extra Credit: Can you break down sentiment, channel performance, or audience engagement patterns?

Top Tools for Measuring SoV 

The measurement marketplace is rife with ways to measure Share of Voice. Take a closer look at these tools to see which one is right-sized for your needs.

• Mentions and Sentiment: Meltwater, Talkwalker
• SEO SoV: Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Google Trends/Alerts, Quattr
• Social Listening: Hootsuite, brand24, and brandwatch

Is Share of Voice Enough?

As much as I’ve built SoV up in this blog, relying on just one metric cannot give you all the information needed to move the needle with your content. 

➕ SoV excels at measuring authority, credibility, and discoverability to gauge how much brand awareness and authority you have.

➖SoV falls short at tying content directly to closed sales or revenue. It measures presence — not persuasion.

This seems like a contradiction, but it’s not. As direct attribution gets harder, robust visibility and reputation become the most actionable, predictive proxies for future value. Increasing your SoV opens doors by building influence and trust, but last-click ROI closes them.

💡How to use SoV best: Layer SoV with qualitative insights (brand lift studies, interviews) and quantitative distribution data (pickup rates, audience reach). Together, they reveal both your brand’s visibility and the quality of that attention.

Bridging the Owned-Editorial Gap

Owned content achieves more when it's picked up in trusted editorial placements. Platforms like Stacker help brands:

• Spot news trends and audience questions to answer with SME insights or first-party research and data
• Localize content for relevance
• Develop thought leadership — especially in niche topics like how Hubspot once owned “inbound marketing” before expanding its expertise.

Share of Voice as the Leading Indicator of ROI

So, is Share of Voice the “ultimate” ROI? It may not close the sale, but it opens the door — and in today’s fragmented search ecosystem, visibility is half the battle.

Robust Share of Voice is the clearest leading indicator of content ROI, especially when clicks and direct attribution grow fuzzy. Pair it with qualitative insights, and you’ll have a holistic — and realistic — picture of your brand’s progress.

Coleman Walsh is a seasoned partnerships and business development leader with a track record of driving revenue growth and building strong client relationships. At Stacker, he leads enterprise sales strategy and account management, helping brands amplify their reach through trusted media. With experience across startups and media tech, Coleman brings analytical thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and a deep understanding of how to scale strategic partnerships.

Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva