What is Share of Search & 𝐰𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿? 🧐

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In 2021, 📊Les Binet's research on Share of Search demonstrated how a brand’s share of organic searches strongly correlates with its current market share.

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But more importantly, he makes the point that Share of Search can be a 6-month leading indicator for what will happen to your market share in the future.

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👉 The point of it all is this is to measure: Is your brand gaining momentum, or in 2025, is it just weathering the downturn better than others?

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📸 The 2nd screenshot attached is something we provide our clients at Banfana.

Using the Google Keyword Planner, it shows our brands estimated search volume vs our top 10 competitors. When cross-referenced with Search Console, we can get a clearer picture. How do we measure against our closest competitors on a monthly basis? That way we keep an eye on both the aspirational leaders & the emerging brands.

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𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞?

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📉 Eric Seufert talked about a marketing trend in 2025 called brands "Flight To Safety", how "advertisers shift budget to down-funnel objectives on the largest platforms with the most sophisticated tools" when times get tough (i.e. tariffs).

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💬 In a recent post on LinkedIn, Kevin Goodwin also spoke about how brands are "shifting toward 'safe' investments" in their spend on Paid Media (i.e. Meta & Google).

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🛑 The trend in 2025? Brands stop spending on top of funnel, brand building, awareness tactics & start playing more short term defense. As a result of this 'Flight To Safety', what we've seen is whole categories decline in search volume year over year.

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Back to Share of Search, tracking search volume in this way allows us as a Google Ads agency to determine:

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• 📈 Are we gaining market share month over month? Year over year?

• 🔍 Is our category search volume growing or shrinking?

• 🕵️ What are competitors doing to gain or lose visibility?

• 💡 Should we be allocating more into Top of Funnel efforts?

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🧠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 are at the core of what we produce for our clients to make sure we’re providing the right strategic recommendations. That, in tandem with incrementality testing, allows us to make smarter decisions on budget distribution.