> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.videntic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Share of Voice
> Your brand mentions as a share of the competitive mention pool.
**Share of Voice** (SOV) is the competitive version of AI Visibility. Instead of asking *are you cited?*, it asks *of all the brands being cited in your space, how much of the airtime is yours?*
## Overview
For every provider, Videntic records brand mentions in the LLM response — yours and every tracked competitor's. SOV is your slice of that provider's competitive mention pool.
SOV is a **relative** metric. If every brand in your category disappears from AI search, yours included, your SOV can stay flat while AI Visibility collapses. Always read it alongside AI Visibility.
## How Share of Voice is calculated
```
Provider SOV = your mentions / (your mentions + tracked-competitor mentions) × 100
Overall SOV = equal-weight mean of non-empty provider SOV values
```
The denominator includes your brand plus every domain on your **Tracked Competitors** list — both the ones you add manually and the ones Videntic auto-detects from past runs. Uncategorized sources (UGC, news, reference sites) are excluded; SOV is a brand-vs-brand measure.
SOV is computed per run and per provider. Providers with an empty competitive pool carry no signal and are excluded from the overall mean rather than counted as 0. Provider market weights do not affect canonical SOV.
## How to read the number
Good benchmarks depend on how many competitors you track and how concentrated your category is. Rough guidance:
| You track | Healthy SOV |
| ---------------- | ----------- |
| 1–2 competitors | 40%+ |
| 3–5 competitors | 25%+ |
| 6–10 competitors | 15%+ |
More important than the absolute number is the **trend** — is your slice of the pie growing or shrinking, and at whose expense?
The SOV chart on the dashboard stacks every tracked brand so you can see the handoff: if you gained 5 points and your nearest competitor lost 5, you know exactly where the gain came from.
## Why Share of Voice matters
### Business lens: competitive positioning
AI Visibility can rise on a growing tide — the whole category becoming more visible in LLMs. SOV strips out the tide and shows whether you're winning the category or just benefiting from it.
### Strategy lens: content attack plan
SOV points at *specific* competitors to take market share from. If "Competitor X" dominates prompts about "onboarding" and you're absent, you have a targeted content brief.
### Exec lens: share narrative
Board and leadership audiences understand market share intuitively. SOV translates AI visibility into a story they already know how to interpret.
## How to improve it
1. **Audit the competitors outgunning you**. Click a dominant competitor in the SOV chart to see which prompts they're winning. That list *is* your content roadmap.
2. **Refine your competitor list**. Auto-detection may include UGC or media sites that shouldn't count as competitive. Promote real rivals, demote the rest. See [Manage competitors](/how-to/manage-competitors).
3. **Win citation-quality, not just citation-count**. A first-position mention is worth more narrative weight than a fifth-position one. Pair SOV work with Citation Position work.
If your SOV is very high but AI Visibility is low, you're the biggest fish in a small pond — your category simply isn't being discussed much in AI search yet. That's a content-creation opportunity, not a competitive threat.
## Related metrics
The absolute version of SOV.
How the citations you earn are weighted.
How to add, classify, and review your competitor set.
Prompts your competitors are winning that you aren't.