AI Share of Voice (ASoV)
🎯 Quick Summary
- AI Share of Voice (ASoV) measures your brand's relative visibility in AI-generated answers compared to competitors
- Calculated as: (Your Citations / Total Category Citations) × 100%
- Strategic metric showing competitive positioning in the AI search landscape
- Target: Be in top 3 competitors for your category (typically 20-30%+ ASoV)
📋 Table of Contents
- What is AI Share of Voice
- How to Calculate ASoV
- Interpreting Your ASoV
- Competitive Benchmarking
- Improving Your ASoV
- ASoV vs Traditional Metrics
🔑 Key Concepts at a Glance
- ASoV: Your percentage of total AI citations in your category
- Category: Your competitive market segment (e.g., "CRM software")
- Competitive Set: Top 5-10 brands AI mentions in your space
- Market Leader: Brand with highest ASoV (30-50% typical)
- Share Growth: Month-over-month ASoV increase
🏷️ Metadata
Tags: metrics, asov, competitive-analysis, market-share
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Max Lines: 400 (this file: 385 lines)
Reading Time: 9 minutes
Last Updated: 2025-01-18
What is AI Share of Voice?
Definition
AI Share of Voice (ASoV) = Your brand's percentage of total citations in AI-generated answers within your category.
ASoV = (Your Brand Citations) / (Total Category Citations) × 100%
Why It Matters
Traditional "Share of Voice":
- Media mentions percentage
- Advertising spend share
- Social media conversation share
AI Share of Voice:
- Citations in AI answers (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity)
- Competitive positioning in AI search
- Brand awareness among AI users
ASoV predicts future market position as AI search grows.
Real-World Example
Category: Project Management Software
Test Setup:
- 500 queries about project management
- Tested across 4 LLM platforms
- Tracked all brand citations
Results:
Total citations in category: 1,247
Brand A (Asana): 312 citations → 25.0% ASoV 🥇
Brand B (Monday): 267 citations → 21.4% ASoV 🥈
Brand C (ClickUp): 198 citations → 15.9% ASoV 🥉
Your Brand (Acme): 145 citations → 11.6% ASoV #4
Others: 325 citations → 26.1% ASoV
Insight: You're #4 in AI visibility despite being top 5 by revenue.
How to Calculate ASoV
Step 1: Define Your Category
Choose specific, relevant category:
Too Broad ❌:
- "Business software" (too general)
- "Technology" (meaningless)
Good ✅:
- "CRM software"
- "Project management tools"
- "Email marketing platforms"
- "Accounting software for small business"
Step 2: Identify Competitive Set
Determine top competitors AI mentions:
Method A: Manual Discovery
Ask ChatGPT:
"What are the top 10 CRM software platforms?"
Result: List of competitors AI knows about
→ These are your competitive set
Method B: Industry Knowledge
Your known competitors:
1. Salesforce
2. HubSpot
3. Pipedrive
4. Zoho CRM
5. Freshsales
Step 3: Generate Test Queries
Create 100-500 category queries:
For "CRM software" category:
Generic queries:
- "What is the best CRM?"
- "Top CRM platforms"
- "CRM software comparison"
Specific queries:
- "CRM for startups under 10 people"
- "Best CRM with email integration"
- "Affordable CRM options"
Use case queries:
- "CRM for real estate agents"
- "CRM for B2B sales teams"
- "CRM with marketing automation"
Total: 200 queries covering category breadth
Step 4: Run Queries & Count Citations
Test across platforms:
Query: "What's the best CRM for small businesses?"
ChatGPT Response:
For small businesses, I recommend:
1. HubSpot CRM (free tier, easy setup)
2. Pipedrive (visual pipeline)
3. Zoho CRM (affordable, feature-rich)
[Sources cited: hubspot.com, pipedrive.com, zoho.com]
Citation Count:
- HubSpot: +1
- Pipedrive: +1
- Zoho CRM: +1
- Your brand: 0
Repeat for all 200 queries.
Step 5: Calculate ASoV
Final Tally (200 queries):
HubSpot: 87 citations
Salesforce: 76 citations
Pipedrive: 54 citations
Zoho CRM: 48 citations
Your Brand: 31 citations
Others: 104 citations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Total: 400 citations
Your ASoV = 31/400 × 100% = 7.8%
HubSpot ASoV = 87/400 × 100% = 21.8% (leader)
Interpreting Your ASoV
ASoV Ranges
| ASoV | Position | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0-3% | 🔴 Minimal | Rarely mentioned |
| 3-8% | 🟡 Emerging | Occasional presence |
| 8-15% | 🟢 Competitive | Top 5-7 in category |
| 15-25% | ✅ Strong | Top 3-4 in category |
| 25-35% | 🌟 Leader | #1-2 position |
| 35%+ | 👑 Dominant | Clear market leader |
Competitive Positioning
Example Category Distribution:
Market Leader: 28% ASoV ████████████████
#2 Challenger: 22% ASoV ███████████
#3 Contender: 15% ASoV ████████
#4 (You): 12% ASoV ██████
#5 Follower: 8% ASoV ████
Others: 15% ASoV ████████
Interpretation:
- Leader has 2.3x your visibility
- Gap to #3 is only 3 percentage points (catchable)
- Strong "others" category = fragmented market
ASoV Trends
Month-over-month tracking:
January: 12.0% ASoV
February: 12.8% ASoV (+0.8pp, +6.7% growth)
March: 14.1% ASoV (+1.3pp, +10.2% growth)
April: 15.5% ASoV (+1.4pp, +9.9% growth)
Trend: ↗ Positive momentum
What's good growth?
- +0.5-1.0pp per month: Good
- +1.0-2.0pp per month: Excellent
- +2.0pp+ per month: Exceptional
Competitive Benchmarking
By Industry
| Industry | Market Leader ASoV | Top 3 Total |
|---|---|---|
| CRM Software | 28% | 65% |
| Project Management | 25% | 58% |
| Email Marketing | 32% | 71% |
| Accounting Software | 35% | 78% |
| E-commerce Platforms | 30% | 68% |
Insight: Winners take 25-35% in most categories.
Market Concentration
Concentrated Market (High top 3 share):
Example: Accounting Software
#1: 35% | #2: 25% | #3: 18% = 78% total
→ Hard to break into top 3
→ Focus on niche dominance
Fragmented Market (Low top 3 share):
Example: Project Management
#1: 25% | #2: 18% | #3: 15% = 58% total
→ Easier to gain share
→ Opportunity for rapid growth
Competitor Gap Analysis
Identify where competitors dominate:
Query Category: "CRM for startups"
HubSpot ASoV: 45% ← Dominates this niche
Your ASoV: 8%
Action: Create comprehensive startup CRM content
Opportunity: +5-10pp ASoV if you capture this niche
Improving Your ASoV
Strategy 1: Steal Share from Weak Competitors
Target: Competitors with 5-15% ASoV
Approach:
Analyze their cited content:
- What topics are they cited for?
- What's their content structure?
- Where are they weak?
Create superior content:
- More comprehensive
- Better E-E-A-T signals
- Fresher data
- Clearer structure
Result: Take 2-5pp share in 3-6 months
Strategy 2: Dominate Niche Topics
Instead of competing everywhere, own specific niches:
Broad topic: "Best CRM" (hard to win)
Niche topic: "Best CRM for real estate agents"
Focus all content on niche:
- Real estate agent use cases
- Real estate CRM features
- Real estate integrations
- Real estate testimonials
Result: 40-60% ASoV in niche = 5-10pp overall ASoV boost
Strategy 3: Increase Content Volume
More coverage = more citations:
Current state:
- 20 CRM-related pages
- 12% ASoV
6-month plan:
- 100 CRM-related pages (5x increase)
- Cover more query variations
- Address more use cases
Expected result:
- 18-22% ASoV (50-80% increase)
Strategy 4: Authority Building
Boost overall citability:
Quarter 1:
- Publish original research
- Guest post on industry sites
- Get media coverage
Quarter 2:
- Build 50+ quality backlinks
- Strengthen E-E-A-T signals
- Add expert contributors
Result: +3-5pp ASoV from authority boost
ASoV vs Traditional Metrics
Share of Voice vs ASoV
| Traditional SoV | AI Share of Voice |
|---|---|
| Media mentions | AI citations |
| Ad spend % | Organic visibility |
| Social conversations | AI answer presence |
| Backward-looking | Forward-looking |
| Awareness metric | Intent-stage metric |
Market Share vs ASoV
Revenue Market Share:
Your company: 15% revenue market share
Your ASoV: 8% AI share of voice
Insight: Underperforming in AI visibility
Risk: Losing future market share as AI adoption grows
Leading Indicator:
- ASoV predicts future market share
- AI visibility → brand awareness → sales
Example:
2023: 8% ASoV, 15% market share
2024: 15% ASoV (doubled)
2025: 18% market share (projected)
ASoV growth preceded market share growth by 12-18 months
📚 Related Topics
Other Metrics:
Competitive Analysis:
Improvement:
🆘 Need Help?
ASoV Questions:
Competitive Analysis:
Last updated: 2025-01-18 | Edit this page