The Measurement Crisis: Why Share of Search is the North Star Metric in the AI Era
As marketing leaders, we are facing a measurement crisis. The digital marketing landscape is fragmenting at an unprecedented rate, and the metrics we have long relied on are losing their meaning. Traffic is declining as AI absorbs informational queries, social platforms are becoming search engines, and Google is transitioning from a gateway to an answer engine. In this turbulent environment, we need a new North Star metric—a single, reliable indicator of brand health and future demand. That metric is share of search.
This article will explain why share of search is becoming the most important metric in marketing, how it cuts through the noise of a multi-platform world, and how you can champion it within your organization to elevate the strategic value of your marketing efforts.
Understanding Share of Search and Why It Matters
Developed by James Hankins and Les Binet, share of search is a simple yet powerful metric. It is calculated by dividing a brand's search volume by the total search volume for all brands in its category. The result is the proportion of category interest that your brand commands. The true value of this metric, however, lies in its strong correlation with market share and future buying behavior. As studies from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) have shown, when share of search goes up, market share tends to follow.
In simple terms, consumers search for brands they are considering, buying, or using. This makes search behavior one of the clearest available signals of real demand. While share of search was never designed to be a perfect measure of every nuance of the customer journey, it was built as a practical proxy for brand demand—and in the current environment, practical and reliable measurement is exactly what we need.
From Traffic to Demand: The Strategic Shift
For years, traffic has been the primary measure of success for many marketing teams. However, as Goodhart's Law states, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Traffic has been gamed, manipulated, and misunderstood for so long that it has become almost meaningless as an indicator of true brand health. Now, with AI answering questions before users ever reach a website, traffic is declining for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of our content or the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
Share of search, on the other hand, cannot be so easily inflated. It reflects underlying consumer interest, not content tactics or SEO trickery. When share of search rises, it is a clear signal that brand demand is growing. When it falls, it is a sign that demand is weakening. This makes it a far more reliable and strategic metric for guiding our marketing investments.
Multi-Platform Visibility in a Fragmented World
One of the greatest strengths of share of search is that it is platform-agnostic. In a world where discovery is fragmented across a multitude of platforms—from Google and Amazon to TikTok and YouTube—we need a metric that can capture the full spectrum of consumer behavior. Share of search does just that. It can be measured using a variety of tools, including Google Trends, Ahrefs, Semrush, and My Telescope, and it can be tracked across every channel where search behavior exists.
This cross-platform visibility is particularly critical in the age of AI. AI search engines like ChatGPT and Claude rarely generate direct traffic to websites. Instead, they trigger brand search. Users encounter a brand in an AI response and then search for it when they want more information. As a result, share of search becomes the tail-end signal of all our marketing efforts, including our exposure in AI-generated answers. When share of search rises, our marketing is working. When it falls, it is not.
Elevating SEO's Strategic Role
For too long, SEO has been seen as a tactical discipline focused on keywords and rankings. In the AI era, this narrow view is no longer sustainable. SEOs who cling to outdated deliverables like structured data micro-optimization or endless blog post creation will find themselves increasingly marginalized. Those who embrace share of search, however, have an opportunity to elevate their role and become strategic insights partners.
By championing share of search, SEOs can become the interpreters of demand within their organizations. They can help CMOs understand whether their brand marketing is breaking through and provide leadership teams with a clear view of where consumer interest is rising or falling. This shifts the role of SEO from content production to strategic analysis, a role that is far more valuable and far less likely to be automated.
A well-structured share of search report tells a coherent story. Is the brand being searched for more this quarter? Are competitors gaining ground? Is the category contracting? Did a recent PR campaign increase branded search? Did a product launch move the needle? These are the questions that matter to leadership, and share of search provides the answers.
Implementing Share of Search in Your Organization
To successfully implement share of search in your organization, you will need to take a proactive and collaborative approach. Start by creating your first share of search report, analyzing the drivers of change, and experimenting with different tools to find the approach that works best for you. Then, involve other departments. Host a session on share of search and collaborate with your PR, brand, and product teams to track activity and share insights.
Share of search can be broken down by product line, model, or competitive set. It can be segmented into branded and semi-branded queries. It can be tracked across every channel where search behavior exists and compared against AI model outputs to understand where visibility aligns or diverges. This level of nuance allows SEOs to become indispensable strategic advisors, identifying gaps in PR coverage, highlighting where AI models reference competitors more frequently, and signaling when product positioning needs reinforcement.
Share of search is not just another metric; it is a bridge that connects SEO to the broader world of brand marketing. It provides a common language and a shared set of goals that can align your entire organization around the things that truly matter: building brand demand and driving long-term growth.
Conclusion: The Metric That Protects Brands
In an AI-driven world where traffic is scarce and visibility is fragmented, the strategic imperative is clear: brands need to be searched for. Those that are searched for endure; those that are not fade away. Share of search is the metric that will protect your brand in this new era. It is already appearing in boardroom conversations and is quickly becoming a central indicator of brand strength. By embracing it now, you can elevate the strategic value of your marketing efforts, align your organization around a common goal, and secure your brand's future in the age of AI.
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The Measurement Crisis: Why Share of Search is the North Star Metric in the AI Era
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