Share of Voice by Keyword
The Share of voice by keyword report is designed to help you understand how visible your ads are in onsite search results. It tells you what share of impressions and clicks your brand receives for key search terms on a retailer’s site.
This report works similarly to the Share of voice by category report, but it focuses only on Search page results. It lets you measure performance by keyword, so you can see how your brand appears for branded, generic, and conquesting search terms.
Where To Find It
To access the Share of voice by keyword report:
Navigate to the Analytics tab in your account.
Select Reports Library.
Choose Share of voice by keyword.
What Does It Show?
This report works with Onsite Sponsored Products and Onsite Display campaigns and includes visual charts and a customizable table to help you analyze your search visibility. Each keyword in the report represents a search query that triggered paid ads on a retailer’s site. The report aggregates your brand’s visibility for those search terms compared to all other advertisers appearing for the same queries.
The key metrics are:
Impression Share (%) – The number of ad impressions your brand received for a keyword (or group of keywords), divided by the total number of paid impressions for that keyword(s) across all advertisers.
Click Share (%) – The number of clicks your brand’s ads received for a keyword (or group of keywords), divided by the total number of paid clicks for that keyword(s) across all advertisers.
Available Filters
You can refine the report using the following filters:
Retailers
Brands
Campaign Type
Keyword Type (Sponsored Products only) – Branded, Generic, or Conquesting
Branded: Your own brand or product name keywords (e.g., “Pepsi”).
Generic: Category-level searches (e.g., “soft drinks” or “sparkling water”).
Conquesting: Competitor brand searches (e.g., “Coca-Cola”).
Keyword – Individual search terms.
Visual Insights
The Keyword share of voice report includes several easy-to-read charts to help you visualize performance and competitive dynamics:
Total Impression Share (Pie chart): Your impression share versus anonymized competitors.
Competitor Comparison Over Time (Line Graph): Tracks impression/click share over time versus the top 3 competitors, with all others aggregated.
Trends Over Time (Line graph): Highlights share of voice by keyword type (Branded, Generic, Conquesting) to pinpoint where you’re strongest.
Top Keywords (Bar chart): Shows the top 5 keywords (by spend) and their corresponding impression and click share.
These visuals make it easier to understand how your brand is performing in search, supporting smarter bidding and optimization decisions.
Customizable Table
At the bottom of the report, you’ll find a customizable table that gives you a detailed view of your Share of voice metrics at the keyword level. This table allows you to explore performance at a more granular level.
Dimensions
You can add up to 6 dimensions to break down your search Share of Voice results in different ways. Supported dimensions include:
Keyword
Keyword Type
Campaign
Campaign Type
Line Item
Product
Product Brand
Product Category
GTIN
SKU ID
Buy Type
Retailer
Date
Metrics
In addition to impression share and click share, the table also includes all standard performance and delivery metrics, allowing you to compare Share of Voice results directly alongside campaign outcomes. Supported metrics (in addition to impression/click share) include:
Impressions (net)
Clicks (net, gross, invalid)
Spend
Sales (revenue)
Units (sold)
CTR
Avg. CPC
Avg. CPM
ROAS
Exposed users
Assisted sales/units
This makes it easy to understand not only how visible you were for a keyword, but also how that visibility translated into downstream performance, helping you identify high-value keywords, optimize bidding, and diagnose where increased share may (or may not) be driving the expected results.
Who Can Use The Report?
This report is designed for you (advertisers and brands) if you want to understand your competitive position in onsite search better. It’s especially useful for:
Performance marketers looking to optimize keyword strategies and improve campaign efficiency
Brand managers who want to track their visibility on branded, generic, and competitor search terms
E-commerce and retail media teams focused on measuring competitiveness within retailer search results
Agencies and analysts who need deeper insight into how paid search performance compares to that of other advertisers
If search is a key part of your onsite strategy, this report helps you see where your brand stands and where you can grow your presence.
Why Use This Report?
The Share of voice by keyword report helps you understand how competitive your brand is within onsite search and where there are opportunities to improve visibility. Use it to:
Assess your brand’s strength in Search: See how often your ads appear relative to competitors when shoppers search for key branded and generic terms.
Identify high-impact opportunities: Determine which keywords deserve more investment based on share gaps, strong performance, or rising shopper interest.
Support conquesting strategies: Evaluate how effectively your brand appears on competitor search terms and where you can gain additional visibility.
Connect visibility to results: Compare Share of Voice alongside core performance metrics (clicks, conversions, spend) to understand which keywords both win share and drive meaningful outcomes.
Track changes over time: Monitor shifts in impression and click share to understand the impact of strategy changes, competitive activity, or seasonal trends.
This report is a powerful tool for optimizing keyword targeting, refining bidding strategies, and ensuring your brand stays visible at the most critical moments in the shopper journey.
How To Use The Table
Compare Share of voice metrics across individual keywords or across combinations of dimensions (e.g., Keyword × Retailer, Keyword × Campaign).
Identify which keywords drive your highest impressions, clicks, or spend.
Spot opportunities for growth by analyzing SOV gaps across different campaigns, products, or retailers.
Export the table for deeper offline analysis or reporting.
FAQs
How are competitors determined in the Share of voice by keyword or served category reports?
Competitors are determined automatically based on which other advertisers served impressions or clicks in the same context as your ads during the selected time period. This includes advertisers bidding on the same keywords or appearing on the same category pages. Competitor brands are always shown in an anonymized and aggregated format to protect confidentiality.
For accounts running campaigns for multiple brands, the competitors you see depend on whether you view Share of Voice for your full account or for a specific brand (using the Brands filter).
If you do not select a brand:
When no brand is selected, the report groups together all brands advertised within your account as your combined activity (“Me”). In this case:
Me = all brands sponsored within your account
Competitors = all other brands from other advertiser accounts that appeared in the same keyword or category context
This view shows your overall Share of Voice as an account, relative to all external competitors.
If you select a specific brand:
Me = only the brand you selected
Competitors = any other brand that served impressions or clicks in the same context, including any other brands you advertise within your own account, if they also had activity
This brand-level view is recommended when your account manages multiple brands, as it isolates Share of Voice for the chosen brand.
Why do some of the keywords in the report appear to be mislabeled under the ‘Keyword Type’ dimension?
Keyword types are assigned automatically based on historical shopper behavior and how strongly a keyword is associated with a specific brand. In some cases, a keyword may appear under a different type than expected.
This can happen because keyword classification relies on past click patterns rather than fixed keyword lists. For example:
A keyword may be treated as branded if most shoppers who searched for it historically clicked on products from one brand.
A keyword may be treated as generic if shopper clicks resulting from searches of that keyword were more evenly spread across multiple brands.
Keywords that include an explicit brand name are more likely to be classified as branded, but this can still vary depending on shopper behavior.
Because shopper behavior, product availability, and catalog content can change over time, some keywords may occasionally be miscategorized in reporting.
If you notice a keyword that doesn’t seem to be classified correctly, please reach out to your Criteo representative.