Top 5 Search Metrics for Managers

Traditional search metrics provided by search engines like Google are no longer enough for managers to monitor search marketing performance in today’s competitive market. Innovative search data analytics from emerging tools like Search Intelligence Tools are filling this need. In this article, we will learn about five search metrics that managers should track over time to proactively monitor search marketing performance.

Share of Search (SoS) is a crucial metric that quantifies the search traffic volume your branded queries receive across various search engines. As a manager, monitoring SoS is essential to gauge the impact of your marketing and branding efforts on your brand’s visibility in search results. Additionally, SoS helps assess your market share within search engines compared to your competitors.

SoS serves as a comprehensive indicator of your marketing performance, making it a top-priority metric for marketing managers to track consistently and incorporate into their planning. As SoS improves, your Search Paid Advertising ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) should also show improvement. As a manager, it is imperative to closely monitor these metrics to ensure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Share of Search = (Your Branded Queries Search Volume) / (Branded Queries Search Volume of Your and Competitors)

Above-the-fold coverage is a metric that gauges the visibility of your ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) without requiring users to scroll down. This prime real estate in SERPs is highly visible and likely to attract clicks.

Notably, neither paid nor organic search performance reports from search engines like Google include this information. Nevertheless, tracking this valuable metric can offer insights into the effectiveness of your overall search program and activities.

Monitoring your above-the-fold coverage over time in comparison to your competitors enables you to identify opportunities for enhancing your visibility. Moreover, it aids in strategizing and aligning your paid and organic search teams to develop holistic search strategies that secure greater above-the-fold coverage.

True Ad Rank is a comprehensive search metric that determines the precise position of ads on a search engine results page (SERP), taking into account all elements present on the page. This includes organic search results, paid ads, and other features like featured snippets and knowledge panels.

While SEO ( (Search Engine Optimization) ranking reports from search engines like Google offer information on organic ranking only, they do not consider paid ads or other SERP features. In contrast, True Ad Rank provides strategic marketing insights into your ad’s exact position relative to your competitors, considering the entire SERP page. It also reveals the SERP features through which your ad gains visibility.

By understanding above-the-fold coverage and tracking True Ad Rank over time in comparison to your competitors, you can effectively monitor the performance of your search activities and gain competitive insights to optimize your holistic search strategies, ultimately driving more clicks from SERPs.

The Inbound Share of Voice is a metric that calculates your ad’s visibility on your customers’ search queries in search engines. It helps measure the percentage availability of your ads relative to your competitors’ ads for all the keywords you target. This insight takes into account the number of keywords, their search volume, the number of ads, and the ad position in the SERP.

Tracking this search metric is essential for managers to assess the effectiveness of their search marketing performance. In addition to monitoring the Holistic Search Share of Voice, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) managers can track Paid Search SOV (Share of Voice), while SEO managers can analyze the Organic SOV breakdown by SERP features.

Click Share is a search metric that measures the estimated number of clicks your ad might receive on search engines. It is calculated based on estimated CTR and keyword search volume. Click Share considers the factors like true ad rank, above-the-fold visibility, and the number of ads in any SERP to calculate estimated CTR, which is multiplied by keyword search volume to calculate yours vs. competitors’ click shares.

Click Share= Estimated Click Through Rate (CTR)*Keyword Search Volume

Click Share is a crucial metric for search managers. It allows them to monitor keyword planning and effectiveness over time, comparing their ad performance to competitors and adjusting campaigns accordingly.

Tracking these search metrics and insights is essential for managers to monitor the effectiveness of holistic search marketing, understand the competitive landscape, and guide their search team in optimizing the search budget for maximum ROI (Return on Investment) from marketing campaigns.