What is SOV ?

SOV (or the acronym of Share of Voice) is a phrase often used in media planning and buying in the online advertising industry.

SOV is usually expressed as a percentage and represents the relative portion of ad impressions bought compared to all ads available for that given period of time. SOV focuses on the concept of exclusivity. By limiting the number of ad placements on a give website or websites, ads are more likely to be seen by their target audiences, thus limiting the amount of “ad noise” on the site. Typically an advertiser seeks a high percentage of SOV. SOV is usually expressed on the line item in a media plan. Native advertising ads are paid media that is tailored to the content of a media source. Since our Native Ad Specs meet OpenRTB Specs, the majority of advertisers use them on social networking websites.

For example, if there were 10M impressions available per day and an advertiser wants to book 5M then the SOV would be expressed as 50% SOV. If an advertiser wanted a Roadblock campaign then the SOV would be expressed as 100%. These two SOV examples are very basic, but they can be built around single line items on a media plan. For example, the targeting could be for targeting all Diabetic Content might be 70%.