Competitor Share of Voice

The relative percentage of AI engine citations going to your competitors, compared to your brand, across a tracked prompt set.

Updated 2026-04-17 · AEO glossary

Definition

Competitor share of voice measures how often each competitor in your defined competitive set is cited by AI engines, relative to your brand. The metric is typically displayed as a stacked bar or pie chart per prompt or in aggregate. Useful for identifying which competitors are winning AI mentions, where you have content gaps versus competitors, and how share of voice is shifting over time.

Why it matters

AEO is competitive — every citation that goes to a competitor doesn't go to you. Tracking competitor SOV identifies which competitors to focus on, which content topics to compete more aggressively on, and whether your AEO investment is gaining or losing ground against named competitors.

Example

A B2B SaaS company in the project management category tracks SOV against Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, and Linear. Their initial SOV is: Asana 35%, Monday 25%, ClickUp 15%, Linear 12%, Brand X (the customer) 13%. After 3 months of focused AEO content investment, Brand X's SOV grows to 22% while Asana drops to 28%. Lantern's monthly report visualizes this trend.

FAQ

Common questions about competitor share of voice.

How do I choose which competitors to track?
Start with 3–5 named direct competitors from your sales team's win/loss data — the competitors actually showing up in deals. Add 2–3 emerging or adjacent competitors that AI engines might cite even if you don't see them in deals. Total competitive set: 5–8 competitors maximum for clean visualization.
Can I beat better-funded competitors on SOV?
Yes, especially in narrower segments. Mid-market specialists can outperform broader leaders on niche prompts (e.g., 'best CRM for B2B SaaS with HubSpot integration' is winnable against Salesforce). The strategy is targeting prompts where your specialization beats their generality.

Lantern measures this in production.

The terms in this glossary aren't theoretical — they're what Lantern's product calculates and reports every month for B2B SaaS teams. See yours in 7 days. 14-day free trial.

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