Share of Voice measures whether your brand appears in an AI answer. Narrative Share measures how much room that answer dedicates to your brand. That is a substantively different question — and often a more important one.
The difference between SoV and Narrative Share
Two brands can both appear in the same AI answer. One is mentioned in one subordinate clause. The other gets a whole paragraph with specific strengths. Share of Voice counts both as “1 mention”. Narrative Share recognises the fundamental difference.
The four mention levels
The four levels are a Groundbase classification — and strictly speaking they measure two things. Levels 1 to 3 are depth: from bare name to elaborated description. Level 4 is stance: the explicit recommendation. A short, powerful recommendation can get less text space than an extensive critical discussion — which is why we report the distribution across levels and the recommendation separately, and never one composite figure.
Level 1: Name mention
Your brand is named, without further context. “Belgian fire safety installers include Fyrco, Ansul, SomatiFIE and Saval.” Presence, but no colour.
Level 2: Descriptive mention
Your brand is named with a brief qualification. “Fyrco, with a strong focus on B2B maintenance contracts and its own customer portal.” Brief context, the start of differentiation.
Level 3: Extensive mention
Your brand gets a full paragraph with specific characteristics, pros and cons, context. This is where AI actually “presents” you to the user.
Level 4: Recommendation
Your brand is explicitly recommended for a specific situation or audience. “For those prioritising X, Y is often the best choice.” This is the strongest narrative level.
Why Narrative Share matters
A brand that frequently appears at level 1 but rarely at level 3 or 4 is present but interchangeable. A brand that appears less often but almost always at level 3 or 4 is less broadly visible but strategically more strongly positioned.
How do you measure Narrative Share?
For each mention in your measurement data: classify which of the four levels you are mentioned at. This can be done manually with limited datasets, or via structured analysis with larger measurement setups. Result: a distribution across levels, not a single total figure.
A brand with 40% presence of which 50% sits at level 3 or 4 performs differently than a brand with 40% presence of which 90% is at level 1.
What raises Narrative Share?
- Content with specific, clear positioning per product category
- External coverage that contextualises your brand in concrete situations
- Case studies and testimonials with explicit pros and cons
- Clear expertise claims with supporting evidence
- Coherent entity building: internal consistency between pages and external consistency with what others write