Plan Metrics: Gross Rating Points (GRP), Gross Impressions (GI), Share of Voice (SOV)

Gross Rating Points (GRP)

In advertising, a gross rating point (GRP) measures impact. GRPs help answer how often “must someone see it before they can readily recall it” and “how many times” does it take before the desired outcome occurs.

Gross rating points are a measure of the impact by a campaign using a specific medium or schedule. It quantifies impressions as a percentage of the target population, multiplied by frequency. This percentage may be greater, or in fact much greater, than 100.

Target rating points express the same concept, but with regard to a more narrowly defined target audience.

GRPs are used predominantly as a measure of media with high potential exposures or impressions. Nielsen Media Research is an example of a company which uses GRPs.

With “today’s fragmented media world” the value of GRP is, according to the Advertising Research Foundation’s Journal of Advertising Research, even greater than in the pre-Internet era. Since “the required frequency changes with the product and the competitive climate it is in”, the purpose of the GRP metric is to measure impressions compared to the number of people in the target for an advertising campaign. GRP values are commonly used by media buyers to compare the advertising strength of components of a media plan.

For conventional media such as radio and TV, multi-tasking has reduced the value per GRP, and a measure named Persuasion Rating Point (PRP) was proposed in mid 2020.

“One GRP is one percent of all potential adult television viewers (or in radio, listeners) in a market.” If they are exposed to the ad three times, then that is 3 GRPs.

Gross Rating Point (GRP) is a measure of the size of an advertising campaign by a specific medium or schedule. GRP is calculated by multiplying the number of Spots by Rating.

GRPs are simply total impressions related to the size of the target population: They are most directly calculated by summing the ratings of individual ads in a campaign.

Mathematically:

GRPs (%) = 100 * Impressions (#) ÷ Defined population (#)

GRPs (%) = 100 * Reach (%) × Average frequency (#)

Two examples:

• If an average of 12% of the people view each episode of a television program, and an ad is placed on 5 episodes, then the campaign has 12 × 5 = 60 GRPs.
• If 50% view three episodes, that’s 150 GRPs.

Gross Impressions (GI)

Gross Impressions (GI) is a quantity denoting the number of GPRs in thousands. GPR (Gross Rating Point) while expressing the cumulative viewership of a specific ad in a given target group. Advertising agencies often place an order with a number of GIs with advertising space providers, usually paying for every thousand impressions.

Gross Impressions are used to track ads and serve as an easy way to negotiate terms when purchasing an ad. Unique user who have viewed the ad are counted as units in the GI, while duplicate impressions are not counted. Measurement methods may vary from company to company, so when concluding contracts, you need to be interested in the way measurement results are obtained.

• AQH x number of spots in a schedule.
• AQH persons estimate as a percentage of the population.

Share of Voice (SOV)

Share of voice (SOV) is a measure of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors. It acts as a gauge for your brand visibility and how much you dominate the conversation in your industry. The more market share you have, the greater popularity and authority you likely have among users and prospective customers.

Divide a target metric that represents your brand by the total in your market or industry. Multiply that number by 100 to get your percentage of market share for that particular metric.

Your brand metric / Total market metric x 100

Examples of metrics to calculate for SOV include:

• Organic keywords
• Pay per click (PPC) keywords
• Impressions
• Reach
• Revenue
• Mentions
• Hashtags

Pros of Measuring Share of Voice

• Perform competitive analysis on a market-wide scale. Get the big picture of how competitive the market is and whether you’re an up-and-comer or the dominant player in the industry.
• Use SOV as a way to segment your target audience. Calculating SOV is a powerful way to analyze your audience, but you can take further steps to organize this data into segments for more insight into your strengths and weaknesses. Look at your SOV within crucial regional markets, demographics and more.
• Evaluate the success of your marketing campaigns. If you launched a campaign recently, determine whether you made gains in your SOV that indicate your marketing message and tactics were effective.
• Improve future campaigns based on findings in SOV reports. Use the insight from your analytical reports to expand your reach, get involved in social conversations and ensure your voice is amplified across marketing channels.