What Is Local Market Share, and How Do You Actually Measure It?

Local market share is the number most multi-location brands talk about and almost none of them actually measure. What gets reported instead is revenue by location, which is a different thing wearing the same clothes.

Why revenue is not share

A location can grow revenue eight percent in a market that grew fifteen. That location is losing. The report says it is winning, because the report has no denominator.

Share requires knowing the size of the market you are competing in. Without that, every location looks like it is performing against its own history rather than against its actual opportunity.

Three usable proxies

True market share data is expensive and often unavailable at the local level. These proxies are imperfect and available now, which makes them more useful than a perfect number you will never get.

• Search impression share within the trade area, which approximates how often you appear when local demand surfaces

• Review volume relative to the named competitive set, which approximates transaction volume among comparable businesses

• Branded search volume in the market, which approximates how much local demand is specifically for you rather than for the category

None of these is share. All three move in the same direction as share, and all three can be tracked per location without a research budget.

The denominator discipline

The habit worth building is simple. Every time a location number is reported, ask what it is a share of. Not as a gotcha, as a standing requirement.

Teams that adopt this find the same thing within a quarter or two. Some of their best-looking locations are in easy markets, and some of their worst-looking ones are outperforming brutal ones. Budget follows that realization.

A number without a denominator is a story, not a measurement.