How Google Just Gave Brands Actual Proof of Share of Search

For as long as most of us have worked in this digital marketing agency game, there’s been a black hole in measurement. You post on Instagram, TikTok, X (formally Twitter) or YouTube, that content gets picked up in Google Search, and people find you through it. 

But could you ever prove or see it? Not exactly.

If you don’t own the website, you don’t get the data. Full stop.

Google just filled that hole. A new Search Console feature called platform properties gives marketers real, hard data on how their social and video content performs in Google Search. For the first time, you can see your brand's share of search coming off the platforms you don’t own. 

Which is a big deal, and here’s why. By the end of this blog, you should be able to understand the insights and data you can get from unique Google Search Console properties, and how knowing this can benefit your full-funnel marketing strategy.

What Are Search Console Platform Properties?

Announced in July 2026, platform properties are a new type of property in Google Search Console. Instead of verifying a website you own, you connect a social or video account and Google shows you exactly how that content performs in Search and Discover.

At launch it supports four platforms: Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. 

Once connected, you get the same kind of Search Console data website owners have had for years, only now it covers content living on someone else's platform – which is also a dream come true for social media marketing agencies, and content marketing agencies like Sticki.

The key line from Google says it all – previously, there was no real way to see how your content performed on properties you do not own. Now there is.

What Data You Actually Get

There are three reports, and together they answer the questions marketers have been guessing at for years.

• Performance. Clicks, impressions and the search queries driving them. You can filter and sort to see which specific posts and which exact search terms are pulling people to your content. You can also export it for deeper analysis.
• Insights. A higher-level view of recent traffic trends, your top-performing posts, and how people are actually discovering your account through Google.
• Achievements. Milestone tracking, like passing a new click threshold from Search over a rolling 28-day window.

The standout here is the query data. 

Knowing the precise search terms that lead people to your TikTok or your YouTube videos is the same insight that made website Search Console so valuable, applied to social for the first time.

Why This Is A Genuine Big Deal

This is not a small feature drop. 

It changes what "proof" looks like for social and content marketing.

• It closes a real attribution gap. Social and video have always been hard to justify because the search demand they created was invisible. Now you can point to the numbers and show that your content is doing work in Google, not just on the feed.
• It works without a website. The reports are available to accounts that do not own a site at all. That opens proper search analytics up to creators, personal brands and social-first businesses who were locked out before.
• It reflects real share of search, not a proxy. Instead of inferring brand strength from trend lines, you can see the actual clicks and impressions your owned content earns in Search. That is as close to proof of share as marketers have had.

For any brand investing in organic social or video, this turns a "we think it helps" argument into a measurable one.

How to Get Started

Set-up is quick, but if you prefer the assistance of a digital marketing agency, we can do that for you as well. Just click here and ask for a “platform properties” set-up on Search Console.  

1. Open Google Search Console.
2. Go to the property selector and choose to add a property.
3. Select your platform (Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube).
4. Follow the on-screen steps to securely authorise the connection.

One thing to note: Platform properties are rolling out gradually over the coming weeks, so if it is not in your account yet, it is on the way. 

It is also worth not confusing this with Search profiles, the public shareable creator pages Google launched in June. Platform properties are about analytics and proof, not public display.

What Smart Advertisers (and Brands) Should Do With It

The data is only useful if you act on it. A few moves worth making early:

• Connect your accounts as soon as access lands so you start building a baseline now rather than later.
• Watch the query report to see what people actually search to find your content, then create more of what is clearly working and lean into those terms.
• Feed the insight back into strategy. If a format or topic is quietly driving search demand, that is a signal to double down, and to align it with the rest of your paid and organic activity.

Used well, this is the kind of measurement that finally lets social and search strategy talk to each other, synthesising Google Ads, Content and Data Science altogether. 

Final Takeaways

• Google Search Console platform properties let you see how your Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube content performs in Google Search and Discover.
• You get Performance, Insights and Achievements reports, including the exact search queries driving people to your content.
• It works even if you do not own a website, opening real search data to creators and social-first brands.
• This is the closest thing yet to hard proof of your brand's share of search coming off social and video.
• Connect your accounts early, watch the query data, and build all-new insights into your wider strategy.

The brands that win with this will be the ones who move first and actually use the data to level up their social media marketing activity, not just admire it.

And dare we say this is how a good performance marketing agency earns their keep. 

As a Melbourne digital marketing agency built on results rather than fluff, DataSauce knows the importance of Instagram / TikTok / YouTube search performance – and helps brands turn new tools like this into a real edge every day. With all our services under one roof, we love tools like this that join the dots between social, search and paid so every channel pulls in the same direction. 

If you want to know what your share of search really looks like (and how to grow it), get in touch and we will sort you out with a complimentary strategy session.