Proving the value of PR has long been a challenge for marketers. One reason for this is the lack of a standardised approach to measuring PR value. Some agencies still rely on AVE (advertising value equivalent), a dated metric that compares PR to advertising costs, while others use AI to measure sentiment and brand mentions. Adding to the complexity is the difficulty of accurately measuring brand awareness, even with investment in tools like benchmarking surveys.
However, given the diversity of PR and marketing campaigns, it’s fair to say that a one-size-fits-all approach to PR value measurement wouldn’t work. So, how can marketers prove the value of their PR efforts? In this blog, we’ll walk through some key considerations for measuring PR value effectively.
A three-pronged approach to measurement
When evaluating the success of a PR campaign, we take a three-pronged approach: starting with a client’s business objectives, followed by the campaign’s PR objectives, and finally aligning these with tactical KPIs.
- Business Objectives: Any meaningful PR measurement begins with understanding the client’s business objectives. There’s no point in tracking metrics like social engagement, video views, or backlinks if they don’t align with your organisation’s goals. For example, if a tech services provider’s objective is to diversify into the education sector and generate a percentage of revenue from this area, this needs to guide the entire PR strategy.
- PR Objectives: The PR objective should feed into the broader business goal, though it will not be the same. For instance, while PR can help a company enter the education market by generating leads, it’s unrealistic to expect PR alone to deliver increased revenue. A more achievable PR objective might be: “Generate 100 marketing-qualified leads from buyers in the education sector.”
- KPIs: The final stage is setting tangible PR KPIs to support the PR objective. For example, KPIs could include “Generate 100+ form fill submissions via targeted content” or “Host a webinar with 100+ sign-ups from the education sector.” These KPIs help track progress toward the PR objective and ensure alignment with the overall business strategy.
Setting measurable metrics
The KPIs we’ve highlighted are tangible and directly linked to the PR objectives. If you’re looking for ways to measure PR value, here are some examples of PR evaluation metrics you could implement:
- Traffic to campaign landing pages, plus increases in organic, direct, and referral traffic
- Downloads of campaign assets created by the PR team
- Click-throughs from tracker links embedded in PR content
- Online engagement with content (focusing more on quality of engagement rather than quantity)
- Measuring share of voice against competitors
- Coverage sentiment and key message dissemination
- Face-to-face leads generated by the campaign, such as roundtable discussions
When ‘softer’ metrics can be useful
While we prefer setting measurable objectives, some clients may request softer metrics. For example, PR for influencers or reporting on the “reach” of coverage may not be the most effective KPI on its own, but it can be important to certain clients. The relationship between a PR agency and its client should be flexible, allowing for metrics that suit the client’s needs, even if they are not the most rigorous.
There are also “softer” metrics that can be used to evaluate a PR campaign’s success. For instance, a client may rely on their PR agency for creative ideas and innovation, which can be more subjective. Though harder to measure, these factors are no less important.
Regardless of the metrics chosen, PR measurement should be part of the conversation from the outset. The most successful campaigns set tangible KPIs from the start and track them regularly, ensuring the campaign stays aligned with both the business and PR objectives.
You can read more about our measurement and evaluation process here.