How to track if your PR is successful

If you’ve ever read a PR campaign report, you’ll have seen acronyms like KPI, AVE and ROI. We can break these down into everyday language for a clear understanding we might share with some audiences, but the facts remain the same – successful PR is being measured in static ways.

We like to go beyond numbers and growth patterns. While statistics have their place, they don’t need to be the exclusive measure of success. After all, we want to know what matters to all of our audiences, and acronyms like these often don’t mean much when we look at public spheres, nor do they provide an accurate picture on their own.

For instance, let’s start by looking at brand sentiment. By analysing whether media coverage is positive, negative or neutral, we get a direct look at how the reputation of your company is evolving, and its impact on your audience. A surge in web traffic after positive coverage is what we want, but tens of thousands of mentions on social media isn’t desirable if the message is negative.

Brand popularity and brand awareness is similarly linked. We use Google Trends to see how your brand is perceived and if it’s growing in popularity. We’ll use market research to track brand awareness amongst your target audience and year on year revenue for a wider picture.

Share of voice is a great measurement to make if you’re particularly focused on keeping an edge over the competition. Your % share of coverage in the media on your PR campaign’s topic vs competitors allows a deeper look at how successfully you’re making an impact with key news journalists and industry press. A strong share of voice can contribute to building a reputation as the expert in your industry, meaning the media will naturally gravitate towards contacting you as a priority when your knowledge or commentary is needed.

Key message penetration can be used to track media coverage where more than one topic is being sold-in. Splitting your media content into content pillars allows us to build up a strong picture of the kind of content that’s most successful, or that proves a media appetite. Examples of content pillars include sustainability, brand ethos, expertise and innovation, but you can niche these down into pillars as specific as you like to cater for your PR needs. Your agency should come up with these for you, and work with you to establish your priorities.

Web activity allows for a broader look at PR success. Everything from the number of links present in your media coverage to support SEO efforts and improved online visibility to the value of those links. This depends on whether they are a follow or no follow link, plus the DA (domain authority) ranking of the website your link is present on. This is a measurement which rates the popularity of a website. If you’ve ever used influencer marketing, you might choose influencers to work with based on their DA score.

Web traffic can be tracked with Google Analytics and trackable links in media coverage. The consequential result from increased web traffic is a spike in lead generation as a result of PR activity.

Finally, let’s look at those acronyms. Even if they sound the least digestible to some, they have a core purpose – we just don’t believe they should be used alone.

ROI stands for return on investment. Basically, your PR service costs X, so you should generate revenue in excess of X to work out your % return on investment. Or another way PR agencies report on ROI is looking at the cost of the PR service compared to what the brand or business would have spent to achieve the same exposure via advertising rates (more on this below). Be careful though, and stop to analyse your campaign priorities before assessing whether to label your ROI a success or not. Brand awareness and public trust campaigns don’t usually have the purpose of generating revenue, so ROI here might be a longer-term measurement that PR supports the foundations of.

AVE is your advertising value equivalent. Put simply, the literal space you take up in print or online media is measured and compared to the cost of running an ad the same size. Would you prefer a full-page ad in a print publication at a premium cost, or a detailed written piece your audience can read organically as relevant news? The thing AVE doesn’t take into account is the time spent engaging with your content. An ad might hold your attention for a few seconds, but a well-placed and strongly curated article would engage you for several minutes and could offer a longer-lasting impression.

KPIs are your key performance indicators. Set before a campaign begins, you will agree how success is measured and use these to analyse your PR’s success. These can include things like the number of new business leads, client retention rate and web visits.

The next time you’re presented with a PR campaign report, ask your agency to include the tangible business results too. We work with brands in the north of England on their goals and objectives, not ours. If PR isn’t progressing your business, it’s not being done right.

By taking a tailored approach to measurement and finding out what matters to you, your PR can be focused on supporting your business goals, whether that’s a campaign to make you famous or a PR taster, we want you to invest only in the PR that’s right for you.

For a full look at our services and packages, take a look here or get in touch for a chat.