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The Colab Brief - 102: Ruler đź“Ź of Them All: How to Measure PR

Welcome to The Colab Brief

Author

Ash + Lizzy
January 20, 2024

When we’re talking to companies that are exploring PR, we get a LOT of questions. And over the years, one still reigns supreme.

How do we measure PR?

If you can’t measure it, how can you tell it’s working?

Fear not because, as always, we have all the answers. 

Read Time: 3 minutes (that’s all it takes to measure PR!)

Measuring PR is not 🚀science. Trust us, if it was, we would not be qualified to do it. But it does require some work up-front and some consistent monitoring. Here are our recommendations when it comes to measuring a successful PR program: 

  • Step One: Benchmark. Take stock of every metric you have within the company. For PR, the most important metrics are the number of PR hits a company has ( 🤓), sales inbound leads, website traffic numbers, source of website traffic, number of mentions on social, number of followers on all platforms, etc. If your company is going to do a big hiring push, it’s good to measure the number of employees and the number of applicants before your PR team works to secure culture and workplace awards and storylines. A good rule of thumb is, if it’s worth growing, benchmark it. 

  • Step Two: Google Analytics. A good PR agency will want to know that what they’re doing is working. Plug your PR team into your Google Analytics account so they can measure what’s working, what’s not, and what needs a little love. 

  • Step Three: Build a press site. If you don’t already have one and are bringing on an agency, start a press page on your site to showcase all of your soon-to-be press hits. Every single earned media hit should live on this site. If you’re a company that issues many press releases, only include the top hits from each release you issue so as not to overwhelm your audience.

  • Step Four: Check your SOV. Every business has competitors. But you know the ones that really get under your skin - the ones that keep you up in the middle of the night because they’re just a little too close for comfort? See where you stack up against them. Identify your top 3-4 competitors and conduct a Share of Voice report to see who gets the most media visibility. Don’t forget to strip out duplicate and release postings because they’ll skew your numbers. 

  • Step Five: Get links (in press). Wherever possible, have your PR team secure a link within the press articles your team is landing. That way, you can see who is reading what article and where your newfound increase in web traffic is coming from. Some publications have an editorial policy that will not allow them to link back to a company, so keep that in mind when pitching. 

    Something important to note: Clients often want an article in the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. But if the article comes out and is gated behind a paywall, you reach a very limited pool of people. Likely less than you would reach if you aimed your pitching at a very targeted trade publication. Just a lil’ food for thought 🧠

  • Step Six: Coverage algorithms. Most agencies don’t do this, but we created a custom algorithm that scores each piece of coverage we get. We do this by evaluating key elements like the publication, the tone, and the extent of client mentions within the piece. At the end of the quarter, we add up every numerical value assigned to each piece so we can see, both quantitatively and qualitatively, where we landed. 

  • Step Seven: Measure! This is the best part. At the end of every quarter, see where you landed. Measure your website traffic, your Google Analytics, social followers, social engagement, inbound sales leads (and where they heard about you), the average number of applicants, etc. The key is to do this on a consistent, cadenced basis. 

PR typically isn’t the type of practice where you can link a single conversation to an exact sale. But you should be able to measure metrics trending upward once you’ve engaged with an agency (or a good agency, at least). 

Happy measuring! 

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