How do you demonstrate the effectiveness of your PR efforts? While it's clear you do have to show that your work across various channels matters, it still might not be clear how it is done.
They key? Using the right PR metrics. If you are wondering which metrics are worth following and presenting in an eye pleasing report, below is your list. Save it now and thank us later!
Check out which PR KPIs Public Relations professionals should focus on.
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How metrics and KPIs drive PR success
What are PR KPIs?
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. It is a quantifiable metric used by companies to evaluate their success in achieving specific objectives over a defined period. In PR, we can think of metrics such as share of voice, reach/impressions, or website traffic as KPIs.
#1 Share of Voice (SoV)
Share of Voice in public relations refers to the volume of unpaid, organic mentions of your brand across online media.
It is the first of our KPIs examples as it serves as a key metric for tracking your brand's visibility and awareness among your target audience. It helps you understand how prominently your brand is featured in conversations as compared to competitors.
How to track Share of Voice?
Use a media monitoring tool like Prowly. With this all-in-one tool, you can:
- Focus on your competitorsβ brands and the keywords crucial to your company.
- Utilize custom filters like media type, sentiment, backlinks, and languages.
- Monitor mentions across various platforms, eg. blog posts, Reddit and Quora.
- Choose your preferred reporting format, whether it be bar graphs or donut charts. You can visualize trends over time with insights displayed on a timeline.
- Keep track of key figures in your brand's narrative, such as how often your CEO is mentioned alongside your brand.
#2 Stories placed
One of the easiest to measure PR metrics and KPIs is stories placed.
Stories placed provides tangible evidence of a brand's media presence and influence. This KPI refers to your number of stories published, indicating reach and showing the potential of public awareness as a KPI.
How to track stories placed?
π Utilize the media monitoring feature and follow your brands mentions and hashtags. Prowly offers you monitoring of online platforms, broadcast and print media.
Each mention tracked by Prowly comes with sentiment analysis and reach metrics so you can react quickly if any harsh words are said.
#3 Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)
AVE is a comparison-based key performance indicator. It compares the value of earned media placements to the cost of equivalent advertising space.
| AVE = article size x ad rate |
However, we strongly advise against using AVE. It's a so-called Vanity Metric, meaning β it doesn't show the real value of your work.
It's important to understand which metrics truly matter and which can be used as, let's say, "this metric that the client asked for." We dedicated a full article to these metrics to promote new way of doing data-driven PR.
π Make sure to check it out β there's a list of AVE alternatives with tips on how to interpret it.
How to track AVE?
If you need AVE anyway, media monitoring can calculate your AVE automatically and present it as a coherent report.
- Add press mentions directly to client reports without the hassle of copy-pasting links, thanks to the seamless integration of Prowlyβs PR reporting and media monitoring tools.
- This allows interested parties to automatically access all coverage in one centralized location. Screenshots and key statistics like domain rank, sentiment analysis, and AVE are included.
#4 Sentiment
The Sentiment KPI reflects how people feel about certain topics. PR professionals should focus on brand sentiment in order to understand public feelings and prevent potential crisis.
How to track sentiment?
Follow mentions with Prowly. Choose your brand or term, your languages, and the countries you want to track. You can follow:
- brands
- competitors
- keywords
- people
- authors
- backlinks
A big plus? Once you save a search query for your project, media monitoring and sentiment analysis continue seamlessly - new mentions will be automatically updated as they come in.
#5 Media Mentions
Media mentions β this KPI counts brand mentions, indicating media interest and visibility.
This is one of the PR KPIs that enhance a brand's visibility and awareness. Moreover, it allows PR teams to gauge public sentiment about their brand.
As another pro, this KPI provides measurable outcomes that demonstrate the impact of PR efforts on brand perception and engagement.
How to track media mentions?
Use a media monitoring tool like Prowly. This platform allows you to follow online and offline media, broadcast and print included.
#6 Event promotion
Up to attending events? Track PRβs role in driving event attendance and media coverage. What stands behind this KPI?
- Event attendance βtrack both the number of people who register for an event and those who actually attend to gauge engagement and follow-throughs.
- Media coverage and mentions βcounts the media outlets that cover an event. Take a closer look at Quality of Coverage, i.e. the placement and prominence of event coverage.
- Social media engagement βmonitor the number of posts, reach, and engagement for the event. Keep an eye on influencer involvement in promoting and engaging with the event as well.
- Sentiment analysis β analyze the tone of conversations surrounding the event to gain insights into the audience's perceptions and feedback.
- Website traffic and referral sources β measure any increase in website visits due to event promotion efforts.
- Conversion metrics β follow the percentage of visitors who registered after viewing ads and promo content. And rack up the number of new leads gained through the event.
- Audience engagement during the event β measure interaction levels via polls, Q&A and live feedback. Moreover, track how many attendees engage with downloadable materials.
- Post-event engagement β track any post-event interactions, such as social media mentions, additional website traffic, and content downloads.
How to track event revenue?
Follow mentions and related keywords with Prowly. Set up alerts and follow audience sentiment. Gather a coherent look at how people are feeling about the event before and after it takes place.
#7 Reach and impressions
Reach and impressions estimates the unique audience exposed to content. It shows visibility and aids demographic targeting.
Thanks to measuring these two you can track campaign effectiveness as well as audience engagement.
How to track reach & impressions?
These PR KPIs are easy to track with Prowly. Follow mentions, set up alerts, and analyze estimated reach. Choose keywords related to your brand and follow competitors to gain valuable insights and set benchmarks.
#8 Domain authority/ Media Tier
The Domain Authority or Media Tier KPI uses SEO metrics to evaluate PRβs impact on site authority and ranking via high-authority backlinks. It indicates website reputation and credibility.
Moreover, analyzing domain authority helps PR pros identify and prioritize outreach targets for link-building campaigns.
How to track domain authority?
You can group domains into Tiers with Prowly. You can create six. Tier one contains the most important domains for you, and the sixth the least crucial ones. Moreover, you can add each mention to Tiers.
#9 ROI (Return on Investment)
When one asks how to measure public relations, ROI is one of the most accurate and popular answers. It calculates the cost-benefit of PR activities relative to established goals.
ROI keeps your budget on track and helps you with effective planning.
How to track ROI?
Create a project in Prowly, define search queries and follow metrics such as:
- Number of Mentions
- Sentiment Analysis
- Estimated Reach
- Backlinks
Gather all the data in one dashboard and calculate how many of the leads can be attributed to your PR efforts. Use Prowlyβs analytics to trace back conversions to specific campaigns or media mentions, which directly ties your PR activities to financial outcomes.
#10 Active coverage
Active coverage measures secured coverage, focusing on top-tier publications. Top-tier publications significantly boost a brand's credibility, as mentions in reputable media outlets are often viewed as more trustworthy than traditional paid advertising.
Moreover, by tracking this coverage, PR teams can gain valuable insights into audience engagement and sentiment, which helps them fine-tune their messaging strategies.
How to track active coverage?
Use Prowly to:
- Set up a Monitoring Project and create Search Queries. Within your project, build a search query to monitor specific brand related terms or ones connected to the competitors, or relevant keywords.
- Customize your search by selecting the sources you want to monitor, such as news articles, blogs, social media platforms, and broadcast channels and print media.
- After configuring your search parameters and sources, save your query. Prowly will continuously monitor mentions matching your criteria and display them on your dashboard. You can also set up alerts to keep up to date.
How to measure KPIs?
Depending on the KPI and the PR value it brings to the company, you can follow it differently. But most of the above can be covered with media monitoring or an all-in-one tool, like Prowly.
Prowly allows you to track all the key performance indicators for public relations with just a few clicks. What is more, Prowly can generate a public relations report with all of these KPIs included.
Q&A: Key Performance Indicators that matter
Q: How to calculate reach for press?
You need to establish the number of impressions you get and the frequency. Then plug these values into the reach formula to work out how many unique individuals were reached by your press coverage.
| Reach = Impressions / Frequency |
Q: What is a good KPI for press?
Above you can find the list of 10 KPIs. For the press you can mostly rely on Active Coverage, SoV and Sentiments.
Q: Which KPI is most likely to be a vanity metric?
The KPI most likely to be considered a vanity metric is Reach. Reach indicates the total number of people who have seen a piece of content, but it does not reflect on the quality of engagement or its impact on business objectives, such as conversions or sales.
Summary: top PR metrics list
Above you can find a list of important key performance indicators to measure your PR success. The PR metrics most worth following are:
- SoV
- Stories placed
- AVE
- Sentiment
- Media mentions
- Event Promotions
- Reach and impressions
- Domain Authority/Media Tier
- ROI
- Active Coverage
You don't have to follow them all.
Choose those which best reflect your business and brand goals. You can gather all your data and generate full reports all in one place.
Use an all-in-one tool like Prowly and see how such comprehensive platforms can support you in measuring you PR efforts.
