Are you looking for ways to measure the success of your public relations efforts? Do you want to better understand the impact of media coverage, press releases and other PR activities on your business? 
In this article, we'll talk about PR measurements and discuss the key data points you should track and how to use these metrics to inform future campaigns. 
Table of Contents
What Is PR Measurement?
PR measurement is the process of using analytics and data to evaluate and estimate the impact, effectiveness, reach and overall performance of a public relations campaign. By assessing the impact of different PR activities, you can identify which public relations strategies are most effective in reaching your target audience and achieving desired results. 
It typically includes key metrics such as media coverage, brand awareness, website traffic or social media engagement to measure the success of a PR effort. There are different types of PR programs and, for each of them, you might need to track separate metrics. It’s no wonder PR is ranked among the top 10 most stressful jobs. 
By quantifying the activities, campaigns and outcomes relative to business goals, PR professionals can pinpoint opportunities to improve and fine-tune PR initiatives for maximum results.
Aside from coming up with effective strategies, the top public relations firms are often in charge of measuring success too. If this feels like the right move for you, don’t forget to prepare a public relations RFP to ensure the company you’re about to hire understands your needs. 
How To Measure PR?
The best way to measure PR performance is to look at both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data provides insights into the reaction of your target audience by assessing customer feedback and engagement with your brand or campaign, while quantitative data looks at metrics like media mentions, impressions, website traffic, or media reach.
By combining the two types of measurement you can get an accurate understanding of how well your PR efforts are doing and where it needs improvement.
However, before you analyze data, you first have to set clear goals. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, improving reputation, driving website traffic, or boosting sales, having clear objectives makes measurement more meaningful.
It’s also a good idea to compare your media coverage to that of competitors. Calculate the "share of voice" in your industry to assess how well your brand is represented in the media compared to others.
Key Metrics in PR Measurement 
- Media Coverage
- Reach
- Impressions
- Social Media Engagement
- Website Traffic
- Share of Voice (SOV)
- Earned Media Value (EMV)
- Lead Generation
- Brand Awareness
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Which PR metrics businesses should track varies depending on their individual goals and objectives. For instance, if you’re dealing with a PR crisis, you will be better off tracking brand loyalty than website traffic. Of course, you can hire one of the top crisis management firms to mitigate the situation and save your image. 
Many businesses nowadays choose the following metrics: 
1. Media Coverage 
Tracking the number of articles or mentions in traditional or online media outlets is a key metric for evaluating PR efforts. Organizations can use media monitoring tools to track their coverage and measure the reach and impact of their PR campaigns.
By keeping track of the number of articles or mentions, organizations can gauge the level of interest in their brand, products or services and identify media outlets that are most likely to cover their stories. 
Additionally, companies can track the quality of the coverage—such as the tone, context and placement within the publication—to understand how the coverage is positioning its brand or message.
2. Reach
Reach is the total number of people who have seen or been exposed to PR coverage. This metric can be measured by adding up the audience of the media outlets where the coverage appeared, as well as the people who see the coverage via shares, retweets or other forms of social amplification.
It can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of PR campaigns and identify opportunities to expand the reach of coverage. 
Keeping track of reach also allows you to track the demographics of the audience reached, such as age, gender, and location, in an effort to better understand your target audience and tailor your PR efforts accordingly.
3. Impressions
Impressions refer to the number of times a message is seen or heard by an audience. This can include views of a news article, a social media post or attendance at an event. 
Impressions are not based on concrete numbers, but rather on potential. For instance, if you placed an ad in the local newspaper that has 1,000 readers, the assumed impressions count would be 1,000. 
4. Social Media Engagement
Tracking social media engagement is a key metric for evaluating PR efforts on social media platforms. This can include likes, shares, comments or other forms of engagement related to PR efforts.
By measuring social media engagement, organizations can gauge the level of interest in their brand, products or services and identify opportunities to improve their social media strategies. 
5. Website Traffic
By monitoring the number of visitors to a website and the source of their referral, businesses get a chance to identify which PR campaigns are most effective at driving traffic and conversions. 
It’s always useful to keep an eye on the website’s visitors’ behavior. This way, you’ll understand which pages they visit and the actions they take, helping you provide them with a better user experience which can result in driving conversions and revenue.
6. Share of Voice (SOV)
Share of voice refers to the percentage of total media coverage or social media conversations that an organization or its competitors are receiving in a specific industry or topic. It’s an important PR metric that helps measure the presence and reputation of a brand in comparison to its competitors. 
SOV enables brands to assess their own visibility, track progress over time and evaluate how far ahead or behind they are against their competitors, helping them stay competitive in the industry. It shows how much coverage, mentions and overall attention a brand is receiving in relation to others in its category. 
By monitoring SOV, brands can understand the positive and negative sentiment around their brand as well as see where improvements can be made so that they remain top-of-mind for customers.
7. Earned Media Value (EMV)
Earned media value (EMV) is the estimated dollar value of PR coverage based on advertising rates for similar placements. This metric can be used to evaluate the financial impact of PR efforts and compare the value of different types of media coverage.
It combines quantitative and qualitative measurements, such as circulation figures, reach, readership, duration, and target audience to calculate the total value derived from earned media mentions or placements. 
EMV provides public relations professionals with an opportunity to prove their effectiveness to clients and stakeholders by showing how earned media exposures add real economic value to their communications efforts. 
With EMV, PR practitioners can accurately quantify how much revenue is generated from each earned media mention and report it back to senior leaders for approval.
8. Lead Generation
Lead generation is the number of leads generated as a direct result of PR efforts. It's an indication of how well the team is able to generate interest and drive engagement with target audiences. 
Lead generation metrics can be tracked in various ways, such as measuring inquiries through email or website visits, capturing leads from webinars and events, tracking changes in search engine traffic and evaluating media coverage conversions.
This metric can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of PR campaigns in driving conversions and revenue. Organizations can also use unique tracking links or codes to attribute leads generated from specific PR campaigns. This will enable organizations to understand which PR campaigns are most effective in driving leads and conversions.
9. Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the level of recognition or understanding of an organization's brand among its target audience and how effective the messages conveyed through the PR activities are at resonating with them. 
Brand awareness can be measured in various ways, such as:
- Brand recall - whether people recognize a certain brand name
- Brand preference - if they prefer that product over similar brands
- Purchase intent - how likely people would be to buy it 
In order to create successful campaigns, it's vital to generate positive attention on the right platforms and ensure visibility across multiple channels. This will help make your brand more recognizable, thus making it easier for potential customers to find you.
10. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of how likely an organization's customers, stakeholders or the public are to recommend its products, services or the organization as a whole to others. 
Using the NPS, marketers can track customer service and loyalty by asking customers to rate how likely they are to recommend a company's product or service on an 11-point scale. The higher the score received, the more satisfied customers are with the product or service. 
This metric also helps gauge customer satisfaction with existing products and services as well as potential products and services before they reach the market. NPS offers businesses insight into how engaged their audience is with their brand and can be used to help shape decisions around marketing campaigns, customer service initiatives and even product design choices. 
Why Is PR Measurement Important?
Measuring public relations (PR) is essential for organizations of all sizes as it allows them to assess the success of their PR campaigns and determine if they’re reaching their desired goals. Effective measurement helps organizations understand what works and what doesn’t work, offering them invaluable insights on how to improve in the future.
PR measurement also lets you see how people feel about your brand, product, or organization. Based on this knowledge, businesses can make informed decisions that increase brand awareness and build trust with customers.
Measurement not only validates the allocation of resources but also offers a comprehensive understanding of audience engagement, sentiment analysis, and media reach.
Ultimately, PR measurement bridges the gap between subjective perceptions and objective outcomes, empowering PR experts to demonstrate their contributions to organizational goals, fine-tune messaging, and build enduring relationships with stakeholders.
PR Measurements: Key Takeaways 
Monitoring your indicators and capitalizing on them is crucial if you’re to ensure the success of your PR strategies. Through careful analysis of the key metrics, you can adjust your efforts and reach your target audience almost effortlessly.
When handled properly, PR measurements can be an effective tool to increase visibility, generate leads and create loyalty. 
PR Measurements FAQs
1. What does PR value mean?
PR value, often referred to as PR impact value, is a metric used to estimate the monetary worth of media coverage and other PR activities. It quantifies the value that PR efforts bring to an organization by assigning a financial equivalent to various PR outcomes. PR value is commonly calculated by comparing the cost of obtaining similar coverage through advertising to the cost of PR efforts that generated the coverage.
However, PR value is a somewhat controversial metric and is not always universally accepted as an accurate representation of the true impact of PR. This is because it simplifies complex factors such as audience engagement, sentiment, and credibility into a monetary figure, which might not fully capture the qualitative benefits of PR.
