The age-old question: how do you measure PR effectiveness?
Written by: Natasha Kaursland, Associate Director at Eulogy
The age-old question: how do you measure PR effectiveness
Measuring PR has always been a challenge, especially when compared to digital advertising, where success can be as simple as tracking clicks and sales. PR is about reputation, credibility and long-term relationships, and some of that just doesn’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet.
The world has significantly changed in the last five years and this seismic shift has been felt acutely in the PR industry. With the media landscape shifting and
journalism under pressure to produce content around the clock, PR’s role in the broader marketing funnel is under greater pressure than ever. Millions now favour online publications over print, social platforms have risen as dominant news sources, and collaborations with influencers have become essential to brand promotion. Meanwhile, the number of traditional publications and journalists continues to decline, reshaping the dynamics between media and PR.
At the same time, we are seeing brands tighten marketing budgets. The channels that receive the highest budgets are often now the teams who can demonstrate ROI. This is especially true when leaders tend to focus on immediate results and quick returns. This is a huge challenge to our industry – to justify our value to client teams.
Despite this, the industry is growing, proving its resilience and reflecting the value brands place on strategic communications, brand building and reputation management in a rapidly changing media environment. PR agencies like Eulogy have evolved to provide solutions to clients which go beyond earned, into social, digital and paid channels.
This does mean that demonstrating value has become more complex. It’s no longer about the number of articles or readership numbers (which is a good development). It’s up to PR agencies, in particular, to change the way we prove value and ensure brand teams have the resources they need to demonstrate to their leaders the impact of their work.
Why publication reach is a useless metric in PR
Publication reach is one of the most misleading numbers in PR. Landing an article in the Daily Mail technically gives you access to over 50 million sets of eyeballs but let’s be real, that’s not an accurate measure of impact. If you rely on this alone, your results will be completely skewed.
The number of articles secured isn’t much better as a standalone metric. Would you rather have two in-depth features in The Telegraph and The Times or six brand mentions in small, irrelevant news sites with a small audience? Quality always outweighs quantity.
To measure PR’s impact, it needs to align with broader business data, everything from consumer research to sales and marketing metrics.
Eulogy KPIs
At Eulogy, we start by asking our clients a question: What do you want to be known for? We then work closely with them to refine a final phrase or list of words which answer this question. This then allows us to create unique qualitative KPIS against those goals. We then use a points-based system to assign higher value to coverage that aligns with the key priorities outlined in the audience reach, publication credibility, exclusivity, sentiment, message inclusion This isn’t just a measurement tool; it forces brands to think about what PR really means for their business and what success actually looks like. A fantastic exercise for both brands and their agencies.
Brand sentiment and share of voice - why they matter
Every brand should be tracking sentiment and share of voice. These metrics tell you how you stack up against competitors, how visible you are to your audience, and most importantly how people actually feel about your brand. Unlike vanity metrics, they give real insight into PR’s impact.
Importantly, this enables you to look at quantitative results in the context of your industry. These metrics allow us to track word-of-mouth brand awareness, aligning it with when articles are published and how they impact visibility and sentiment in relation to competitors.
When measured properly, sentiment and share of voice help brands see the bigger picture - how PR efforts shape conversations and build long-term credibility.
Integration - PR doesn’t work in a silo
An important aspect to stress is that PR is most powerful when it’s fully integrated with other channels as part of a multichannel strategy. This approach allows brands to deploy a range of levers to deliver their message while also providing diverse data points to evaluate its effectiveness. For example, social media offers demonstrable metrics such as sentiment tracking and engagement rates, which help assess campaign impact. Collaboration across PR, social media, creative, advertising, public affairs, and other channels ensures a consistent narrative and aligns campaigns with overall business goals.
PR should never be an afterthought or operate in isolation. A strong PR strategy should integrate with and enhance other marketing efforts, ensuring a unified message across multiple channels. When a message is consistently delivered through various touchpoints, it increases the likelihood of capturing attention and driving engagement, ultimately creating a bigger impact and a stronger brand presence.
Proving PR’s value to the business
PR might not have the same straightforward metrics as advertising, but that doesn’t mean its value can’t be tracked. With the right tools and clear KPIs, you can effectively measure the impact of PR efforts.
At Eulogy, we’ve developed a model that evaluates the effectiveness of coverage against a set of defined criteria - a system we know works well. The key is setting the right KPIs at the beginning. This helps brands understand PR’s role in the overall marketing strategy, make smarter decisions, and demonstrate its worth. It’s also crucial to understand your brand, business, and goals.
By focusing on more sophisticated KPIs, brands can better track their position in the market, improve their public perception, and ultimately, increase growth, sales, and ROI.
