Why’s Nobody Talking About ROI in PR?

1 – Define objectives

This isn’t for the PR consultant to call. This HAS to be the client’s objectives. What’s the reason for the investment, for spending money? Is it to raise awareness of your company, your services or a particular campaign drive? Is it a rebrand, which comes with a repositioning in the markets in which you operate, or do we need to impact change in thinking and behaviour – such as with a delicate social health issue? Or you may be on a journey that’s nearing exit. Or, is it purely for lead generation?

Because these are what our clients really want. Using PR, and especially digital PR, boosts the likelihood of these objectives being met.

2 – Decide and agree upon suitable metrics

Only when objectives are clear can KPIs be set. This could be realising a percentage uplift in web traffic over a given period, or, for example, to earn 10 media mentions per month, and two placed thought leadership articles in key customer outlets?

Choose the metric which best fits the objective. Sounds obvious, but this doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. If your PR agency is overcomplicating matters, or including obscure metrics in their reporting, it’s probably because they are struggling to justify the results.

ROI is generally defined as the ratio of net profit over the total cost of the investment. With PR, however, unless efforts are being measured directly against leads or sales, the ‘profit’ may be determined as the value to the business in terms of a campaign’s success.

If success is measured through the placement of editorial, or thought leadership in key target media, we have media monitoring tools at our disposal to not only source this, but also to provide related analytics such as circulation/readership, impact and (if it’s digital PR) unique visitors and domain authority (DA).

If success looks like a percentage increase in web traffic, augmented by an SEO campaign, then set that percentage as a KPI. If success looks like a percentage lift in sales, likewise, there’s your KPI and you can measure this in value of sales v cost to implement.

If your PR objective is to enhance your reputation or impact a change in social behaviour, you can use digital PR metrics and techniques such as sentiment analysis, or share of voice.

Finally, it needs to be realistic. It should be ambitious but achievable, otherwise, just like every other part of your business, unachievable targets will be met with a lack of motivation.

3 – Collect and analyse outcomes

Do this regularly, in fact, insist upon it. You’ve set out some directives for how PR should be measured, and this should be reflected in monthly reporting.

To evaluate PR metrics effectively, start by gathering and analysing your PR data. This can be sourced from media monitoring tools, web analytics, social media platforms, or even surveys and interviews.

It’s essential to choose the right tools to ensure the data is accurate, valid, and reliable. In addition, the data can be compared with baseline data – the information collected prior to your campaign which your digital PR agency ought to have gained as part of its market and competitor analysis.

Only at this stage are you able to calculate the ROI by comparing the value of the outputs against the cost of the inputs. Remember, this might not necessarily be as simple as measuring your sales team’s performance, where there’s a cost input and value output – both measured in monetary value. But if the KPIs are robust enough, and the metrics accurate, you will have a base to report by, measure and analyse.

4 – Monitor, adapt, and be brave

No plan survives first contact with the enemy, or as Mike Tyson so eloquently put it: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. We don’t go around punching people in the face, that’d be rude, and probably not great for business. But what both sayings suggest, is that not all plans go swimmingly.

But they do need to be measured, and no ROI will be realised without doing so. If ROI is being achieved, and the plan is going accordingly, where can it be finessed? Is it delivering insight and data highlighting where the best outcomes are coming from? If our objective was organic growth, are we growing in the right departments, or at the desired pace? And should greater focus shift to these areas?

Furthermore, has the campaign run its true course, successfully, but showing signs of saturation or slowing down? This is where your PR efforts need to be brave. A switch in strategy shouldn’t just come as a kneejerk to poor performance, it should form part of the overall campaign to deliver results when and where it matters and if that means moving on to new audiences or demographics then so be it.

Final thought

To realise success, and to see ROI in your PR campaigns, you need to have skin in the game. For any campaign to work, there needs to be a partnership between client and agency. Let the agency have access to your spokespeople and experts. Allow them to run with ideas, to talk to the press and to make your brand and reputation work hard, on your behalf. Treat them as an extension to your C-suite.

Crucially, get it right on day one, set metrics for achievable and measurable outcomes and PR will be a smart investment for your business.