Whenever we talk about ROI, it can feel like we’re just throwing out buzzwords. Generally speaking, ROI is referring to the profitability of a certain business venture, whether it be a marketing campaign, public relations effort, or social media ad spree. However, in public relations, measuring your ROI (or return on investment), is more than just the financial gains of a campaign – it’s also about brand visibility, consumer attitudes, and other qualitative aspects. The key to improving the ROI of your public relations ventures is first understanding what makes up a positive ROI. As a boutique PR agency, we work these values all day, every day. Here is a quick guide to ROI in the public relations space, and some quick and easy ways your brand can boost it for your next campaign.
What is ROI in Public Relations?
In the world of PR, there is still quite a few discrepancies about the best way to measure ROI. However, it is generally accepted that while recording data is important, what’s more important is putting a framework for what that data means to your campaign.
For example: if you get a press hit in Vogue, there are several data analytics you will notice. Unique page views, shares of article, mentions, time on page, and link click conversions are all metrics you can measure. Depending on what your goals are for that article, however, what constitutes as the most important metric will change, in turn changing your ROI.
If your goal for the press hit was exposure, you may consider unique page views to be most important. However, if your goal was increase sales, then link click conversions may be the highlight. Understanding how these metrics help you reach your goals will change whether you have a positive or negative ROI.
Best Metrics to Measure PR Efforts
While there are tons of metrics that you could evaluate, there are some that generally carry more weight than others. Some of our favorite to track on all of our campaigns include:
New Leads: in the business world, leads are any potential customers that are interested in your brand/product.
Share of Voice: This metric measures how the media is talking about you as compared to your competitors.
Campaign/Ad Reach: This metric explains how many people saw your campaign or advertisement.
Relationship Quality: Did your campaign garner any positive relationships between media, brands, investors, or customers?
Social Traffic/Growth: Take a look at how many people started following or engaging with your brand on social media.
Coverage Sentiment: How are people talking about your brand? Evaluate not just how much media coverage you’re getting, but also what that coverage is saying about you.
With these more modern metrics, your ROI will be more accurate and more helpful in crafting future campaigns.
Now that you have the basics on how to measure ROI to like the best boutique PR agency, read this article about the future of PR here.
