ROI in PR campaigns is about more than just nickels and dimes. If you strictly focus on the financial gain from your PR campaigns, you’ll miss out on the bigger picture.
A successful PR campaign does more than pad your bank account; it shapes your brand’s story, makes it more visible, and creates lasting connections. Sales revenue is likely one of the stakeholders’ primary concerns, but it’s essential to pay attention to the long-term profitability of PR strategies.
Keep reading for additional metrics to measure PR ROI besides monetary value and tips to help you improve ROI.
*Note: All brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
What does ROI mean in public relations (PR)?
ROI is the profitability of a business venture, whether it be a social media ad spree, a public relations strategy, or a marketing campaign. However, in public relations, measuring your ROI encompasses more—it’s also about consumer engagement, brand visibility, and the impact on the brand’s reputation.
But why do you need to measure the ROI of your PR? It’s simple: Every company wants to know if its investment is paying off. When you can show the tangible benefits of your PR efforts, you can justify your spending and secure budgets for future projects. Additionally, knowing what does and doesn’t work helps you optimize campaigns, preventing you from spending without a clear purpose.
Metrics to track when measuring ROI in PR
There are many metrics to measure the value of a public relations campaign, but some carry more weight than others. Here are some metrics to track your campaigns:
Media mentions and impressions
One of the most important metrics is media mentions. How many times has your brand been mentioned across the Internet? It could be a mention in a niche industry publication or a media outlet like Entrepreneur or Forbes.
Media impressions, on the other hand, are the number of people who heard about your brand within a particular period. For instance, if your product were mentioned on a T.V. show with 500,000 viewers, that would be 500,000 impressions. Note that even a scroll past a Facebook advert is an imprint.
Why do you need to track these numbers? Tracking mentions and impressions helps you understand how far your PR campaign reach is, something every brand manager should prioritize. The more mentions and impressions, the more your brand gets noticed and stays top of mind. In short, these metrics reflect your brand’s visibility and awareness!
Engagement metrics
So, you’ve got more eyes on your brand—but the real win is when people engage with your brand or make a purchase. Your goal is for your audience to interact with your PR content. Think comments, shares, thumbs up, and hearts.
These interactions can translate to improved customer loyalty, more conversions, and a greater ROI by indicating which PR efforts resonate with your audience. Remember, while visibility is excellent, engagement is where the magic happens because it shows active interest.
Traffic and conversions
Now that people are talking, liking, and sharing your PR content, how do you know that all that buzz is driving action? Tracking traffic and conversions is a good place to start. When there’s a spike in traffic after a public relations campaign, it’s your audience saying, “Hey, I’m interested!”
Conversions are the ultimate high-five. Your target audience realizes you’re a viable solution to their pain points and goes for the purchase. Whether signing up for your weekly or monthly newsletters, downloading your app, or buying a product, conversions show that your PR campaign is turning interest into action.
Sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis is monitoring your brand’s reputation online. It helps you stay informed about your audience’s perceptions. What are people saying about your brand?
Evaluating what the media coverage says about your brand allows you to gauge whether your PR campaigns are building a positive perception or if there’s a need for damage control. Getting your brand into conversations is essential, but it’s even more powerful when people discuss it positively.
How to measure the ROI of a PR campaign with Bitly
Since you’ve learned the metrics to measure your PR ROI, let’s look at how to translate that information into action.
Step 1: Define objectives and KPIs
Before starting any PR campaign, the first step is to set the stage with clear objectives. Have your team brainstorm specific objectives that your campaign is working toward. What do you wish to achieve? Do you want to increase website visits, bolster your share of voice, or amplify your presence on social media platforms?
Once you’ve defined your goals, how do you measure PR success? This is where key performance indicators (KPIs)—such as media mentions and impressions, engagement rates, website traffic, conversion rate, and even social media ROI—come into play. Setting these metrics around your objectives makes your goals more measurable and achievable.
Step 2: Set up Bitly tracking
You can use Bitly to create trackable, branded links with analytics to keep tabs on how your PR content is performing. Whether you’re doing media outreach, sharing a press release, or posting on social, these short, custom links look professional. Getting real-time data on how many people click your links is the cherry on the cake.
Besides, with branded links, your audience knows where you’re sending them, boosting trust and reinforcing your brand. Custom links are a simple, effective way to measure the value of PR.
If you want to get a clearer picture of how your PR activities are performing and where traffic is coming from, use Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters in your links. UTM codes are your URLs with tags to track where your website visitors are coming from—like social media, a press release, or an email campaign. Then, you can optimize your strategies and boost your marketing ROI.
Step 3: Monitor engagement
Your PR campaign is active, but how do you monitor its performance? Keep an eye on media mentions and social media engagement—likes, shares, and comments—to gauge how your audience is responding.
Remember to use Bitly Analytics to monitor the performance of your links and identify which media channels drive the most traffic. If you’re running a sales promotion, are your customers finding you organically or through a pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement? If it’s through organic search, you could shift gears and consider dropping your PPC campaigns to save money. Tracking links is an effective way to gather this important information.
Step 4: Analyze web traffic and conversions
For a comprehensive view of the impact of your PR campaigns, combine the power of Bitly with Google Analytics. Think of Bitly as a snapshot of your link performance and Google Analytics as a macro view.
How long do visitors stay on your website? Which pages do they often visit? How many conversion events result from the page visits? These are all questions Google Analytics can answer in your weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports.
Track key metrics like conversions and referral traffic. With Google Analytics breaking down the user journey and Bitly tracking your links, you can see which PR campaigns are successful.
Step 5: Calculate the financial impact
The last step is determining whether your PR efforts are hitting a roadblock. A cost-benefit analysis can help justify your spending. It involves comparing the amount you’ve spent on a campaign to the benefits of those PR efforts.
Your PR campaign can include costs on activities such as:
- Social media campaigns
- Media outreach
- Press releases
- Influencer collaborations
- Media monitoring
- Content creation
You can compare these costs with data from Bitly and Google Analytics. Bitly Analytics tracks and analyzes how your short links and QR Codes are performing. Google Analytics will track how that traffic converts into sales and other valuable actions, like new customer acquisitions, media mentions, equivalent advertising value (EAV), customer testimonials, and reviews. A cost-benefit analysis gives insights into where to invest for even better results.
Best practices for improving ROI in PR
Now you know how to measure your return on investments in public relations, but what do you do if your ROI isn’t meeting campaign goals? Here are some strategies for improving ROI and ensuring your future PR campaigns are successful.
Align PR with business objectives
Aligning PR with business ambitions isn’t just an option but a necessity. Whether you aim to enhance your brand, retain customers, or expand your market, your objectives are what guide the course of your entire PR campaign.
A PR strategy that matches your business goals ensures every effort is directed toward increasing visibility, engaging key stakeholders, and long-term growth. Without this alignment, PR efforts can waste resources and miss key opportunities.
Some essential questions to help you understand your business goals are: what is your company or brand’s mission and vision? What are your brand’s values? How do you differentiate from competitors? What value do you create for customers and stakeholders?
Target the right audience
The right audience will be most receptive to your messaging for a particular product or service. Here are a few strategies to reach the ideal audience:
- Define your ideal audience: Consider demographics (age, gender, location, and income levels) and psychographics (values, interests, and behaviors) to identify who to target.
- Understand your audience’s needs and pain points: Pay attention to their needs and challenges to tailor your messaging.
- Analyze your current audience: Use tools like Google Analytics and HubSpot CRM to collect information about who is already engaging with your brand.
- Segment your audience and send tailored messages: Create smaller, specific groups and use language and tone that resonate with each.
- Choose the proper channels: Focus on platforms where they spend time—whether social media, blogs, industry publications, or other channels—and focus your efforts there.
- Leverage influencers: Partner with influencers and brands who resonate with your target audience while upholding a strong social media policy.
- Test and refine your campaigns: Continuously improve your approach based on data and feedback from surveys and other tools.
Defining the right audience gives you actionable data about who your audience is, where to find them, and when they’re interested in your messages. With this information, you can create more effective PR campaigns.
Once you know your target audience, tailor your messages to maximize conversion rates and increase sales. A report from McKinsey & Company revealed that 71% of customers expect personalized messages, and 76% are frustrated if that doesn’t happen. Customized messages help you communicate with your audience without bombarding them with irrelevant information.
Continuously monitor and optimize
A PR strategy may have worked well for your brand—increasing your website traffic or boosting monthly sales—but that doesn’t mean it’s time to sit back and relax. PR is an ongoing process and what worked yesterday might not be as fruitful tomorrow.
With Bitly Links, QR Codes, or Pages used alongside Bitly Analytics, you can track how your clicks are performing and which channels have the most engagement. You’ll also know when to pivot if something isn’t working, because you’ll be able to see what’s getting engagement and what’s not. This way, you’re making data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy and maximize the ROI of your PR.
Identify what PR activities resonate with your audience to stay relevant, effective, and aligned with your business objectives. Also, look for new opportunities and challenges—competitor actions, changing consumer needs, and industry regulations—that may impact your PR strategy and make necessary changes.
Prove the value of your PR efforts with Bitly
Getting the most out of your PR isn’t a game of luck but strategy. It involves crafting PR activities aligning with your business goals, targeting the right audiences, and continuously monitoring campaign performance. But it can be tedious, especially when you’re juggling multiple campaigns.
Bitly provides a powerful tool to track and overview your engagement and scans. With Bitly Analytics, you can see when, where, and how your audience is engaging to see how your PR campaigns are performing. With all these insights in one convenient dashboard, you can quickly and easily see which of your marketing efforts are thriving and where to expend fewer resources—time, effort, and money.
Get started with Bitly today to elevate your PR strategy with reliable, trackable custom links and actionable insights into their performance!
