Some businesses still measure their PR output in 2D. Impressions, hits and SOV can help us to understand how earned media channels are performing, but they don’t tell us about how a communications program has contributed to the business’ bottom line. Come budget time, PR pros need a better explanation of how their hard work helped the business achieve its goals.
Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) has emerged as a popular tool, promising to quantify PR outcomes by linking activities to financial metrics. This data-driven approach appeals to the business focus on numbers, aiming to quantify the return on each marketing dollar spent. However, MMM has limitations in capturing the nuanced, less tangible aspects of PR. In this discussion, we'll examine the strengths and weaknesses of MMM and introduce the Barcelona Principles - a framework for more comprehensive PR measurement, including the use of metrics from digital channels, as well as new measurements that are available in popular media monitoring tools.
MMM is one of the ways that some organizations have defined the value of PR work. MMM is a statistical method that measures the impact of various business activities on the bottom line. Using this approach, data scientists collect numerous inputs, contrasting them against business metrics such as sales and revenue. This allows them to determine the value of each marketing effort contributing to a sale, down to the dollar spent on each campaign. However, MMM presents an incomplete picture for PR professionals. For one, it is limited to the inputs it receives. Data scientists will struggle to take inputs about some of the critical work that PR pros do. For example, you cannot input a crisis that was averted or mitigated. Critics of MMM also believe that in typical implementations it will be biased towards channels that have a more immediate impact on purchases. Nonetheless, it remains one of the only tools that can be used to understand, albeit partially, PR's contribution to ROI, especially in earned media.
Established by some of the world’s leading PR associations in 2010 and refined in 2020, these principles provide a clear guide for measuring PR work:
Implementing these principles isn’t easy. It requires an up-front investment where you sit down with key stakeholders and align first on your PR approach to the overarching organizational strategy. Only then can you align with your stakeholders on which qualitative and quantitative data can most-closely represent the outcomes that you are looking to achieve.
Even with these guiding principles, PR professionals encounter hurdles. AVE, for instance, remains in use despite being discredited by leading PR associations. Its flaws range from not correlating with key business outcomes to giving no insight into media coverage quality.
When PR pros use channels like paid media partnerships, advertorials or native advertising, influencer partnerships or digital channels like social media, professionals can gain deeper insights into audience behavior. By employing tools like Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) and integrating social media pixels, they can access richer metrics and precisely gauge content impact. This ensures that readers aren't just passively viewing but actively engaging and following the desired user journey. To the extent possible, PR Pros should use these sources to help to determine holistically whether their approaches are delivering on ROI.
All of the major media monitoring platforms have begun to offer new metrics that are positioned to help give a clearer picture of ROI. In practice, these new metrics are helpful for channel optimization, but do not actually help establish ROI in a meaningful way. Broadly, these new metrics help to understand the following
While all communications should aim to have their stories told by thought leaders that are more authoritative, providing higher search value that more closely align with their target demos; these metrics cannot in any concrete way demonstrate that earned media efforts have us have gotten us any closer to a sale. To be clear, these metrics have value, and help us to have a richer understanding of the impact the channels have on the reader, even if they don't directly show a connection to revenue.
So, how can PR professionals navigate this complex landscape to showcase ROI? The key lies in harnessing the Barcelona principles. By collaborating with stakeholders to identify the best tactics, PR experts can dissect campaign goals, laying out relevant success indicators for different communication channels.For instance, in earned media, defining targets for impressions or share of voice based on specific publications can yield fruitful insights. Such targeted strategies can gauge whether the PR content resonates with audiences seeking solutions to challenges a brand can address.
ROI measurement in PR may not be flawless, but with a blend of traditional and modern strategies, it's feasible. In the evolving landscape of PR, staying updated and adaptive is the name of the game.