Measuring Earned Media: Going Beyond Impressions to Inform PR Strategy
The traditional reliance on impressions as the main metric for earned media is no longer enough in today’s data-driven landscape. As PR strategists, we are storytellers. We know the level of detail it takes to generate a compelling, holistic piece of prose that caters to a specific audience. We understand the value of earned media and the monitoring and measurement tools we have at our disposal to help communicate it. We need to use our storytelling abilities and the myriad metrics to counsel our clients into understanding the ROI of earned media. This is not about fabricating a story or adding “spin” to create something that isn’t there; it is about using the data at hand to go deeper into demonstrating impact beyond the surface level.
Media impressions are the quintessential vanity metric. The irony of a media impression in PR is that it’s almost the opposite of how the word is used in layman’s terms. The way most people think of an impression revolves around making a mark, leaving some sort of stamp or imprint in someone’s mind. In contrast, a media impression in PR is nothing more than the instance of an article displayed on a website or multimedia platform. It is often a very high number representing the potential audience but does not contribute to meaningful business outcomes.
A good PR strategy aligns with a business’s organizational goals, which is why we are so focused on developing integrated partnerships with our clients. We see ourselves as an extended part of the team rather than operating through a transactional lens. We ask many questions of our clients to understand their desired benchmarks and discuss together how we can support and help reach them. And in return, they rightfully ask several questions of us. For some, it is sufficient to provide how many published media placements they had last month. For others, it’s the colossal impression figures that can be used to impress leadership. While those approaches both report results, looking deeper can help better inform a holistic PR strategy.
Impressions – similar to other traditional reach-based metrics – do not offer context on how a brand or initiative is resonating with audiences when reported as standalone. Impressions merely scratch the surface of demonstrating impact by quantifying how many people could potentially see that article, not how many actually have. This metric does not give insight into how much of the piece the audience read, their reaction to the message, how it made them feel, whether it is influencing them to change their mind or take action, etc. It can start to make a marketer or leadership team wonder if anyone is really listening.
Metrics That Matter for Effective PR Strategy Monitoring
There are many more effective monitoring and measurement techniques that strengthen a PR strategy by measuring active involvement rather than exposure. Here are a few of what I like to call, “Metrics that Matter”:
Engagement Metrics
Engagement metrics go beyond reach numbers to reveal how many people have interacted with a piece of content. Earned media coverage can generate engagement when links are shared on social media, or directly from a news outlet’s website in the reaction section below the article. Likes, comments, shares, reposts, and saves are all examples of engagement metrics. The common thread is the viewer demonstrating interaction, which indicates message resonance, versus a quick glance or scroll through.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is the process of using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to determine the emotional tone, opinion, or attitude expressed in a piece of content. In a literary context, this is an appeal to pathos. Similarly, a good PR strategy includes messaging with intentional language, vivid imagery, and thoughtful storytelling to evoke an emotional response from the audience, making them more receptive to the message being conveyed. The majority of sentiment is typically neutral, but seeing spikes in positive or negative sentiment can help a company understand how the population is reacting to a particular new release or idea. Sentiment analysis tools still have not yet cracked the code on identifying sarcasm, but monitoring and measuring sentiment can help a business understand how an audience is receiving its message.
Share of Voice
Share of voice measures how much dominance an organization has in market conversation compared to its competitors. It shows a business its percentage of the total conversation around a specific topic by measuring earned media placements, search engine results, social media engagement, and advertising spend against others in that category. Earned media has a direct impact on share of voice and is an important channel for owning market conversation. If share of voice is the business goal, earned media is a critical KPI to reach it.
Backlink Tracking
The success of a single earned media placement can be measured with several different metrics. This includes the number of quotes, placement of quote, the publication’s number of unique monthly visitors to their site, and whether or not the article includes a backlink. Backlinks are essentially referral traffic to an organization’s website from an earned media source. For example, a news article may cite a data point from a recently released survey, and hyperlink to the full report on the business’ website. Without foregoing a single cent in ad spend, that company effectively used earned media to drive website traffic. Certain monitoring and measurement tools can track how many users were driven to the company page by earned media articles. The number of backlinks are one of the most straightforward metrics needed to tell a holistic story of earned media impact.
Content Diversification
Earned media placements can take several forms. An article may quote the company spokesperson directly or mention commentary the spokesperson gave the reporter. The entirety of the article could be a feature about a specific piece of thought leadership. These categories of quotes, mentions, and features also apply to podcast and broadcast media opportunities. But, there is also another type of feature story: the byline. Bylines are a type of contributed content that allow the company to have much more control over the narrative, significantly reducing the risk of a message getting taken out of context. Each of these earned media outcomes can make an impact on a company’s reputation and credibility. Diversifying the types of earned media in the right combination that aligns with a company’s business goals is the ultimate effective PR strategy.
The Future of Earned Media Measurement
Earned media continues to hold its importance as a third-party endorsement of a company’s credentials. There is more opportunity now than ever for audiences to see these articles, since 89–94% of citations in AI-generated search summaries (like Google’s AI Overviews and other AI tools) come from earned media. While that number doesn’t translate directly to “traffic” or “leads,” it does underscore the prominent role of earned media in shaping what audiences find through AI-driven channels.
Besides enabling audiences to more readily be exposed to earned media articles, AI and advanced metrics are also significantly improving ROI tracking for media monitoring and measurement. While technology can expedite the data collection and reporting process, these tools are not advanced enough to tell the story behind the metrics. That is where the human element remains critical. Measuring earned media impact requires context, which is where PR strategy comes in. The culmination of impressions, select “metrics that matter”, and the human storytelling element that threads the needle between them is how earned media’s impact and contribution to business goals is truly conveyed.
