PR Campaigns: Are They Worth It?

My reading this week talked a lot about tracking ROI, or Return on Investment. Was this campaign worth the money? This can sometimes be hard to track, how can you really tell if something is worth the money unless you make a profit from it? I think it is much more plausible to base success on ROO, or Return on Objectives. These can be a little easier to track the successes, as most will have very specific objectives, For example, a company will not say they want to “increase sales.” Instead, they will say they want to “increase online sales by 15% by December 1, 2019.” These objectives can be incredibly specific, that way an organization always knows when goals have been met and when they have not.

Being able to measure the success of PR campaign is extremely important, but it is also difficult. While studying for my undergraduate degree, I had to implement a campaign for a Tuscaloosa thrift store and the hardest part was figuring out how to measure the results. While most companies have significantly more resources than this small campaign had, they can still struggle with evaluation. According to this article, these are some of the ways companies measure the impact of their campaigns.
                - Online listening tools
                - Web traffic via Google Analytics
                - Analytics from Social Media Platforms
                - SEO Activities
                - Integration with sales teams and platforms

Of this list, there are two that really stand out to me. I think measuring web traffic and social media analytics are great ways to see how successful a campaign is. From my own personal use, I know that if I see an advertisement for something I am interested in, I will always Google search the item and then look for it on social media. The amount of advertisements on social media, Instagram especially, it is easy to see how successful those have been. Most ads will give you an option to click or swipe up on the photo to see the product and that type of data is easy to track. We have almost, in way, combined web traffic and social media analytics. In the past, social media analytics were seen as the amount of likes, reactions, impressions and shares, but now that has changed with the rise of social media influencers.

With social media influencers having such an impact on daily life now, that is another thing that can be used to track success. Many influencers, when working with a company, will have a specific link or code to be used when a consumer is purchasing an item. This link or code with usually, but not always, have a discount included. Companies should be able to track how many times a link or code has been used for purchasing. According to the website Business2Community, “referrals are key to revealing the success of PR coverage… because it will show exactly how many people are being driven back to the client’s site from the article.” We see these referral links everywhere, sometimes without even knowing it. If you have ever clicked on a link in a blog, under a YouTube video, or even articles from some news companies like BuzzFeed, you are probably using a referral link. These links can not only show a company the amount of traffic on a website from a post, but the influencer who posted the link will also get a small amount of money from any purchases made using it.

According to PRMention, there are 10 basic methods of measuring the impact of a campaign. Half of the methods involve, or can involve, social media. These are: social media reach, engagement of social media, media impressions, brand mentions and social shares. Below I have talked about each of these five methods and how you can use them to help your company or organization! (Side note, if you are interested in different techniques of measuring the impact of a campaign, this article is great! It not only gives you advice on how to measure, but walks you step by step through some of the ways to do it!)

Social Media Reach: this tells you how far your social media pages and posts have, you guessed it, reached! According to PRMention, people will only follow your social media pages if it is entertaining and shares valuable content. You can measure this pretty easily by comparing numbers of followers at different stages in the campaign.

Engagement of Social Media: While followers on social media matter, it means more if they are actually engaging with posts. There are several apps and types of software that allow a company to link all social media pages and keep up with engagement statistics.

Media Impressions: This is the most common type of measurement. This is how many times an audience may have seen your content. This is easily calculated. Most of the same companies that will monitor your engagement on social media will also measure your engagement!

Brand Mentions: It is so important to know when your company is being mentioned! According to the article, 96% of the people who mention brands online do not follow those brands on social media. Companies need to make sure that they are monitoring those accounts, and really any mention of their name, to know what is being said to the public so that you can respond in an appropriate way.

Social Shares: While this could still be lumped in with engagement, it should be tracked as its own metric. It is important to know the amount of times content has been shared because that is even more touches than you would think!

Measuring the success of a campaign can be difficult, but it is worth it! By setting specific objectives, it is easier to see if goals have been met rather than having to decide if the campaign was worth the cost. There are so many ways to track results, so companies and organizations should take advantage of all resources available to them!

What do you think is the most important thing to measure to track the success of a campaign?

Black, C. (2018, July 5). 4 Ways to Measure the Impact of Your PR Campaign. Retrieved from https://business2community.com/public-relations/4-ways-to-measure-the-impact-of-your-pr-campaign-02089960

Dholakiya, P. (2017, February 7). 10 Methods to Measure the Success of a PR Campaign. Retrieved from https://prmention.com/blog/10-methods-to-measure-the-impact-of-pr-campaign