Business leaders want to see results from every dollar spent. The days of spending on Public Relations (PR) and hoping it works are over. You need to show how your PR efforts connect to real business outcomes.
When you can prove Public Relations ROI, you build confidence and brands understand PR is not a business expense, but in fact an investment.
5 metrics that actually drive business results
1. Quality of media coverage
Not all coverage is equal. Getting mentioned in a publication your customers read is worth more than any media feature they don’t see. Look for:
- Does this publication reach your target customers?
- Do they mention your key messages correctly?
- Is the coverage sentiment positive or negative?
- How often are you mentioned compared to competitors?
- Does it have backlinks (when and if possible, subject to editorial discretion)?
A small story in the right place often works better than big coverage in the wrong place.
2. Website traffic from public relations
When you get media coverage, people should visit your website. Check if more people came to your site after the coverage went live. More importantly, what did they do? Did they stay and read, or leave straight away? Look for visitors who spend time on your site, read multiple pages, or contact you.
100 interested visitors beat 10,000 people who visit and leave immediately.
3. New business enquiries
This is where Public Relations ROI becomes clear. Media coverage should lead to people knowing about you and eventually contacting you or it should help grease the sales wheel through third party endorsements showing current prospects you are a well trusted and credible brand. Track this by:
- Unique landing pages for PR campaigns
- Dedicated phone numbers or contact forms
- Monitoring inquiry spikes after coverage appears
- Linking PR mentions directly to sales conversations
The key is to set up tracking before campaigns go live.
4. Brand awareness shifts
PR’s role isn’t just short-term, it shapes perception over time. Use surveys and brand tracking to measure:
- Unprompted awareness
- Associations with key strengths or messages
- Likelihood to purchase
- Positioning compared to competitors
These shifts are slower to appear but crucial to long-term growth.
5. Social amplification
PR doesn’t stop with the original story. Strong coverage is shared, discussed, and remixed across social channels. Track:
- Shares and reposts of coverage
- Influencer mentions and commentary
- Discussions or user-generated content sparked by your story
This ripple effect can dramatically extend reach and impact.
Setting up PR analytics
Good measurement starts with clear goals. What do you want your PR to achieve? More sales leads? Better reputation? Higher brand awareness?
Pick 3-4 metrics that connect to your goals. Don’t try to measure everything, focus on what matters most.
Connecting Public Relations to sales
The hardest part of measuring PR success is linking coverage to sales. PR rarely works alone; it usually supports other marketing efforts. Try these approaches:
- Ask new customers how they heard about you
- Track sales increases after major coverage
- Look at PR’s impact over several months, not just days
- Survey customers about what influenced their purchase
Tools for measuring Public Relations
Technology makes PR measurement easier. You can use:
- Media monitoring tools to track coverage
- Website analytics to see traffic changes
- Social listening tools to monitor conversations
- Survey tools to measure brand perception
But tools only work if you know what to measure. The most expensive software won’t help if you’re tracking the wrong metrics.
Common measurement mistakes
Many businesses make predictable errors when measuring PR:
- Counting activities instead of results – how many press releases you sent doesn’t matter. What matters is the impact they had.
- Focusing on big numbers – millions of people seeing your story means nothing if they’re not your target customers.
- Ignoring bad coverage – negative stories don’t disappear if you don’t measure them. You need to know about problems to fix them.
- Expecting instant results – PR builds over time. Don’t judge success based only on immediate outcomes.
- Not connecting to business goals – if your PR measurement doesn’t link to business results, you’re missing the point.
Making Public Relations measurement work
- Start simple. Pick a few key metrics and track them consistently. As you get better at measurement, you can add more sophisticated tracking.
- Make sure everyone understands what you’re measuring and why. Your team, leadership, and other departments should know how your PR success is defined.
- Review your results regularly and adjust your approach. If something isn’t working, change it. If something is working well, scale.
Proving Public Relations value to leadership
When presenting PR results, focus on what leadership cares about:
- Show how PR supports sales and revenue
- Demonstrate improvements in brand perception
- Prove PR’s role in competitive advantage
- Connect coverage to website traffic and leads
Use simple charts and clear explanations. Avoid jargon and focus on business impact.
The bottom line on Public Relations ROI
Measuring PR success isn’t about proving how busy you’ve been. It’s about showing how PR contributes to business growth. The best PR measurement connects communication activities to business outcomes. It shows not just what happened, but what it means for your company.
When you can prove Public Relations ROI with clear metrics and business impact, PR stops being seen as a cost and starts being valued as a growth driver.
Good measurement also helps you improve. When you know what works, you can do more of it. When you know what doesn’t work, you can stop wasting time and money.
Start with simple metrics that matter to your business. Build measurement into your PR from the beginning. Track consistently and report clearly.
This approach turns PR from a guessing game into a strategic business tool with measurable returns.
At Taurus, we help businesses move beyond basic PR metrics to measurement systems that prove real business impact. Our approach connects PR activities to revenue outcomes, giving you the data you need to secure budgets and optimise performance. If you’re ready to start seeing return on your PR ROI properly, get in touch today!