• Member Login
  • Contact
  • Resources

Lost your password?

  • English English English en
  • العربية العربية Arabic ar
  • Indonesia Indonesia Indonesian id
  • Melayu Melayu Malay ms
  • Български Български Bulgarian bg
  • hrvatski hrvatski Croatian hr
  • Čeština Čeština Czech cs
  • Dansk Dansk Danish da
  • Suomi Suomi Finnish fi
  • Français Français French fr
  • Deutsch Deutsch German de
  • Ελληνικά Ελληνικά Greek el
  • हिन्दी हिन्दी Hindi hi
  • Italiano Italiano Italian it
  • 简体中文 简体中文 Chinese (Simplified) zh-hans
  • Norsk bokmål Norsk bokmål Norwegian Bokmål no
  • Română Română Romanian ro
  • Русский Русский Russian ru
  • српски српски Serbian sr
  • Slovenčina Slovenčina Slovak sk
  • Slovenščina Slovenščina Slovenian sl
  • Español Español Spanish es
  • Svenska Svenska Swedish sv
  • Tagalog Filipino Tagalog Filipino Tagalog Filipino tgl
  • Tamil Tamil Tamil ta
  • ไทย ไทย Thai th
  • Türkçe Türkçe Turkish tr
  • اردو اردو Urdu ur
  • Tiếng Việt Tiếng Việt Vietnamese vi
  • 日本語 日本語 Japanese ja
AMEC

International association for the measurement and evaluation of communication

  • Education
    • AMEC Online College
      • AMEC Training Opportunities
      • AMEC Academic Scholarship 2023
      • AMEC Foundation in Measurement & Evaluation
        • FAQ’s – AMEC Foundation Course
      • AMEC Certificate in Measurement & Evaluation
        • AMEC Certificate 2023 Alumni
        • FAQs – AMEC Certificate Course
        • Student Testimonials
        • AMEC IEF Tutorial Course
        • Diploma – Coming 2024
      • AMEC Academic Advisory Group
  • Resources
    • Barcelona Principles 3.0
    • Integrated Evaluation Framework (IEF)
      • AMEC IEF Tutorial
    • 2023 AMEC Agency White Paper
    • AMEC Planning Resources
    • Measurement Methodology
    • 2023 AMEC APAC Market Insights Paper
    • Videos
    • AMEC Measurement Month
    • Case Studies
    • Find a Speaker
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
      • Upcoming Events
    • Measurement Month
      • 2023 Events
      • 2022 Events
      • All Events
    • Summits
      • All Summits
      • 2023 Regional Summit – Jakarta
      • 2024 Global Summit – Sofia
      • 2023 Global Summit – Miami
      • 2022 Global Summit – Vienna
      • 2021 Global Summit – Virtual
      • 2020 Global Summit – Virtual
      • 2019 Global Summit – Prague
      • 2018 Global Summit – Barcelona
      • 2017 Global Summit – Bangkok
    • AMEC Communication Effectiveness Awards
      • 2023 Awards
      • 2022 Awards Winners
      • 2022 Awards
      • 2021 Awards Winners
      • 2021 Awards
      • Past Award Winners
      • Don Bartholomew Award Winners
  • About
    • Who We Are
      • About AMEC
      • AMEC Board of Directors
      • AMEC Special Interest Groups
      • Partners & Alliances
    • Chapters
      • Asia Pacific Chapter
      • European Chapter
      • Latin America Chapter
      • Middle East and Africa Chapter
      • North American Chapter
  • Insights
  • Membership
    • Join AMEC
      • AMEC Special Interest Groups
      • AMEC Global Chapters
      • Membership Categories
    • Membership Directory
      • See all Members
    • AMEC Board Elections
      • AMEC Elections 2024
      • AMEC Elections 2023 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2022
      • AMEC Elections 2022 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2021
      • AMEC Elections 2021 Results
      • AMEC AGM 2020
      • AMEC Elections 2020 Results
      • AMEC Elections 2019 Results
    • Exclusive for Members
      • AMEC General Webinars (members only on-demand)
      • AMEC NFP SIG “Ask the Experts” Series
      • All Measurement Month Events
      • AMEC Agency Toolkit Series
      • AMEC North America Chapter “Ask the Experts” Series
      • AMEC European Chapter – Hints and Tips
      • AMEC Global Membership Survey
  • Resources
  • Menu Menu

Pitching for PR measurement investment

You are here: Home » AMEC Member Article » Pitching for PR measurement investment

Pitching for PR measurement investment

9th December 2019/in AMEC Member Article, Special Interest Groups Kerry Gould, Speed Communications/by Julie Wilkinson

A PR manager stands before her assembled board members.

“I’d like to show you which of our PR campaigns did the most to boost the bottom-line last year.” she smiles at the stony faces, then takes a deep breath. “But I can’t.”

It’s a ballsy opening to her pitch for investment in PR measurement. One that drives straight at the heart of what the board cares about most.

The bottom line.

She can tell them how each campaign performed according to the traditional volume-based measurements they’re accustomed to; web-traffic, brand mentions, (she grimaces) …AVE.

But to demonstrate PR’s outcome-based value, she’s proposing a joined-up approach. She wants the keys to finance and the corporate CRM, incomings, lead qualification, sales pipeline, the lot.

She wants tools and training so her team can combine all that with her marketing data and turn the whole mass of spaghetti into hard insight and fact-based campaign refinement.

Before she leaves the room, she needs to land a number of key points and overcome several traditional stereotypes to win the cross-departmental buy-in she needs.

Cost

An inevitable objection is based on a fair but out of date assumption about the cost of PR measurement.

Traditionally, the complexity of sophisticated PR measurement has been eclipsed only by its price tag. Even today, particularly where attribution is required, the measurement budgets of some leading consumer brands – employing small armies of data scientists – would dwarf many marketers’ entire annual spend.

But big tech platforms and esoteric maths are overkill where the simple objective should be to tie PR activity to business performance; outputs to outcomes.

PR measurement capability is no longer solely the domain of huge corporate teams with international budgets. Keep the tools simple and the deadlines tight and there’s no reason for costs to spiral.

We celebrated Measurement Month by launching a new PR measurement dashboard, PACE. It’ll provide Speed clients with a snapshot visualisation of how their campaigns contribute to business objectives.

Complexity

A common reaction to the multitude of data sources marketers suddenly find at their fingertips is ‘analysis paralysis’. It’s a condition that can be reliably treated by keeping the scope narrow and going back to the Barcelona Principles number one rule for SMART objective setting.

Setting the right objectives helps make sense of the masses of available data, indicating which metrics should be tracked and which can be ignored.

For instance, if your campaign objective is lead generation, relevant metrics might include website conversions, gated content downloads, newsletter signups and lead qualification percentage.

Or if your objective is to boost customer advocacy, you’ll want to combine NPS scores, repeat purchase rates, product reviews and social media likes, shares and mentions.

Analytical thinking is free. And when you start considering data sources outside marketing’s sphere of responsibility, in sales and finance for instance, it becomes clear that a lot of the data you need is free also.

Google analytics, social traffic, search volume, sales pipeline, lead qualification rate; these are simple data sources and it doesn’t take a maths genius to correlate them with PR activity.

Culture

In an organisation accustomed to reporting on output, turning the ship towards outcomes can be a challenge; a challenge that becomes a roadblock where some of the data you need sits in sales or finance siloes, out of reach.

Imposing a measurement culture for its own ends without carefully considered framing is likely to meet critical resistance. On their own, data and measurement aren’t the point. The point is how they enable smarter, fact-based decisions. The point is the ‘so what?’ to the bottom-line.

If you can demonstrate the fallibility of gut-feel decisions by asking people to test their assumptions against simple data tools, resistance falls away. We’ve seen successful measurement cultures flourish simply by making simple data and measurement tools available.

You’ll struggle to find a professional across any department who turns down information that makes them a more effective decision-maker.

Nurture analytical thinking by requiring all ideas, proposals, solutions, reports and suggestions to come with a data-backed justification. The key question, the part that ignites curiosity and unearths insight, is ‘so what?’. How does it relate to our bottom line?

It’s not rocket science. It’s data science.

The PR Manager’s pitch

The board, traditionally twitchy about technology investment, are impressed.

Their buy-in is paramount. Not just for sign off on the spend, but for the support and momentum required to successfully drive the change in thinking and behaviour, in openness and collaboration between teams.

“Our preconceptions about the complexity of data and the barriers to effective PR measurement are out of date,” says the PR manager.

Some investment will be required. But thanks in no small part to the efforts of AMEC and the members of the Common Ground agency group, the industry now offers tools to suit most budgets, with UX standards that mean the skills to use them can be learned quickly.

“We need to harness this data,” she concludes. “Because with those barriers coming down, you can bet our competitors will.”

By Kerry Gould, Associate Director, Speed Communications

 

 

Tags: agencyblog, AMEC special interest group, AMECagencies, AMECorg, common ground, Members talk
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on X
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://amec.blazedev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/christina-wocintechchat-com-ftCWdZOFZqo-unsplash-002.jpg 4016 6016 Julie Wilkinson https://amec.blazedev.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AMEC-25.png Julie Wilkinson2019-12-09 13:00:052019-12-09 13:00:05Pitching for PR measurement investment

News and Spotlights

#AMECMM

Embracing the transformative power of AI

1st November 2023

AMEC Member Article

AMEC Innovation Hub Series: Using Generative AI in Measurement & Analytics: Pitfalls & Opportunities

7th September 2023

See more News Stories
View Measurement Month Events
Visit the AMEC Resource Centre
Amec News

Keep up to date with the latest news and trends



By clicking Submit, you have read and agreed to receive emails from AMEC. You can find more in our Privacy Policy.

Connect with AMEC

Quick Resources

  • M3- Measurement Maturity Mapper
  • Integrated Evaluation Framework
  • PR’s Guide to Measurement
  • Events Calendar
  • Measurement Month
  • Speakers Bureau
  • Resources

Member Areas

  • AMEC Global Membership Survey
  • Membership Directory
  • Exclusive for Members
  • Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions
  • Sitemap
  • Resources
Copyright © 2025 AMEC. All Rights Reserved. All Trademarks Acknowledged. - Website by Blaze Concepts
2020 AMEC BOARD ANNOUNCED!Why Communications has become the North StarAMEC at Almedalen Interviews: “Why Communications has become the North...
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies including non-essential cookies.

Accept settingsView our Privacy Policy

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions
Accept settingsHide notification only
This is a Development or Staging site for AMEC by Blaze Concepts!
This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site. Switch to a production site key to remove this banner.