In the past, public relations was often considered difficult to measure — a mix of brand awareness, reputation building, and long-term influence. But in today’s data-driven marketing environment, PR campaigns must prove their value with measurable outcomes.
Tracking PR results isn’t just about showing success to clients or stakeholders; it’s about understanding what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve future campaigns. From media coverage and website traffic to social engagement and brand sentiment, there are many ways to evaluate the true impact of your PR efforts.
Set Clear Goals from the Start
The first step in tracking PR results is defining what success looks like. Before launching your campaign, ask: What are we trying to achieve? Your goals could include securing media coverage, increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to a website, generating leads, or boosting event attendance. Each goal will require a different set of metrics to track.
For example, if your goal is to get national media coverage, you’ll be tracking press hits and outlet reach. If your goal is to increase web conversions, you’ll look at referral traffic and conversion rates. Setting clear, measurable goals helps focus your efforts and provides a benchmark for evaluating success.
Monitor Media Coverage
One of the most obvious ways to track PR success is to monitor media placements. This includes online news articles, TV and radio mentions, magazine features, podcast interviews, and blog posts. Keep track of not only where your story was published but also the quality of the coverage. Did the outlet link to your website? Was your key message or spokesperson quoted? Was the story prominently featured or buried at the bottom?
Tools like Meltwater, Cision, and CoverageBook can help automate this process by aggregating coverage, tracking links, and measuring potential reach. For smaller campaigns or teams on a budget, setting up Google Alerts for your brand name, campaign keywords, and spokesperson can provide basic coverage tracking.
Measure Share of Voice (SOV)
Share of Voice is a competitive metric that helps you understand how much media attention your brand is getting compared to others in your industry. It involves measuring how often your brand is mentioned in the media relative to competitors over a specific time period. A higher SOV suggests strong visibility and media dominance in your space.
To track it effectively, use media monitoring tools to scan for mentions of your brand and your competitors. Then calculate the percentage of coverage that belongs to you versus the total. If you’re launching a PR campaign alongside a product release and your brand is mentioned in 40% of related stories — while competitors are each under 20% — that’s a clear indicator of campaign impact.
How to Track PR Campaign ResultsTrack Website Traffic and Referrals
PR is often the spark that drives people to search for your brand or visit your website. Tools like Google Analytics allow you to track the traffic coming to your site during and after your campaign. Look for spikes in sessions, page views, and new visitors around the time your story went live or your media pitch was distributed.
Referrals are especially useful — these are visitors who landed on your site by clicking a link from an external site, like an article or blog post. If a Forbes article about your brand links to your homepage, Google Analytics will show that traffic under “referral.” You can also set up UTM parameters to track clicks from specific press releases, email pitches, or influencer campaigns.
Evaluate Social Media Impact
PR and social media often work hand in hand. A well-placed article can generate buzz on Twitter or get shared widely on Instagram and LinkedIn. Track how your story or announcement performs on social media platforms — both through your own channels and organically via mentions, shares, and hashtags.
Look at metrics like reach, engagement (likes, comments, shares), mentions, and sentiment. Tools like Sprout Social, Brandwatch, and Hootsuite can help measure the social spread of your campaign. Has your brand gained followers during the campaign period? Are influencers or journalists tagging you in posts? These are all signs of effective PR momentum.
Monitor Brand Sentiment
Not all coverage is good coverage. That’s why it’s important to measure not just how much people are talking about you, but how they feel about your brand. Brand sentiment analysis helps you understand whether the tone of media and social conversation is positive, neutral, or negative.
This can be done manually by reviewing the language in articles and comments, or automatically through AI-powered tools like Talkwalker or Mention. Sentiment tracking is especially important during crisis management, product recalls, or sensitive campaigns. You’ll want to know immediately if public perception is shifting — and whether your messaging is helping or hurting.