A critical disconnect between perceived effective metrics and actual measurement practices is leading to a substantial industry-wide waste of time and money, and undermining the PR profession’s strategic value. That is according to a new research report, The Problem with PR Measurement, released today by leading B2B public relations agency, Agile Communications. The study, which surveyed nearly 200 PR and communications professionals, exposes a significant and pervasive challenge across the UK and Ireland’s PR and communications landscape, costing organisations an average £80,000 per year.
Findings reveal that the vast majority (97%) of professionals are struggling to measure the effectiveness of their PR efforts. Furthermore, a massive gap in awareness and application of guidelines and best practices, including the Barcelona Principles, is compounding the issue. The report also spotlights a wide range of issues, including practical challenges, resource limitations, and imposed constraints impeding teams’ ability and agency to move away from problematic output metrics. Moreover, the way most are trying to overcome these issues is, at best, misguided and, at worst, exacerbating the problem.
Key findings from the report include:
A pervasive paradox: Metrics widely considered least effective, such as coverage hits, website traffic, and social media engagement, are paradoxically the most commonly used. Conversely, highly effective metrics like lead generation, changes in audience behaviour, and ROI are largely neglected.
Misguided mitigation efforts: The most effective ways to overcome measurement challenges, such as setting SMART goals and aligning PR objectives with business objectives, are rarely employed. Instead, many professionals are doubling down on flawed approaches by standardising the collection and analysis of output-based data.
Underestimated ineffectiveness: Despite flawed evaluations and recognition of their struggles, 82% of PR professionals consider their efforts to be effective, indicating a lack of awareness about the true scale of the problem.
Astonishing waste: With media measuring and reporting consuming a significant portion of PR professionals’ time, and based on an average monthly budget of £7,605, the reliance on less meaningful metrics translates to an estimated £80,000/€90,000 annual waste— a figure set to increase with rising budgets.
Undermining professional value: The continued focus on volume over value is causing serious ramifications for the profession, failing stakeholders, costing businesses money, and relegating PR to a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than an invaluable strategic partner.
Managing Director of Agile Communications, Alan Duncan, emphasised the urgency of addressing these issues: “The sheer fact that one in five PR and comms teams are still using AVEs as a means of measuring effectiveness is emblematic of the mess that is PR measurement. The Industry’s continued focus on metrics that prioritise volume over value, quantity over quality, impressions over impact, and output over outcomes results in the collective waste of vast amounts of time and money. And most critically, it means we’re reinforcing stakeholders’ views that PR is an optional extra rather than securing our seat at the table.”
Shape the future of PR measurement
Agile Communications is committed to turning these findings into actionable change and is moving to the second phase of the initiative. This collaborative phase will delve deeper into the root causes of the metrics challenge, pinpoint critical issues, and work towards developing industry-wide, impactful, outcome-driven measurement best practices.
As such, they are calling on PR, communications, marketing, and B2B leaders to contribute their insights and work together to elevate PR from a “nice-to-have” to an indispensable strategic partner, adding measurable and demonstrable value to every organisation.
For more information, visit: www.agilecomms.co.uk/the-problem-with-pr-measurement-report/