About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Guides and advice

Time for PR measurement to take a new AVEnue

It’s the end of the month, and for many PR pros, that means reflecting on the press coverage results you’ve achieved over the past four weeks and compiling them into a report for your client. This often entails measuring the value of each piece of press coverage, and for many, this has traditionally meant deciphering the advertising value equivalent (AVE) of each clipping.

AVE measures the column inches of a piece of coverage and establishes how much the same amount of space would be worth if it was an advert, rather than editorial. The crux of what makes press content PR and not advertising is that it’s earnt media, rather than paid media. It has been covered due to the news story or article being of genuine interest to the publication, and not there thanks to a financial arrangement with the publication’s ad sales team. Depending on the size of the client and the number of press clippings achieved on a regular basis, PR pros would have to either work out the AVE value of the coverage themselves or pay for an expensive service to do it on their client’s behalf.

As a B2B PR agency, we’ve long been cynical of the value of AVE and we’re not alone. PRCA director general Francis Ingham recently claimed that it is “not fit to be called measurement.” In a PR Week and PRCA survey of 132 PR pros, both from agency and in-house, no respondents said that AVE was their preferred method of evaluation, and out of those agency PROs, none claim that this way of reporting is expected by senior management. The PR industry has spent long enough measuring AVE and comparing it to advertising costs to know its inadequacies. PR simply isn’t advertising, and so you can’t accurately compare them. PR is about building a brand and generating awareness, something AVE can’t measure.

While AVE appreciates that some publications are more expensive to advertise in than others, it doesn’t take into account the quality of the coverage and the impact it has on a reader. A thought leadership piece, a client’s opinion or an interview with a client is far more likely to be read and digested, than a glossy full page advert. Yet despite all this, more than a third of UK PR firms still use AVEs to measure coverage, and almost a quarter of in-house teams still do it. But why are they still applying an approach to measurement that they know is outdated, inaccurate and which doesn’t fully showcase the value of their hard earned piece of press coverage? The sad truth is because their clients demand it. Around a half of agencies surveyed said that clients expect to see AVE measurement, and so they do it. The PR industry is suffering from the classic ‘…because we’ve always done it this way’ when it comes to measurement, and surely the time has come to challenge clients on the best way to showcase coverage results. But to do that, you need to show the range of approaches to PR measurement that you have at your disposal, so that clients appreciate the value of a piece of coverage from different perspectives. There are a number of different ways to measure your coverage. Take a look at some of the ways we measure client coverage at Skout, and consider if any of these methods could work for your organisation:

1. Quantity: Let’s say you pitched out a news story on the launch of a new product and it scored low in AVE terms, but hit the news pages of every trade publication in your organisation’s industry sector. By quantifying how many publications you gained coverage in, you’re more likely to show how successful your media relations activity is. If you tier publications into two lists, you can score it according to how important a publication is in your sector. Never underestimate how excited a business gets when it sees a long list of positive coverage, or the importance of coverage in all your top trade titles!

2. Coverage views: The ultimate goal for the PR pro is to get an organisation’s name and branding known to as many people as possible. Measuring how many people have viewed the coverage shows how well you’ve done this. It’s often a difficult measurement to establish, given that a magazine’s circulation isn’t the same as its views. That’s where media monitoring agencies such as Kantar Media can help you. They can take into account a magazine’s readership, both online and in print, and give you statistics such as the domain authority of links in the coverage.

3. Digital: Up until a few years ago, digital marketing was mostly treated as a separate function to PR. But now, we’re increasingly seeing our clients want them to integrate them. Link building is a key way you can increase an organisation’s SEO, and by gaining links in online publications that you gain coverage in, you can build an organisation’s online presence. The more well-regarded the publication, the higher its domain authority is, and the higher it will rank on the search engine. It’s important that you log the domain authority with each link you generate to show how you’re helping the organisation creep higher and higher on the likes of Google.

4. Sales leads: Building brand authority and awareness is a powerful output of PR, but its benefits don’t end there. PR can often help generate sales leads, but it can be notoriously difficult to track them. This is why it’s important at the start of any new PR campaign to ask the sales team to track where leads come from. Typically businesses will see a spike in leads during a PR campaign, and it’s essential to capture these where you can. Don’t be afraid to ask your clients or different departments of the business to fill in that section of your PR report so that there’s concrete evidence that PR is bringing in new business.

5. Content use: In creating content like press releases and articles, you aren’t just delivering PR services, you’re creating content marketing materials too. Businesses can use this content across a range of channels, from social media to events, enabling communication with key audiences in a variety of ways. As the engine room behind this, the PR team or agency should keep a record of the amount of content they create and what channels it’s used across to show how much exposure they’re giving the business.

“Let’s be honest, clients want it,” says one PR pro in the PR Week/PRCA study, referring to AVE. Clients or the board might have their own idea of what makes a good piece of press coverage, but remember that you’re the media and content expert and know the changing ways that news and information is now consumed. It’s up to you to show the business the best way to measure your outputs. There’s no universal approach to PR measurement, and PR pros should look at different ways of doing it, like those above, and build a tailored report outline for each client. Media relations hasn’t got any easier, and logging all the different factors that contribute to a successful PR campaign helps ensure that you’re celebrating your successes and demonstrating the true value of PR.

Alex Brown enjoys being one of the Skout blog’s most regular contributors.

About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Guides and advice

B2B thought leadership PR – everything you need to know

Meet Skout’s new owners!

Browse more blog posts

Posted on
byRob Skinner
In B2B PR, thought leadership is one of those concepts that gets spoken about all the time. But do you actually know what thought leadership is? And do you have the right tools and skills in place to make it work effectively for you? In this post we aim to clarify what B2B thought leadership can do and help you gain greater benefit from it.
Posted on
bySkout team
If you haven’t heard by now, Skout is under new ownership! No, we haven’t been bought out – in fact it’s quite the opposite. As of last week, Skout officially became an employee-owned business. This was achieved by the founding shareholders, Rob and Claire, signing 100% ownership over to a newly established Employee Ownership Trust acting on behalf of the...
Posted on
byClaire Lamb
A few weeks ago, the entire Skout team visited the beautiful and historic city of Palma, Majorca for our annual kick off event. It’s been a long time in the planning (pre-pandemic to be precise) and the first time we’ve been abroad for a kick off to the new financial year. We’ve always found kick off meetings a great way...
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
TikTok is increasingly being used as a platform for B2B companies to implement their marketing strategy, aiding in brand exposure, lead generation and profile building. But, where does paid TikTok advertising come into play? Is it an effective tool to engage with B2B audiences, or is the ROI just not worth it?  If you’re the least bit social media savvy,...
Posted on
byClaire James
In May I was fortunate to be able to attend the recent UK Construction Week at Excel in London and see the strides forward an industry, that has become recognised as one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, is making in tackling the thorny issue of achieving Net Zero. In his keynote on day one, Lord Callanan, Under Secretary...
Posted on
byJames Weaver
In the world of B2B marketing, it is essential that you have a solid B2B marketing strategy in place to effectively connect with your target audience.
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
Why was PR your chosen career?  PR is all about storytelling, with so much opportunity for creativity and content creation. Since I’ve always loved writing and always had a big imagination, I thought that PR would be the ideal career to channel my creativity. I’m all about communication, and PR really allows you to foster meaningful relationships. I’m already learning...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
As a smaller business, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to sustainability. Sure, we all do our best to use the right recycling bin at home, and bring our re-usable coffee cups to work. But with serious pressures now mounting from the government – which pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 –...
Posted on
byLee Simpson
Another week, another round of mass layoffs in the tech sector. With Amazon (AWS) and Meta cutting thousands of jobs, and further layoffs at Salesforce and of course Twitter, it has felt a bit like the tech world has been imploding of late. This is of course concerning for us working in B2B tech PR, but more importantly for the...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
2023 is off to a strong start here at Skout.  Our business has continued to grow with the addition of some exciting new clients. With new clients, has come new hires, who we’ve also been excited to welcome on board the team. And if our recent win for Best Marketing and PR Consultancy at the PR Brilliance Awards is anything...

Send us a message

Download The B2B business relationship report

The B2B relationship renaissance – did digital kill it? The importance of relationships throughout the customer buying journey. Please complete the form below and receive a download link via email.