USING GOOGLE ANALYTICS TO EVALUATE PR IMPACT

What is one of the biggest PR team struggles today? Answer: measuring PR impact. Is a positive impact being made by your campaigns? Whether it’s yes or no, how do you prove it? If sales aren’t their major focus, it may be even harder to prove. Is brand awareness your number one goal? Is your brand gaining visibility? How do you know?

For better peace of mind, Google Analytics can help you measure PR results. With it, you’ll know whether the success of your business is being contributed to. Sooner, rather than later, the following should be analyzed by your team through the use of Google Analytics:

Goal Conversions

Though one of the main goals of PR isn’t necessarily to generate sales, when measuring PR impact in Google Analytics, the goal conversions report should still be looked at. It’s great to get people to visit your website. But something might be going wrong if they’re not continuing on through the sales funnel. Possibly, to supply your audience with additional value, you may need to revisit your marketing messaging.

Geographic Report

You can still use Google Analytics to measure PR impact, even if print publications are where you get most of your primary coverage. To see if, in specific cities, there are spikes in traffic, check out the geographic report.

Social Network Referrals

There is a definite relationship between social media and public relations. One does not work without the other. That’s why social network referrals should be tracked in Google Analytics. Earn media results the moment any of your content is shared via social media. It can be one of your blogs or even media placement.

This report will also help you discover whether you’re getting more traffic driven to your website by one social network than by another. On whatever platforms your customers are most engaged, that’s where you should be sharing your business assets.

Returning and New Users

• Returning users: Because, on the first visit, conversions may not immediately occur (contact form submissions, PDF downloads, sales, etc.), return users are important. Whether or not you have built strong consumer/company relationships can, in part, be determined by return users.

Though new users are important, you’ll end up spending valuable time and money attracting them if you can’t also enjoy a large number of return users.

• New users: This refers to visitors to your site who’ve not primarily been there. To prove you’re getting new site users, you want to see new user numbers continue, over time, to increase. Your targeted outreach publications may need to be reevaluated if you don’t see these numbers increasing gradually.

Referral Traffic

A referral traffic report will help you know whether or not your target audience is being reached through methods like media coverage in publications. How many users arrived at your site because they clicked on your link? You can find out here.

Whenever possible, backlinks to your website should be included by reporters in articles. So that readers can learn more about your business and reach your site, these links should also be included in all company press releases.

Your Own, Personal Analytics Source

Yes, Google Analytics is an incredible tool that should be used by companies to determine their PR impact. Companies looking to reduce the labor-intensiveness of the entire evaluation process, however, can rely on JoTo PR. With our assistance, your public relations, marketing strategies, crisis management plan, and more can be gone over with a fine-tooth comb to see where there’s room for improvement.

But that’s just the beginning. Once the areas of improvement are identified, the real work begins.

Contact us today to find out more. We can help your company be all it can be, and so much more.