Digital PR Metrics You Should Track

George Zlatin

By George Zlatin

When you’re taking an inventory of your digital marketing and link building strategies it’s important to understand how you measure success. Depending on your SEO goals, the answer may vary. 

At DTC, we love links. We really, really love links. Why wouldn’t we? While many shy away from the phrase “link building” (as it elicits memories of spammy tactics used to earn inbound links from as many websites as possible, regardless of domain authority) we lean into link building. It’s one of our favorite ways of tracking digital PR campaign success.

However, there’s one important thing to distinguish, we’re not going after any link, we’re going after top-tier links. 

The majority of our clients are looking for widespread media coverage with a high percentage of those placements accompanied by authoritative inbound links. A one-two punch of brand awareness and SEO. For those seeking just brand awareness, brand mentions and social engagement may be more valuable metrics that may carry heavier weights.

You may be asking yourself, with so many moving parts, how do you know the PR metrics that matter most for your campaign or client? We’re going to discuss the five most important digital PR metrics you should monitor regardless of your specific goals

6 Digital PR Metrics You Should Care About

Table Of Contents
  1. 1. Total Inbound Links
  2. 2. Referral traffic
  3. 3. Leads and conversions
  4. 4. Keyword rankings
  5. 5. Social media engagement
  6. 6. Brand mentions

1. Total Inbound Links

One of the top digital PR metrics you should track when it comes to measuring success is the total number of inbound links earned. 

It’s important to keep track of the backlink profile of a campaign for two primary reasons. First, tracking total links allows you to give a hard number to the overall success and reach of the campaign as it can be tied to search engine optimization. Second, you can track the added metric of the SEO value of each link.

Note: Not all links are created equally

When we measure the link building aspect of our digital PR success metrics, we focus, in part, on three different types of links: built, organic, and syndication.

  • Built links: These are links earned directly from our outreach efforts and relationships we’ve built with journalists. When we look at digital PR metrics, built links reflect our relationships with journalists that lead to top-tier media coverage. 
  • Organic links: A writer found the campaign and featured it without any outreach effort or pitches from us.
  • Syndicated links: A collection of links that stem from a single placement. Oftentimes, this kind of link comes from a local news outlet. 

[Learn more about how syndication works here]

Three types of links text

Aside from the type of backlink, there are other things to consider: 

  • Authority of the website: Backlinks from low-authority websites won’t signal value and authority to search engines like Google. Top-tier earned media placements will always be better for your metrics.
  • Sentiment of the link: Are the links making positive references to your brand or campaign, or are they negative? Search algorithms don’t weight positive versus negative sentiment in their rankings, however, if you’re looking to build a positive digital reputation, sentiment analysis (a more traditional PR metric) can help with those assessments.

2. Referral traffic

Referral traffic to your website represents users who clicked through and arrived on your page via an outside link. Whether it’s a hyperlinked brand mention in a news article or an internal citation, when someone clicks on an external link they become “referral” traffic to the host site. 

Screengrab of a blog post with the hyperlinked text "PPC advertisers" highlighted.

In the screengrab above, anyone who clicks on the hyperlinked text “PPC advertisers” would be referred to a new URL. We could then track the number of users who arrived at the page via external links who were “referred” to the new URL in Google Analytics.

Take, for instance, our client campaign analyzing cities with the most craft breweries. The campaign earned a total of 113 links, which is a noteworthy digital PR metric on its own. 

But more impressively, the media shares produced 1,115+ referrals to our client’s site – from a single placement. Those visitors weren’t just clicking by mistake. How do we know? Because they spent more than two minutes on average perusing the site.

3. Leads and conversions

When you drive traffic to your site, the goal is always to convert. It doesn’t always happen due to blog content or social media posts, but it can.

Google Analytics is a wonderful tool to use to track future leads and conversions from those who engage and interact with your digital PR campaigns. By tracking users who arrived at your campaign page and traveled to other conversion-focused pages on your site, you can gauge the success of your digital strategy.

4. Keyword rankings

One of the reasons we pursue linking inbound media coverage is because of the SEO ramifications of link building digital PR campaigns. A robust backlink profile can cause a website’s rankings to skyrocket.

Relevant links are arguably the most important ranking factor when Google evaluates a page. When a website or web page ranks for targeted keywords, the cycle begins: the site ranks higher in organic search results, which in turn makes it more likely to be trafficked and linked to. 

Package theft performance, 313 placements

We saw this happen with our client after we conducted a study on package theft during the holidays. Altogether, the piece earned 232 media placements with an average domain authority of 67. Thanks to these results, it ranks on the first page of Google search results for relevant keywords.

One year after it was published, the study is now the 3rd-most visited page on the client’s entire website. In addition, thanks to the keyword visibility, the piece earned an additional 81 placements after outreach ended. Cycle complete.

5. Social media engagement

Social media can be a great way to capture consumer sentiment about a campaign or brand. The social media metrics you ought to track should reflect where your target audience lies. For some brands that may be Instagram, for others, their engagement may come from LinkedIn or Twitter. Each social media platform carries analytics tools that can help you track and monitor impressions, engagement, clicks, likes, and comments.

If your digital PR goal includes growing your brand or client’s brand on a certain platform, tracking audience size and impressions on a monthly basis can help identify which content is attracting audiences to your profiles and strategize what type of social content you ought to generate in the future.

6. Brand mentions

When monitoring for online coverage, keep your eyes peeled for more than just an inbound link to your client’s website.

Brand mentions are textual references to a brand’s name, personnel, products, and services. Brand mentions are not only helpful in improving consumer’s familiarity with a given company, but they offer SEO value.

How? Search engines, like Google, treat brand mentions as an implied link. This means that even if you earn coverage for your client and it doesn’t contain a hyperlink, Google still sees it and gives that mention weight.

Digital PR Measurement Metrics You Shouldn’t Care About

Just as there are digital PR metrics you should be measuring, there are digital PR metrics you should not be measuring. 

Namely, low Domain Authority (DA)/Domain Rating (DR) links.

Gone are the days of total link count being the only thing that mattered. Today, it’s quality over quantity. Why? 

Because, unlike low DA links, high DA links offer more benefit to your SEO efforts and are therefore more valuable. Simply put, the more high-quality links you build, the better your rankings – and the better your rankings, the better chance of long term leads, conversions, referrals, and total links. That’s why the quality of links is one of the top earned media metrics you may want to consider.

At the end of the day, those are the digital PR metrics that matter because those are the key metrics that most benefit a site. Once you identify your campaign goals, the rest are easy to decide.

FAQ

How Can Businesses Track the ROI of Digital PR Campaigns?

Track ROI by measuring metrics such as referral traffic, conversion rates, and lead generation directly attributed to digital PR efforts.

What Tools Are Best for Monitoring Digital PR Metrics?

Tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, and Ahrefs are effective for tracking metrics like backlinks, organic traffic, and social media mentions.

How Do Social Media Metrics Influence Digital PR Success?

Social media metrics such as engagement rates, shares, and follower growth indicate the reach and impact of PR campaigns on social platforms.

How Frequently Should Digital PR Metrics Be Reviewed?

Review digital PR metrics monthly to assess performance, make data-driven adjustments, and optimize strategies for better results.

What Are Common Mistakes to Avoid When Analyzing Digital PR Metrics?

Avoid focusing only on vanity metrics, neglecting long-term trends, and failing to align PR metrics with overall business goals.

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