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Over the years, we’ve heard some pretty fantastic tales about how to measure public relations programs (actually, most of the time, publicity programs). We’ve always taken exception to firms who claim that a publicity story is worth two, three, or even eight times as much as advertising. Because no research we have ever seen has proved this to be true.

And even though most people assume that publicity is more credible than advertising, the difference isn’t as clear cut as you might think.

In 2005, David Michaelson of David Michaelson & Company, LLC, and Don W. Stacks, a professor at the University of Miami, conducted a study to determine what had greater influence on consumer purchase decisions. They looked at publicity, print advertising, web pages, and radio ads. The results indicated that publicity had a slight edge over print advertising, but only by a couple of percentage points. Both publicity and print were ahead of the other media by noteworthy margins.

Does this mean that publicity isn’t a good tool? Hardly. It’s still considered the most credible, but not by a 2x or 3x factor like some people might lead you to believe.

This study just shows that you have to keep the value of public relations in perspective, and look at how it works in conjunction with other communications elements in the marketing mix.

One consideration is cost. The cost for communicating the same message through advertising may be several times more expensive than doing it through publicity, though the publicity channel doesn’t have as much control. Al and Laura Ries suggest in their book, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, that public relations and publicity can be much better for building brands than advertising, and that ads can do more to sustain brand value once a brand is established. (See our review of it here.)

Public relations and publicity are typically also more responsive and immediate than advertising, and one story can be used in multiple media with little or no additional work.

So how do you measure public relations and publicity?

A study done by the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) reports that among an international sample of 520 PR pros, 88% of PR practitioners believe measurement is an integral part of the PR process, and 77% are currently tracking their programs. The methods of tracking can vary widely, however, with some practitioners measuring by number of clips and advertising value equivalents, and with others investing in research to go into more detail.

IPR has also published a white paper that details different levels of measurement into three categories:

Outputs: The immediate results of a particular PR program or activity. Outputs of a publicity program can include the number of stories that have appeared in media, the total impressions, and an assessment of overall content. In the broader definition of public relations, outputs can include speaking engagements, the number of times a quote is used, the number of people who participated in a program, or even the response to a direct mail piece or website.

Outtakes: This is a determination whether or not key target audience groups actually received the messages directed at them, paid attention to them, understood and/or comprehended the messages, and retained them in a way that can be recalled. This gets into the value of the message to the audience, and helps determine if the audience’s response is the one desired. This type of analysis typically involves more expensive forms of measurement, including surveys, analysis of online comments, and other tools.

Outcomes: These measure whether the communications materials and messages have changed or affected opinions, attitude and/or behavior of the target audiences. This is a more difficult and detailed form of analysis that typically requires sophisticated data-gathering research tools. But depending on the type of program, it can be worth the effort. For some programs, this type of analysis may be required to determine if the program delivered measurable ROI.

IPR stresses that public relations and publicity programs can only be properly measured if they have clearly-defined, attainable goals to begin with. This is true of any type of communications program. And we routinely work with clients to establish the proper marketing communications goals and ways to measure them.