1. Why Analytics & Tracking Matter
Without tracking, branding and PR can feel abstract — you might be building awareness, but can’t prove its value.
Analytics helps you:
Understand who your audience is and how they engage.
Measure brand visibility and media impact.
Track sentiment (how people feel about your brand).
Optimize campaigns for better ROI (Return on Investment).
🔹 2. Branding Analytics
Branding analytics focuses on how people perceive and interact with your brand across different touchpoints.
✅ Key Metrics to Track:
Brand Awareness
Website traffic (unique visitors, referral sources)
Search volume for branded keywords (via Google Search Console)
Social media mentions, followers, reach, and impressions
Brand Engagement
Likes, comments, shares, and saves on social platforms
Average session duration on website
Click-through rates (CTR) on branded content
Brand Sentiment
Positive, negative, or neutral mentions (social listening tools like Brand watch, Sprout Social, Meltwater)
Online reviews (Google, Yelp, Trustpilot)
Customer satisfaction (CSAT or NPS surveys)
Brand Loyalty
Repeat customer rate
Email open and engagement rates
Community growth (newsletter subscribers, returning visitors)
🔹 3. PR Analytics
Public Relations analytics track how your stories, media coverage, and public perception perform in the real world.
✅ Key Metrics to Track:
Media Coverage
Number of media mentions and press hits
Share of Voice (how often your brand appears vs competitors)
Domain authority or credibility of publications
Reach & Impressions
Estimated audience size reached by each story or article
Social amplification (how widely coverage is shared online)
Sentiment Analysis
Tone of media coverage (positive, neutral, negative)
Crisis tracking (changes in sentiment after an incident)
Engagement
Website traffic spikes after press releases or news events
Conversions driven from PR campaigns (signups, downloads, sales)
⚙️ 4. Tools for Analytics & Tracking
Here’s a list of commonly used tools by marketers and PR teams:
Purpose Tools
Web & Brand Analytics Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Hotjar, SEMrush
Social Media Tracking Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, Brand24
Media Monitoring & PR Analytics Meltwater, vision, Muck Rack, Mention
Sentiment & Brand Listening Talk walker, Brand watch, Sprinklr
Customer Feedback & Loyalty Type form, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, NPS tools
Dashboards & Reporting Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Tableau
🧠 5. How to Create an Analytics Framework
Set Clear Goals:
Example – “Increase brand awareness by 25% in six months.
Choose Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Example – Track brand mentions, sentiment, and reach monthly.
Select Tools:
Choose analytics platforms that match your data sources (web, media, social).
Collect & Analyze Data:
Use both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (feedback, sentiment) insights.
Adjust Strategy:
Use findings to refine branding, content, and PR messaging.
Report & Communicate Results:
Create regular dashboards and visual reports for leadership or clients.
📈 6. Bonus: Advanced Tracking Techniques
UT Parameters: Tag links to track traffic from PR campaigns in Google Analytics.
Sentiment Heatmaps: Visualize where brand mentions are most positive/negative.
Share of Voice (SOV): Measure your brand’s presence in the media landscape versus competitors.
Predictive Analytics: Use AI tools to forecast trends or reputation risks.
Brand Analytics in Detail
a. Awareness Metrics
Measure how far your brand message travels and who’s seeing it.
Impressions – Number of times your brand appears (ads, posts, mentions).
Reach – Unique number of people who saw your content.
Share of Voice (SOV) – % of conversations or media mentions your brand owns versus competitors
Search Volume – How often your brand or related keywords are searched online.
Brand Recall Studies – Surveys to assess how memorable your brand is to audiences.
b. Engagement Metrics
Track how people interact with your brand emotionally and behaviorally.
Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments + Shares) / Total Impressions × 100
Click-Through Rate (CTR) on branded content or campaigns
Time on Page / Session Duration (website analytics)
Video Completion Rate (especially for storytelling or campaigns)
Sentiment Analysis – AI tools classify mentions as positive, neutral, or negative.
c. Conversion & Loyalty Metrics
Measure how branding efforts influence real actions.
Brand Preference (via surveys or brand lift studies)
Lead Attribution – Did PR or branding content contribute to conversions?
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – Repeat business from loyal customers.
Referral Traffic – Visits driven from media coverage or influencer collaborations.
🗞️ PR Analytics in Detail
a. Media Output Metrics
Quantify your PR visibility and reach.
Press Mentions & Placements – Number of stories or features.
Media Quality Score – Weight coverage by publication authority or relevance.
Potential Reach / Audience Size – Estimated exposure from publications.
b. Media Outcome Metrics
Show the effect of your PR activities.
Tone of Coverage – Positive, neutral, or negative.
Message Pull-Through – Whether key brand messages appeared in the media.
Domain Authority (DA) – Strength of the sites that mention or link to you.
Traffic Spikes – Website visits after major announcements or press events.
c. Business Impact Metrics
Measure tangible results of PR efforts.
Lead or Sales Growth Post-PR Campaign
Improved Share of Voice or Sentiment
Increased Web Conversions after earned media coverage.
📈 Tracking Infrastructure: How to Set It Up
centralize Data Collection
Use a unified dashboard (e.g., Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Tableau) to integrate:
Google Analytics
Social media insights
Media monitoring platforms
Survey and CRM data
Tag Everything with UTM Parameters
Example:
https://yourbrand.com/campaign?utm_source=press&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=launch
This lets you see exactly how much traffic or conversions came from PR coverage.
Set Up Conversion Goals in Analytics
Newsletter signups
Downloads
Purchases or demo requests
Create Dashboards by Metric Category
Awareness Dashboard (reach, mentions, SOV)
Engagement Dashboard (clicks, sentiment, interaction rate)
Impact Dashboard (conversions, ROI, media value)
🧠 Advanced & AI-Driven Analytics
Modern analytics uses AI and machine learning to predict and interpret brand and PR data:
Predictive Sentiment Analysis: Forecast potential reputation risks before they trend.
Topic Clustering: Identify emerging conversations your brand could join.
Influencer Impact Scoring: Measure which influencer partnerships drive the most awareness.
Attribution Modeling: Connect PR exposure to conversions over time (multi-touch analysis).
📋 Reporting and Insights
When reporting analytics:
Don’t just show data — explain why it matters.
Include:
Executive Summary: What happened and why.
Key Wins: Positive coverage, growth metrics.
Challenges: Sentiment dips, missed goals.
Action Plan: What’s next.
Example:
“Our PR campaign reached 4.2M people with a 75% positive sentiment. Website visits rose 34% post-launch, and branded search queries increased 22% — indicating growing awareness.”