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.”