How to Measure ROI from a Communications Agency Partnership

A company invests in its communications in order to gain its trust, enhance its reputation and create strong ties with its customers, stakeholders and media representatives. It should be noted that the assessment of the ROI of these investments can be difficult since the successful outcome will not necessarily be the direct profit from it. 

The brand awareness, the level of audience engagement and the reputation itself can be the indicators of successful work that eventually will bring revenue for the company. Working with a professional communications agency helps to create successful campaigns and reach business goals.

Define Clear Business Objectives

Prior to measuring the ROI, it’s important to establish what success would be. The communications campaigns should work towards achieving larger business goals instead of being just public relations oriented.

Some of the common objectives include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Creating leads
• Securing media coverage
• Building customer trust
• Launching products
• Employer branding
• Corporate reputation management
• Website traffic generation

Establishing these objectives makes it easier to measure the results.

Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Goals established, the firms need to choose the key performance indicators that can measure the success of the campaigns.

Some useful key performance indicators for the communications campaigns are:

• Number of media mentions
• Media quality
• Share of voice
• Website traffic generated by earned media
• Social media interaction
• Sentiment analysis
• Lead generation
• Event participation
• Newsletter subscriptions
• Search engine visibility

One needs to utilize more than one indicator to get an accurate picture of the performance of the campaign.

Track Website Performance

Website analytics provide valuable insight into how communications activities influence user behavior.

Monitor metrics such as:

• Organic traffic growth
• Referral traffic from media coverage
• Session duration
• Bounce rate
• Pages viewed per session
• Conversion rates
• Download activity
• Contact form submissions

Analytics tools help businesses know which campaigns bring the most valuable traffic and conversion rates.

Measure Media Coverage Quality

All media coverage is not created equally. Sometimes, small media publications that have an extremely relevant audience will generate better results for your business than larger media publications with little audience relevance.

Media worth considering:

• Authority of the publication
• Audience relevance
• Geographic reach
• Accuracy of the message
• Visibility of the brand
• Spokesperson inclusion
• Positive vs neutral media sentiment

Quality of media coverage will always trump quantity.

Evaluate Brand Awareness

Communications campaigns generally seek to improve visibility with target audiences. While awareness is hard to measure, there are certain measures that give us an idea about this.

Track changes in:

• Branded search volume
• Social media followers
• Direct website visits
• Email subscribers
• Brand recall surveys
• Audience engagement

Monitor Reputation and Sentiment

Reputations that have a positive perception of themselves have real advantages for organizations. Companies that have great public trust typically experience greater customer loyalty.

Sentiment analysis can measure:

• Positive media coverage
• Neutral mentions
• Negative press
• Customer reviews
• Social conversations
• Industry discussions

Sentiment monitoring over time will help us figure out if our communication strategies are improving or damaging the public image.

Calculate Lead Generation

Lead generation for many organizations is one of the most definite ways to determine communications return on investment.

Track:

• Marketing-qualified leads
• Sales-qualified leads
• Inquiry forms
• Demo requests
• Consultation bookings
• Event registrations

It is important that you try to link the leads to your communication efforts through tracking links, CRMs, or campaign attributions wherever possible.

Assess Social Media Impact

Communications campaigns often generate conversations across social platforms.

Useful metrics include:

• Reach
• Impressions
• Engagement rate
• Shares
• Comments
• Click-through rate
• Follower growth
• Video views

However, while viral content can have its own advantages, consistent interaction by the targeted audience is usually more valuable.

Compare Costs Against Results

ROI ultimately compares the investment with the outcomes achieved.

Consider the total investment, including:

• Agency fees
• Content creation
• Press materials
• Events
• Monitoring tools
• Campaign production

Then compare these costs with measurable benefits, such as:

• New customers acquired
• Revenue generated
• Qualified leads
• Increased conversions
• Media value
• Reduced reputation risks

Although some communications benefits are intangible, combining financial and non-financial metrics provides a more accurate assessment.

Review Long-Term Performance

Communications usually do not yield instant results. Building strong media relationships, better brand awareness, and increased reputations may take several months, not weeks.

Regular quarterly and yearly analysis gives companies an opportunity to assess trends instead of results of individual campaigns.

Questions to ask include:

• Has brand awareness increased?
• Are media relationships improving?
• Is customer trust stronger?
• Has website performance improved?
• Are leads becoming more qualified?
• Is the organization receiving more positive industry recognition?

Long-term analysis helps distinguish sustainable growth from temporary campaign spikes.

Encourage Regular Reporting

Transparency is critical to the success of agency collaborations. The performance report should not only explain what has been accomplished but also give information on why the successes were attained and how future campaigns can be improved upon.

A comprehensive report typically includes:

• Campaign objectives
• Activities completed
• KPI performance
• Media coverage analysis
• Website analytics
• Social media performance
• Lead generation data
• Recommendations for optimization

This will allow both sides to stay on track and strive for constant improvement.

Balance Quantitative and Qualitative Results

Some communications outcomes cannot be fully captured with numbers alone.

Examples include:

• Executive thought leadership
• Investor confidence
• Employee engagement
• Crisis management success
• Partnership opportunities
• Industry credibility

Such accomplishments usually generate significant business value over time even if they are difficult to quantify monetarily.

Conclusion

ROI calculation in communications agencies entails much more than just counting mentions and social media likes. This process requires goal setting, key performance indicators analysis, website/lead generation analysis, reputation analysis, and trends analysis. Through a combination of quantifiable outcomes and qualitative successes, businesses will be better able to determine the value of their communications activities.