Why PR Value Can’t Be Measured in Impressions Alone

What Is PR Value—Really?

Traditionally, PR value was calculated by determining how much monetary value could be attributed to the media coverage generated by a PR campaign. In 2025, PR value means something different. Now, it is a reflection of influence, visibility, credibility, and conversions—not vanity numbers.

When determining PR value, there’s a big difference between volume-based metrics and impact-based metrics. Volume-based metrics, like impressions and AVE, encompass factors that can be quantitatively measured. For example, say your PR team puts out a press release detailing a new product in development at your company. A volume-based assessment of its value could include the number of clicks the press release gets, how many mentions there are of your new product in the media landscape, and how many news outlets or social media accounts pick up the story.

Impact-based metrics take another, more holistic, approach to determining value. Volume-based assessments are all about tracking the immediate, clearcut reach of a PR campaign. Impact-based metrics dive deeper, aiming to provide a look at what your PR strategy means to your audience and the lasting impression it leaves. As a result, impact-based metrics can offer insight into the potential long-term effects of PR.

To continue the above example, an impact-based approach to assessing the value of a press release about a new product might track how many times the piece is shared, which demographics are engaging with the content, the tone of the media coverage your brand is getting, and a consideration of how well related media aligns with your brand’s core values. Impact-based metrics monitor brand awareness, ensuring that it is in line with your brand identity and established messaging guidelines.

Quality is far more important than quantity in today’s media environment. Broad, surface-level reach is no longer the goal. Instead, brands want to resonate deeply with their target audience, making a meaningful impact that won’t be forgotten by the next news cycle.

The Problem with Impressions and AVE

Impressions only account for how many times any given piece of content pops up on a feed or is shown to an individual. They don’t track how long the content is viewed, how it is engaged with, or the impact that it makes on the viewer. Impressions are inflated and misleading in a multi-channel landscape. A piece can be viewed for as little as one second to be counted as an impression, and if the same piece shows up multiple times for one user, it’s logged as multiple impressions.

This means that if someone sees a brand post three times and scrolls past it immediately three times, the total count is three impressions. Conversely, if someone spends time reading a post, comments on it, shares it with their friends, and follows up by visiting the brand’s website, the total count is only one impression. The second example is indicative of more meaningful engagement, but counts less than the first. Impressions are unable to capture these nuances in user interaction, and fail to effectively qualify the relationship between a brand and its audience.

AVE pins the value of PR on its equivalent financial cost in units of comparable ad space. This is a false equivalence—there are significant differences between modern PR and the ads of the past that inspired AVE in the first place. PR is about a lot more than media mentions and product spotlights. While these features are important, they need to be analyzed with more than mere tally marks. AVE doesn’t even begin to measure the deeper impact of media coverage, such as how it impacts brand awareness, perception, and understanding. AVE devalues the real power of earned media, failing to track long-term impacts on brand credibility, customer loyalty, and audience reach.

Smarter Ways to Measure PR Value in 2025

There are better, smarter ways to measure PR value in 2025 than sinking time and effort into flawed tools like impressions and AVE. Impact-based metrics that are growing in popularity include:

• SEO lift: This is a measure of improvements to the performance of SEO targets, including increases in traffic, ranking, backlinks, and conversions.
• Brand sentiment and share of voice: Brand sentiment refers to the way mentions of your brand, company, and products makes your audience feel. Share of voice has to do with how much real estate your brand takes up in the media landscape compared to your competitors.
• Referral traffic and time-on-site: Referral traffic measures traffic funneled to your site from other sites, while time-on-site logs how long visitors spend on your website on average.
• Email list growth and subscriber retention: Email newsletters are an excellent way for brands to consistently communicate with their customer base. Both email list growth and subscriber retention are a sign that you’re doing something right with your emails—namely, that your audience wants to keep receiving them.
• Conversion metrics: These are the results of a specific PR campaign like the number of sales, downloads, or sign-ups. They provide insight into how well the campaign helps achieve your specific brand goals.

How PR Supports Full-Funnel Marketing Goals

PR is not just about buzz-building—with the right team on your side, it’s a business growth function. There’s a clear pathway from brand awareness→ consideration → conversion. This is known as the marketing funnel of the current digital age. Potential clients have to hear about your brand before they can begin to consider the products or services you offer. If you have a comprehensive PR strategy that includes clear messaging in line with your mission statement and core values, any media coverage you get will positively impact both the awareness and consideration stage.

It’s the best way possible to ensure your target audience hears a story that resonates with them, sparking their interest in your brand. Once they feel a connection to your brand, they’ll be much more likely to take the next step when they hear about your brand again in the future—whether that means subscribing to your website, making a purchase, or checking out your services. Done correctly, PR drives measurable action beyond mere impressions.

Why Strategic Reporting Is the New PR Deliverable

It’s not enough for PR agencies to just provide clients with volume-based metrics at the close of a campaign anymore. Instead, strategic reporting is on the rise. The best PR firms are now putting in the work to present clients with more in-depth, impact-based insights into the effects of a PR strategy in action.

LaRue PR is committed to helping clients make sense of performance in a meaningful way. When working with LaRue, clients can expect to see monthly progress reports on custom dashboards, not generic PDFs. PR analytics are integrated with broader marketing tools (i.e. GA4, HubSpot, Shopify, etc.). LaRue empowers clients to make decisions from detailed data, not surface-level assumptions.

The Long Game: Measuring Brand Equity Over Time

At the end of the day, PR isn’t paid media—and it shouldn’t be judged the same way. You simply can’t compare a multi-pronged PR campaign to an old-school newspaper ad. A lot more can be achieved out of the former, but it takes time. While a single ad might drive brief, immediate interest in a product for those who happen to see it, a long-term PR campaign can help build a lasting relationship between a brand and its target audience. Trust, credibility, and perception grow over months and years.

The true value of PR is its ability to cultivate lasting brand equity, and brand equity doesn’t solidify overnight. Patience and perspective are an essential part of PR. PR is a marathon, not a sprint.

How LaRue PR Redefines PR Value for Its Clients

With LaRue PR, there is no one definition for PR value. It means something different to each and every client—and that’s how it should be. Your PR goals should be as unique as your brand identity. LaRue offers tailored goal-setting at the start of every engagement, ensuring the objectives for each PR campaign are clear and in line with your expectations.

Throughout the process, LaRue provides transparent, narrative-rich reports that tie coverage to outcomes. Qualitative, impact-based measures are the new gold standard. LaRue is also committed to educating clients about modern metrics so they can feel informed and empowered to monitor PR value every step of the way.

Rethink What PR Value Means for Your Brand

With a PR team that combines experience, creativity, and modern measures, PR value can mean whatever you want it to. Now is the perfect time to rethink what PR value could mean for your brand, and where an excellent PR strategy could take your company.

LaRue is a strategic partner, not a press release mill. When you partner with LaRue, you will LaRue excels at collaborating with brands to highlight brand identity, set targeted goals, and achieve meaningful PR outcomes. Schedule a discovery call or request a sample report today to see how LaRue can redefine PR value for your brand.