Can PR Prove Its Worth as Clients Demand ROI and Agencies Deliver the Data?

Public relations was respected but rarely measured. That identity crisis is over.

For decades, public relations struggled with an identity problem: it was respected, but rarely measured. While advertising and digital marketing could easily tie impressions to conversions, PR was often seen as an intangible value-add—important, but hard to quantify.

That era is ending.

Today, PR firms are using increasingly sophisticated tools to provide clients with the kind of empirical, measurable evidence that demonstrates real impact. According to Rich Jachetti, co-managing partner of The Stevens / Jachetti Group, the shift has been driven by client expectations and digital convergence.

“The media that PR agencies continue to reach out to are still useful,” Jachetti said, “but they’re fast becoming antiquated as digital marketing channels become much more vibrant, attract much bigger audiences, and ergo better able to move the needle.”

Clients now demand more than media placements and brand mentions. They expect PR agencies to deliver the same quantifiable returns they get from paid legacy and digital media and promotional marketing agencies. PR firms are responding by offering services that directly map to outcome, impact, and attribution metrics.

Here are three ways leading agencies are proving PR value:

1. Audience Engagement (Outcome Metrics)

PR campaigns can now be directly tied to increases in website traffic following media coverage. Social listening tools track mentions and sentiment across platforms, and branded search spikes reveal increased awareness. Referral traffic from online placements and influencers is no longer anecdotal. It is traceable.

2. Reputation and Perception (Impact Metrics)

Clients want to know how the public feels. PR agencies now conduct pre- and post-campaign surveys to measure shifts in brand awareness, trust, and perception. Net Promoter Scores are monitored for movement.

“We’re seeing PR firms provide clients with third-party validation and stakeholder feedback that provide clients with empirical evidence that support an agency’s performance claims,” said Jachetti. “That’s a far cry from where we were a decade ago.”

3. Business Outcomes (Attribution Metrics)

The strongest case for PR’s value lies in its alignment with business goals. Agencies are connecting earned media to conversions using CRM data, attribution modeling, and tools like Google Analytics.

“When PR becomes a visible part of the sales funnel,” said Jachetti, “it earns a bigger share of the marketing budget.”

In fact, Jachetti noted a notable trend: “More than 75 percent of PR agency CEOs who come to us now for M&A services are asking us to find them businesses to acquire that offer analytics platforms and other digital capabilities that enhance their ability to make a more convincing case to ROI-driven clients.”

The pressure to deliver measurable results is driving structural changes in the PR world. Legacy agencies are either building or buying new capabilities to compete.

“It’s now a shootout,” said Jachetti. “If you want to win a hotly contested pitch, the more quantitative services you can provide, the better your chances.”

These changes have also prompted The Stevens / Jachetti Group to conduct a new industry survey in partnership with CommPRO. The survey, targeting brand-side PR decision-makers, aims to identify which services matter most when hiring or retaining a PR agency.

“We’ve seen very little, if any, data on what services clients say they want most from their PR agencies, and in what priority?” said Jachetti. “I think PR agency management will sit up and take notice of the findings of our survey when CommPRO publishes the results. If they don’t already offer any one of the services in-house that brand-side PR decision-makers rank the highest in the survey, they’ll go out and acquire them. And if they do offer them, they’ll want to double down.”

As PR agencies evolve to meet these demands, the industry may finally close the credibility gap that once separated earned media from paid and owned channels. The flu-shot metaphor — “you don’t know how sick you’d be without it” — no longer applies. Today, PR can prove its effect, justify its budget, and command its place at the strategic table.