You launch a public relations campaign, secure media and social media mentions, but… do you really know if it’s working? Measuring the impact of a strategy isn’t magic, it’s all about data. And Google Analytics is your crystal ball. In this article, we’ll explain how to make the most of this tool to understand what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve your strategy.
Define Your Objectives Before Measuring
Before diving into Google Analytics, first, define what you want to measure. Are you looking to increase website traffic? Improve brand awareness? Boost conversions? Without clear objectives, data will just be meaningless numbers.
Use UTM Tags to Track Mentions and PR Traffic
UTM tags (Urchin Tracking Module), parameters added to URLs to track the origin and performance of traffic, are your best ally to determine how much traffic reaches your website from a press article, an influencer collaboration, or a social media campaign. Use UTM links in the content you share, then analyze in Google Analytics which sources bring in the most and highest-quality traffic.
To track in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) the traffic campaigns that we tag with UTMs, what we need to do is:
- Login to GA4.
- Go to the Reports section:
Once in the Reports section, you can go to Traffic Acquisition:
We must change the dimension that appears in the traffic acquisition report:
In the drop-down menu of the dimension, we choose “Session Campaign”.
In the first column (the dimension column) the names of the campaigns will appear, according to the UTMs we have used.
Measure the Impact on Traffic and User Behavior
In Google Analytics, check sessions, the average time users spend on your page, and the bounce rate of visitors coming from your PR actions. If users enter and leave quickly, your content may not be meeting their expectations. The longer the average visit duration and the lower the bounce rate, the better your content is performing, which will also help your SEO ranking.
Analyze Your Audience’s Conversion Rate
A blog post or news article doesn’t just generate buzz—it can also generate leads or sales. Set up goals in Google Analytics to see if visits turn into newsletter subscriptions, downloads of free resources, or purchases of your product and/or service.
Don’t Overlook SEO Impact
Mentions in high-quality media outlets can improve your Google rankings. Use Google Analytics to check if you have gained organic traffic thanks to the backlinks (links from other websites that direct to yours) obtained with your campaign, and complement it with Google Search Console to evaluate your site’s performance in search results.
Although Google will not inform you of all the links, it will offer you a very important sample of the sites that are linking to you. To check it, you will have to go to the section “Sites with more links” as shown in the following image:
Public relations may seem hard to measure, but with Google Analytics, you can get a clear picture of their impact. Define objectives, use UTM tags, analyze user behavior, and measure conversions. This way, you can prove with data that your content strategy not only shines but also delivers results.
