Your Press Numbers Show What You Sent, Not What Stuck
Visibility counts are a useful early check, but only audience action shows whether PR worked.
Embracing Marketing Mistakes · EP 127: Professor Jim Macnamara Says Most Of The PR Industry Is Still Measuring The Wrong ThingCounting press clips feels like measuring success, but it measures what was sent out, not whether it reached or affected anyone.
That is the distinction Jim Macnamara, a professor of communication who specializes in evaluating public relations and works with AMEC, the industry group for measurement, wants every marketer to learn. Media publicity, volume, impressions, reach, and share of voice are what he calls outputs. They track what practitioners put out into the media, not what sits in the minds of target audiences.
Outputs are the first step in the chain, and they still matter. If you are getting no visibility in traditional media, social media, or AI chatbots, you are probably not going to succeed, especially in what Macnamara calls a no-click environment where people get answers without ever visiting your site. Measuring reach, impressions, share of voice, and sentiment, including whether chatbots mention your brand, is valid.
The mistake is stopping there. An output says your message traveled. An outcome says it landed.
Outcomes start small and get bigger. At the basic level, they include follows and shares, then click-throughs. Higher up the ladder come conversions like inquiries, registrations, subscriptions, showroom visits, and purchases. At the top are shifts in what people know and how they think, and finally in what they do. Sales and profits, Macnamara says, are the ultimate measures, even though many factors besides publicity drive them.
Outputs show activity. Outcomes show results.
Questions people ask
What exactly is share of voice?
Share of voice is your slice of all the mentions in a given space, compared with competitors. If there are 100 news articles or chatbot answers about your kind of product and 25 mention you, your share is 25 percent. It shows prominence, not whether anyone believed you or bought anything.
If outputs are the wrong thing, should companies stop tracking them?
No, keep tracking outputs as an early check, since no visibility usually means no result. If nobody sees your story, video, or post, awareness cannot change and sales cannot follow. Outputs are an early check that people are seeing you before you ask whether being seen mattered.
How do you actually measure an outcome?
As general practice, you ask and watch the audience directly, through surveys, interviews, and behavioral data. You can test awareness and attitudes before and after a campaign, and track actions like signups, inquiries, and purchases. Media counts alone cannot tell you any of that.