In case you’ve never heard of it, AVE stands for Advertising Value Equivalency – how much it would have cost to buy the same space in the media where you gained any PR coverage.
Whilst it’s been around for decades, this way of valuing the results of PR campaigns has become more and more maligned by the PR industry because many feel it doesn’t show the true value of PR efforts and coverage.
So how should you measure your PR?
We still use AVE as one of the metrics in our client reports and here’s why… it makes for a great starting point to explain all the other ways to measure the value of PR coverage! It’s also the easiest metric to explain to someone who hasn’t worked in marketing and PR before. Think of it as a great appetiser before the main course.
Modern-day value
After measuring your AVE, it’s important to look at the relevance, reach, tone and tier of the media you’re being featured in. By setting metrics and measuring against things like impressions, a headline or early article mention, competitor mentions and the inclusion of quotes and images, you can really start to build a much more accurate value for today’s complex media landscape.
Sharing the love
Don’t forget to record social media shares where possible as this massively affects the reach of the coverage.
By utilising a tool such as our PR scorecard, you can combine AVE with these modern, media-appropriate measures to see a true value of your coverage.
To give you an example, one of our clients was recently featured on BBC Radio Northamptonshire – but the BBC don’t run advertising so an old-fashioned AVE would have been zero, which of course is quite silly when you think about it. Our advice; be sure that you’re measuring your PR through a value system outside of AVE.
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