Six KPIs to track digital PR campaigns (that aren't backlinks)

Like many industries, PR - and particularly digital PR - has changed dramatically over the last decade. When I started as a PR intern almost ten years ago, the focus was all about the brand and the public’s perceptions of it. Success was measured by how many people saw your story. The bottom line was about getting brands in front of new audiences and potential customers by creating positive news stories and pitching them to the media outlets that those audiences were reading. If you managed to secure a full-page spread in a paper or even a front page splash, you’d hit the PR jackpot.

But PR has always had a measurement problem. You were never able to say with confidence that that front or double-page spread directly led to a specific number of leads, sales, or conversions. Success was largely anecdotal - reliant on increased visibility and the vague sense that building brand “awareness” must be working, because over time you were getting more inquiries and the business was performing better across the board. 

Then came digital PR - and with it, the holy grail of measurable results: backlinks. Suddenly, PR could be tracked, quantified, and tied to a broader SEO strategy. Backlinks became the go-to KPI for digital PR success - and for good reason.

But they should no longer be the only thing that matters, or the only thing you're measuring consistently.

Recent research, including a major May 2025 study by Ahrefs analysing 75,000 brands, has shown that branded web mentions - not backlinks - have the strongest correlation with visibility in Google’s AI Overviews. This is important because AI Overviews now appear in the majority of Google searches, meaning the factors that influence visibility there can directly shape how often (and how prominently) a brand is seen online. AI Overviews and LLM (Large Language Model) tools often surface just a handful of sources, so the brands most frequently mentioned online are more likely to be highlighted to users at the very top of their search journey. In fact, the brands with the most mentions appeared in up to ten times more AI Overviews than those with fewer. A follow-up study by Seer Interactive echoed this finding: backlinks had a weak or neutral direct impact on AI-generated visibility, while brand mentions were the real driver.

So, this shift highlights that there are other metrics that arguably offer a much broader and more meaningful view of overall PR and digital PR performance in 2025 and beyond. This includes the number of new referring domains earned, how many unique media outlets your brand is mentioned in, growth in organic traffic to key landing pages, improved rankings for target or focus keywords, and increased referral traffic - especially from LLM-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

These KPIs can help you demonstrate the full value of your work beyond link volume, especially as the SEO world shifts to include generative search and AI-driven results. In the sections below, we’ll break down these metrics in more detail and explain how to track them effectively.

What’s in this article:

• Why is it important to track digital PR campaigns?
• Six KPIs to measure digital PR campaigns that aren’t backlinks
• Key takeaways

Why is it important to track digital PR campaigns?

A lot of time and effort goes into creating PR and digital PR campaigns – trust us, we know! From developing ideas and conducting competitor research to writing press releases and crafting the perfect media list, it takes real skill. So, once you’ve put in all those hours, you need to know what’s worked and what hasn’t. Tracking your digital PR campaigns is how you actually see what’s performing, what’s falling flat, and where your brand is getting noticed.

Tracking your campaigns also gives you insights into your online presence. With AI-driven summaries redefining what people see and how they search, knowing how often your brand is mentioned, and in what context, can directly influence how prominently you appear.

On top of that, monitoring your results helps you identify opportunities for future campaigns. You can see which outlets are most responsive, which journalists are genuinely interested and operating in your niche, and where there might be gaps in your outreach. It also helps you protect your brand’s reputation by keeping an eye on the conversation around your name, giving you the chance to respond quickly if anything negative pops up – it’s good to have a crisis communication strategy in place for this very reason. 

Six KPIs to measure digital PR campaigns that aren’t backlinks

1. Branded web mentions

Brand mentions - when your brand is cited by name in online content, even without a link (shock horror!) - are quickly becoming one of the most valuable metrics in PR. Thanks to the rise of AI-powered search features like Google’s AI Overviews, these mentions are once again proving to be a major driver of visibility.

Tracking branded mentions helps you understand how often your brand is being discussed online and whether your PR campaigns are building real recognition. Tools like Google Alerts, TalkWalker, BuzzSumo, or even Ahrefs (via “mentions” reports) can help you monitor this KPI.

As we move into a world where generative AI increasingly shapes the way people discover brands, consistent and widespread brand visibility across trusted sources is becoming just as important - if not more so - than link building.

2. Number of unique media outlets featuring brand mentions

Getting your client’s name into top-tier publications is always a win, but the real power lies in building a diverse media footprint. Tracking how many different outlets have published stories and articles mentioning your brand gives a clearer picture of your brand’s visibility and credibility in the media.

This is especially relevant in the context of branded mentions being tied to AI Overview visibility. The more varied and reputable the sources mentioning your brand, the stronger your brand’s perceived authority - both to readers, algorithms, and search engines.

Manually logging coverage and media placements or using media monitoring tools like Meltwater or BuzzSumo can help you keep track of this KPI.

3. Number of new referring domains

While backlinks are often counted in volume, the number of unique domains linking to your site is a more meaningful metric. Earning 20 links from 20 different websites carries far more SEO value than 100 links from the same domain.

This KPI helps demonstrate the breadth of your campaign’s reach. It shows Google that your content is gaining authority and trust from a wide range of sources – not just a handful of familiar ones. For PR professionals, it’s also a great indicator of how far your story travelled across the web.

You can track this using tools like Ahrefs, Majestic or Semrush by filtering for new referring domains within your backlink profile.

4. Growth in organic traffic

While not always directly attributable to a single digital PR campaign, growth in organic traffic to key pages can be a strong indicator of campaign success – especially over time.

If your digital PR efforts include links to commercial, category or informational pages, those pages may benefit from increased visibility and traffic. Additionally, earned media coverage often drives branded search, which can boost organic sessions.

Using Google Analytics or GA4, you can segment traffic sources and monitor organic growth alongside your PR campaign timeline.

5. Improved rankings for focus keywords

Digital PR supports SEO by helping improve the authority and relevance of your site, which in turn can positively impact keyword rankings. If a campaign is tied to a particular theme or service area, monitoring keyword movements in that space can help prove effectiveness.

For example, if you’re running a PR campaign around budget-friendly gardening, you may want to monitor terms like “cheap garden plants UK” or “affordable bedding plants” to see if mentions increase during or after your outreach period.

Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or Google Search Console are useful for tracking keyword movement and changes in position over time.

6. Increased referral traffic (especially from LLM tools)

Referral traffic is often overlooked in PR reporting, but it can offer valuable insight into how many people are actually clicking through from the coverage you’ve secured. Unlike backlinks, which are primarily about SEO, referral visits give you real data on user interest and engagement.

And as generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity become more widely used, tracking how users find your site via these sources is becoming increasingly relevant. Some analytics platforms now log these tools as separate referrers, but often you’ll need to dig into direct traffic spikes and attribution models to spot them.

If you see consistent traffic coming from articles or platforms where your brand was mentioned, it’s a strong signal that your PR is not only gaining visibility, but also driving action.

Key takeaways:

1. Branded mentions might matter more than backlinks in 2025 and beyond. Even without a link, having your brand cited across multiple online sources has a huge impact on AI and LLM visibility.
2. Diverse media coverage builds authority. The more unique outlets mentioning your brand, the stronger your credibility and the broader your reach – for both readers and algorithms.
3. Online visibility influences SEO. Frequent appearances across the web can help improve keyword rankings. This boosts organic search performance and ensures your brand is more easily discovered.
4. Tracking multiple KPIs gives the full picture. Monitoring metrics like new referring domains, organic traffic growth, keyword movement, and referral traffic shows not just reach, but real engagement and impact.
5. PR drives both recognition and action. Strategic digital PR doesn’t just get your brand noticed; it creates measurable opportunities for leads, traffic, and conversions.

Get in touch today to explore what digital PR can do for your business.

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