Measuring Owned Media Effectiveness ~ What Exactly Is the "Effectiveness" of Owned Media?

As mentioned in the first session, the phrase "effect measurement is difficult" is constantly heard in PR circles. The frustration seems quite deep.

In a 2017 survey by the Economic Public Relations Center targeting corporate PR departments, when asked about their daily concerns, "difficulty measuring the effectiveness of PR activities" topped the list at 71.4%. Considering that "insufficient PR personnel" ranked second at 42.3% and "crisis management" third at 35.2%, it's safe to say this was the overwhelming top concern.

This struggle with measuring effectiveness in PR activities certainly extends to owned media as well. I often receive consultations from various people expressing concerns like, "I don't know how to measure the effectiveness of our owned media." Strangely enough, however, almost none of these people are unfamiliar with using tools like Google Analytics. When I ask, most say they check Google Analytics daily but don't understand the meaning behind the numbers displayed or what the changes in traffic figures signify for their company.

Understanding the "measurement" part of effectiveness measurement is clear, but the "effectiveness" part is harder—isn't this a common challenge with owned media?

While owned media encompasses various formats like company profiles, annual reports, and PR magazines, this discussion will focus specifically on measuring the effectiveness of platforms like corporate websites and brand sites.

Defining the "Effect" of Owned Media

It's obvious when you think about it calmly, but to measure effectiveness, you must first define what "effectiveness" means.

What is the "effect" of your owned media?

Here's how to define effectiveness. I'll ask a few questions—please consider them:

1. What is your company's mission?

Your company or organization surely has a mission. It might be delivering delicious food to households, or creating livable communities.

2. What are the "goals" your company's communication activities aim to achieve in fulfilling that mission?

All company activities are conducted to fulfill the mission. This naturally includes communication activities like advertising and PR. What should these communication activities achieve? Is it to sell a lot of products? Or to get the company name out there as much as possible? Perhaps the key is to make more people aware of the mission.

3. In which part of the process does your owned media seem capable of contributing toward the "goals to be achieved"?

For example, when aiming to sell more products, communication activities must occur at various stages. There might be stages for people to remember the product name or its features, stages to encourage repeat purchases after an initial buy, or stages to help someone realize they need the product in a specific situation.

It's not just about stages either. There are also questions like who you want to buy it, and how you want them to buy it.

Which part of these stages can your owned media contribute to?
Is it giving that final push to people who already understand the product's necessity, getting them to visit the e-commerce site? Or is it making them notice, "Hmm, this company seems kind of interesting"?

The questions I just asked directly shape the process of determining what your owned media's impact actually is.

Shaping "Effect" into a "Measurable" Form

Now that we've defined the "effect" of owned media, let's talk about "measurement." We need to transform the "effect" we just defined into a form that can be "measured."

Let me ask one more question.

4. How should owned media perform to be considered contributing to the "goals to achieve"?

It might mean a specific page gets a lot of views, or that a link button to an external site on a specific page gets clicked a lot. Or perhaps it means your company's name gets exposed frequently on Twitter because your owned media content gets shared a lot there. Please think about this as concretely as possible, like the examples above, rather than vague ideas like "the owned media growing" or "it becoming popular."

What you've just considered about how your owned media should perform becomes the goal for measuring its effectiveness.

Now that you've defined the effect of your owned media and set your goals, you're finally ready to "measure" it. How about it? Some of you might be satisfied with page views tracked in Google Analytics, while others might feel they need to gather additional data. Either way, that is your method for measuring the effectiveness of your owned media.

Effect measurement changes over time

By the way, regarding the earlier question, some of you might have thought: "Maybe my owned media is just getting started and isn't at the stage to worry about the things mentioned above. For now, simply increasing content is what contributes to the 'goal to be achieved'."

This actually contains an important perspective. The "goal" of owned media changes depending on the current state of that media.

For example, suppose the "effect" of your owned media is "getting people in their 20s to remember the product name." You can probably imagine that this "effect" cannot be achieved by a newly launched owned media. A newly launched owned media platform must grow before it can deliver that effect. It might go through stages like: getting people in their 20s interested in the platform itself ⇒ getting those interested to visit ⇒ getting those who visited once to visit regularly.

You must consider what growth stages your owned media will go through before it truly becomes effective, and then set "goals" for each of those growth stages.

Actual Effect Measurement

For measuring PR effectiveness, including websites, there are broadly two types: outputs (results of the initiative) and outcomes (results relative to the objective).

Outputs can be further divided into those measured quantitatively and those measured qualitatively. For websites, quantitative measurement includes access analytics via Google Analytics, such as page views, sessions, time spent on site, and number of inquiries. Qualitative measurement includes visitor attribute surveys using IP intelligence and comparative studies of your website versus competitors' websites conducted through focus groups. Some companies and brands also conduct comparative studies on design innovation or assess usability.

Outcomes can be broadly divided into online and offline measurements. Online measurements involve tracking e-commerce sales or donations, while offline measurements require obtaining information from sales or HR departments—such as whether specific business deals were closed or the number of student applicants increased. This necessitates collaboration with other departments beyond just the website management team to assess effectiveness.

For example, what about technology-focused B2B companies?

One company's corporate website aims to communicate its technological leadership.
Several times a year, this company conducts surveys themed around how people perceive it, measuring how well its technological leadership is recognized.

Additionally, they analyze corporate site traffic using Google Analytics, measuring monthly which types of content attract which visitors and how they engage.

By cross-referencing the data obtained from these two surveys and measurements, it becomes possible to understand, for a given period, how Google Analytics metrics fluctuate when specific content is published and how this relates to the public's understanding of the company's technological advancement.

Consider "Effectiveness" Before "Measurement"

Owned media is never something that automatically solves unrecognized problems just by continuing it aimlessly. Because owned media can appear to be managed adequately simply by updating it, defining its effectiveness becomes difficult, and the challenges of measuring its impact deepen.

Owned media is merely a means to an end. Treating it as an end in itself is literally putting the cart before the horse. It should be communication conducted only after clearly defining what marketing challenges it solves and identifying metrics to measure the degree of resolution.

Summary

・Confirm the company's mission and communication objectives, then determine how owned media can contribute to them.
・Consider effectiveness before considering measurement.
・Owned media is merely a means to an end. Making it the goal itself is literally putting the cart before the horse.