ANALYZING

COMPETITIVE
AD VS. PR
SPENDING

HOW-TO GUIDE
 Analyzing Competitive Ad vs. PR Spending
HOW-TO GUIDE

Measuring the effectiveness of your PR process is not a simple task, especially if you don’t have the
budget for PR-coverage subscriptions. It is just as challenging to demonstrate that your organization
is better than the competition with leveraging PR to save on ad spending. Following is a real-world
method to handle these chores.

Use Demand Metric’s downloadable Competitive Ad vs. PR Analysis Tool to start tracking
your media coverage and benchmark your ad/PR-spending ratio against your competitors.

Benefits of Analyzing Competitive Ad vs. PR Spending:

Competitive Insight — tracking ad placements and PR coverage provides a framework for discov-
ering ad spending benchmarks within your competitive environment, and allows you to examine how
PR is being leveraged. You may discover that one competitor is heavily pushing a certain message,
or that another is deploying a pull strategy based on product-feature benefits.

Save Money — organizations that effectively use public relations can save volumes of money that
would otherwise be spent on advertisements.

Better Leverage of Public Relations — by determining how your competitors are leveraging
public relations in their media mix, you can learn how to become more proficient in this area of
demand generation.

Measure Ad/PR Effectiveness — the first step in measuring a marketing program is to docu-
ment the activities that are involved. Proactively monitoring your most important industry publi-
cations will provide a basis for tracking leads and sales that result from advertisements and
press releases.

Bottom Line
Not all organizations are effectively using PR to save money on advertising costs. Start tracking
your ad/PR spending in relation to your competitors to demonstrate the effectiveness of your PR
capabilities. If you aren’t using PR at all, strongly consider reading our report Building Successful
PR Campaigns to get started.

2 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 1 - Assess Value

1 Assess Value Learn About Competitive Ad

vs. PR Spending Analysis

Assign a Task
2 Leader Consider the value that
a focused advertising/PR
tracking initiative would
provide your organization.
Customize a
3 Reporting Tool If you are being asked
to conduct competitive
analysis, this is one section
Select Relevant not to be missed.
4 Publications

Determine a
5 Starting Point

Document,
6 Document,
Document

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

3 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 2 - Assign a Task Leader

1 Assess Value
Hire Someone To Track Your
Competitors Ads and PR

2 Assign a Task
Leader It will become someone’s
job to flip through each
trade publication upon
delivery to identify which
Customize a
3 Reporting Tool
competitors are placing
ads or generating solid PR.

Select Relevant
4 Publications

Determine a
5 Starting Point Media Specialist Job Description

VIEW RESOURCE
Document,
6 Document,
Document

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

4 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 3 - Customize a Reporting Tool

1 Assess Value
Launch Customized
Reporting Tool for Smart
Comparisons
Assign a Task
2 Leader
Use our downloadable
Competitive PR and

3
Advertising Analysis to kick-
Customize a
Reporting Tool start this process internally.

Select Relevant
4 Publications

Determine a Competitive PR and Advertising Analysis

5 Starting Point
VIEW RESOURCE

Document,
6 Document,
Document

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

5 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 4 - Select Relevant Publications

1 Assess Value
Stick to Core Editorials
Using a Calendar

Assign a Task
2 Leader Narrow the scope on your
measurement process to only
those publications considered
Customize a core to your industry.
3 Reporting Tool Add your list of publications
to the ‘Instructions’ tab of the
analysis tool.
Select
4 Relevant
Publications

Determine a
5 Starting Point

Editorial Calendar Template

Document,
6 Document, VIEW RESOURCE
Document

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

6 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 5 - Determine a Starting Point

1 Assess Value
Backdate Your Analysis to
Previous Issues

Assign a Task
2 Leader You may wish to backdate
your analysis to previous
issues, especially if you are
Customize a trying to assess competitive
3 Reporting Tool ad spending benchmarks.

Use the same start date for

each ‘Competitor’ tab to
Select Relevant ensure you are comparing
4 Publications apples to apples.

5 Determine a
Starting Point

Document,
6 Document, Competitive Ad vs PR Analysis Tool
Document
VIEW RESOURCE

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

7 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 6 - Document, Document, Document

1 Assess Value
Keep Researching and
Documenting Your
Discoveries
Assign a Task
2 Leader
List the publication, page
reference, ad or article size
Customize a (pages), article/ad topic area,
3 Reporting Tool journalist, Ad or PR, and
estimated value of the piece.

Use standard pricing for PR

Select Relevant
4 Publications
mentions, and discounted
pricing for ads if it and only if,
you identify a repeated pattern.

Determine a
5 Starting Point

Document,
6 Document,
Document Competitive Ad vs PR Analysis Tool

VIEW RESOURCE
Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

8 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 7 - Analyze the Data

1 Assess Value
Track Ad Spend with Your
Analysis Tool

Assign a Task
2 Leader Visit this analysis tool on a
quarterly basis and total up the
estimated value (or spending)
Customize a that is being done industry-wide.
3 Reporting Tool Determine the ratio of ad
spending to PR for you and
your competitors.
Select Relevant
4 Publications

Determine a
5 Starting Point
Competitive Ad vs PR Analysis Tool

Document,
6 Document, VIEW RESOURCE
Document

7 Analyze the
Data

Discuss with Senior

8 Management

9 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 Action Plan
STEP 8 - Discuss with Senior Management

1 Assess Value
Develop Clear Strategies
to Improve Spend Ratios

Assign a Task
2 Leader Share your insights in a
management meeting and
discuss strategies you can
Customize a use to improve your ad/PR
3 Reporting Tool spend ratio.

Focus on ad/PR content to

get a gut-feel for competitive
Select Relevant strategies.
4 Publications

Determine a
5 Starting Point

Document,
6 Document,
Document

Analyze the
7 Data

Discuss
8 with Senior
Management

10 ANALYZING COMPETITIVE AD VS. PR SPENDING

 About ANA

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for

individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the
interests of marketers and promoting and protecting the well-being of the
marketing community.

Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing

excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership
includes more than 1,000 companies with 15,000 brands that collectively
spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annu-
ally. The membership is comprised of more than 750 client-side marketers
and 300 associate members, which include leading agencies, law firms,
suppliers, consultants, and vendors.

Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA

Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the
understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and
marketing communities.
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