Earned media needs attention, literally.

In advertising circles Attention is having a moment, as the metric to find quality at scale. In a world where the machines can do the work to target advertising, they need a metric to get that quality. And attention has found it’s place there. Attention, as in, how much attention are consumers paying to any particular page or ad.

When it comes to earned media metrics though, they are a little behind the curve but catching up quickly. Often still stuck in a world of quantity over quality. Measuring press mentions has always been anchored in press clippings. A selection of mentions you’ve got over time. More mentions the better. Who among us doesn’t have a folder of mentions right now?

Rewinding a bit, a client called us and said, hey, we work with a big box retailer, they get regular press mentions across the country. They give us budget to go and promote them. But which of these should we promote and why? And they sent us a list.

You see, social metrics weren’t helpful, as signal from them has waned as consumers share more privately. Reach metrics didn’t convey the value of all the outlets, but the few which are universally accepted. If you’re on the NYTimes, that is a good thing. And sentiment didn’t help, as the client is only sending them good mentions.

This is a quick snapshot of the industry at large, the same baseline metrics, without a sense for how impactful each is.

We then went away, to deeply analyze each piece of content, building a machine learning model. Analyzing everything from the domain, to the piece itself, the type of language used, reading level, ad clutter (i.e. reader experience), use of images, video, topics, how consumers respond to pieces like this and then provided a prediction on their attention. As an aside, this is no easy feat, and takes tremendous heavy lifting.

For example, we generated this kind of output:

Back to our example, the mentions ranged from low digit seconds to 60+ seconds. That is for each reader, how long are they spending on the piece. With this data our client was then were able to go and promote the best pieces, knowing they would have the most impact.

This datapoint overlaid with other data like topics, outlets, journalists, can reveal trends, which are working. Which are you building better relationships with.

Bringing attention is, is like coloring in the picture on a drawing, it helps give context amongst all the other metrics you collect.

But why attention?

To have impact, you need attention, a well meaning piece that isn’t effective, doesn’t help build awareness, or change public perceptions. To have impact, earned media needs attention. Which makes measuring it a little ironic.

Going deeper, understanding attention, is understanding culture, in a multi-tab, multi-device, distraction world. Getting attention is harder than ever, consumers have less time available for each digital task. User research into how long people have to complete a task, “By 2012, Mark and her colleagues found the average time on a single task was 75 seconds. Now it’s down to about 47.”.

Or take the opposite, do you want mentions that don’t get attention?

When analyzing outcomes industry agrees, “More attention is usually better than less attention in driving desired outcomes.”. In another study, “Increased attention not only leads to greater recall metrics but also contributes to stronger mid/low-funnel metrics with longer dwell times.”.

Our own analysis at Nudge has found more attention correlates to an increase in conversion rate. Thus if a piece is designed to build awareness, more attention means that piece is doing better at building that awareness for each person reading. And if press is meant to change consumers minds, more attention on a piece increases that rate.

Quality begets quality and quality builds trust. A good well formed placement, in the right source, creates impact. We know that. Alongside the metrics already collected, attention metrics add wonderful depth, clarity and context.

Is it helpful in all use cases?

Even for B2B, which tends to deeper, more nuanced industry verticals. The standard for quality and attention here is higher, so even in these environments, understanding Attention adds a lot of value. And it’s not just attention it is telling us, a byproduct of this feedback loop it is picking up on the topics that are resonating with readers and outlets.

Or dare I say SEO, Google recently said they were improving signals to reduce poor quality results. A continual whac-a-mole for them. Low quality mentions add little value and may even penalize sites references. Whereas high quality, high attention, will be rewarded with longevity and better ranking. Optimizing to quality pickups, is insurance against being penalized but also makes each mention an investment.

In a world of AI, these quality earned media is only going to increase in value.

Final thoughts

Imagine, going deeper on the last round of coverage, which had the most attention and why. Who really understood our message. Adjusting strategies to suit. Working to improve the quality, since the last placements. Examining competitive intelligence on a deeper level.

Adopting metrics that reflect what people are paying attention to, brings the industry back to its core, about finding & distilling the message that resonates and getting it in market. A refreshing focus back on quality & creativity.

PR teams work hard to develop and get the right stories in market, to be responsive, yet helpful and insightful. And each mention has its own value. Sometimes you get the coverage you want, other times you don’t. Consider adding attention into your mix.

So next time you’re looking at your earned media, consider, how much attention am I getting?