The Most Important Metric To Track In Any Public Affairs Campaign

Today we begin to unpack the topic of digital metrics in public affairs campaigns. There are many threads to this issue, so we'll pull on them over the next several weeks. But let's start with a simple question—what is the most important digital metric to track when you're trying to impact policy?

Nothing Else Matters If You Can't Show How Many Times You're Reaching Your Precise Targets?

This may sound obvious, but we constantly see even the most sophisticated organizations get distracted from the central point in any public affairs campaign—reaching your exact targets, as many times as possible. There are good reasons for this distraction, mostly related to consultants claiming it's not possible to show this data. Their spin varies, but the most common themes we hear are the following:

?? Cookies are the only way to target people one-to-one. And with the phase-out of cookies, match rates hover in the 30-40% range, meaning you're more likely than not to miss any given target. Important note: You might not hear the word "cookie" explicitly in this claim, but if you hear about low match rates, that's what they're talking about.

?? Geofencing can only be done to large radiuses such as miles or kilometers, meaning hundreds of thousands of people are included in any geofence, making it impossible to measure impressions to any one target.

As we've discussed in several prior newsletters, both of these claims are plain wrong. Cookies are certainly no longer the best way to reach exact targets. And while most geofencing platforms now only capture large radiuses, with GPS location data, you can reach your targets on a home-by-home basis.

So instead of this . . .

?. . . you can do this . . .

Reach And Frequency Are King In Any Public Affairs Campaign?

It shouldn't be surprising that if you can't ensure you're reaching your precise targets, you also can't measure and report on it. But if you're executing your campaign with the most precise digital tools, you can measure exactly how many times your target received the message down to the home-by-home level. These metrics are known as reach and frequency, and they are king in any public affairs campaign.

There are other useful metrics that we'll dig into over the coming weeks. But if you can't show that your targets have actually received the message, and how many times they have received it, then in the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson in reference to the Vietnam War:

"What the hell are we doing?"