Did you know that PR professionals who use data-driven insights are 2.5 times more likely to get increased budgets for their campaigns? In the age of AI, it's easier than ever to track your PR efforts across various media channels.
The problem is that there are so many media measurement tools that it can feel hopeless just getting started. To help, we've collected over 30 traditional and digital media measurement tools which we've divided into seven categories.
From measuring website traffic to the success of your social media campaigns, we have something for everyone.
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- Comprehensive monitoring: Track the web, social media, print, and broadcast mentions
- Transparent pricing: Plans start at $258/month
- All-in-one platform: Get everything you need in one tool for PR, incl. media database, outreach, reporting, and more
What are media measurement tools?
Media measurement tools help PR teams see what’s working and what’s not.
They track how your press coverage performs across channels, highlight the impact of your campaigns, and provide data to back up your results when reporting to clients or leadership.
Common features of media measurement tools:
- Media monitoring: Track brand mentions across news sites, blogs, TV, radio, and social media.
- Sentiment analysis: Flags whether coverage is positive, negative, or neutral. This audience measurement method is usually driven by AI.
- Share of voice reports: Compares your brand's performance and presence to competitors.
- Reach and impressions: Estimates how many people saw or could have seen your coverage.
- Coverage scoring: Rates each media hit based on relevance, reach, sentiment, or custom criteria.
- Campaign performance tracking: Groups media hits by campaign, user behavior, and more, and shows what got the most traction.
- Custom reports: Builds branded coverage reports you can send to stakeholders, e.g., key performance indicators relevant to your social media performance.
- Influencer and journalist tracking: Shows which contacts drive the most valuable media hits.
- Alerts and notifications: Sends real-time updates when your brand is mentioned.
What are marketing campaign measurement tools?
While media measurement tools focus on earned media and PR impact, such as coverage volume, sentiment, and share of voice, marketing campaign measurement tools are built to track performance across paid and owned channels. These include email campaigns, PPC ads, social media posts, and landing pages.
They help marketing teams understand which campaigns drive clicks, conversions, and revenue. For example, a marketing team might use these tools to see how many leads came from a paid LinkedIn campaign, which ad creatives performed best, or how email open rates varied across audience segments.
In short, media tools show your influence in the press, while marketing tools show your return from direct outreach and ad spending.
| Function | Media Measurement Tools | Marketing Measurement Tools |
| Tracks earned coverage | ✔ | ✖ |
| Measures conversions | ✖ | ✔ |
| Supports PR campaigns | ✔ | ✖ |
| Supports paid media | ✖ | ✔ |
Traditional media measurement tools
These tools help you measure the effectiveness of traditional media channels, like TV and radio.
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron)
Source type: Radio
Use case: Measures radio audience size, reach, and demographics to assess the impact of radio ads or mentions
Limitation: Does not capture streaming radio or podcasts accurately, and regional data can be limited
Circulation Figures
Source type: Print
Use case: Local newspapers or trade publications often publish their own distribution stats to support ad sales or sponsorship pitches
Limitation: These are often unaudited and self-reported, which may affect reliability
Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC)
Source type: Print
Use case: Verifies the print circulation numbers of newspapers and magazines, often used to estimate potential reach
Limitation: Measures distribution, not actual readership or engagement
BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board)
Source type: Television (UK)
Use case: Tracks TV viewing figures in the UK, useful for evaluating brand mentions in TV news or talk shows
Limitation: Data is sampled from a small panel and may not reflect niche or regional programming
Traditional campaign & media measurement metrics
For traditional media formats, there are two main types of metrics you can track:
- Media impressions: the number of times a piece of content is viewed across different platforms.
- Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE): a metric that estimates the value of media coverage by comparing it to the cost of purchasing the same amount of ad space.
💡 Remember that although AVE is a traditional method, it’s not the best way to measure your PR tactics’ impact. In digital PR, there are many better ways to make data-driven decisions. Find out more in this article: What is Advertising Value Equivalency in PR? (+ AVE Alternatives)
PR campaign and digital media measurement tools
Before we dive deep into other measurement tools, just one quick note. We'll get into what you can measure with Prowly, as we have detailed information at our fingertips. We lack detailed testing data for all the other listed tools, but you can discover more by booking a call or utilizing a free trial where offered.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prowly | Comprehensive media monitoring with sentiment analysis and customizable reporting dashboards | Starts at $258/month | PR teams seeking an all-in-one solution for media monitoring, press release distribution, and reporting |
| Prezly | Unified PR management with contact management, publishing tools, and online newsrooms | Starts at $90/month | Agencies and in-house PR teams looking for an integrated platform to manage media relations |
| Meltwater | Advanced media intelligence with social listening and influencer tracking | Custom pricing | Large enterprises requiring extensive media coverage analysis and competitive benchmarking |
P.S. Here's a whole article about PR metrics that will show you what to measure exactly and why (with examples).
Prowly
Prowly is an all-in-one public relations software solution that uses AI to help small and medium PR agencies and in-house PR teams manage media relations, create press releases, pitch the right journalists, and monitor PR campaigns.
It offers PR CRM, pitching tools, a media database with over one million contacts, an AI Assistant, a press release creator, media monitoring tools, and a detailed PR reporting suite.
Prowly is best for agencies and in-house PR and marketing teams, especially small-to-medium-sized businesses, and any business that wants to gain valuable web or social media insights.
Pricing: starts at $258/mo billed annually, and a free trial is available
What metrics can you track with Prowly?
Share of Voice
Domain Authority
Domain authority, calculated by Semrush on a scale of 0 to 100, reflects a website's overall quality and SEO performance, with higher scores indicating stronger authority.
Backlinks
In Prowly’s PR Reports tool, you can track your PR success by comparing your number of backlinks through different periods, showing year-over-year growth, for example. Backlinks are counted automatically and you will see them in each project's main Media Monitoring dashboard.
Media tiers
Set up media tiers in Prowly based on the preferences of your target audience, not just visitor numbers. Track how often your brand is mentioned in Tier 1 outlets and monitor the number of press mentions in each tier to assess their value.
Top mentions
Prioritize top mentions from media outlets that best match your target audience, using filters like country and sentiment. In Prowly, you can generate and sort a list of top mentions by industry category and domain authority to effectively measure your PR activities.
Sentiment analysis
The solution uses algorithms and machine learning to perform sentiment analysis, which Prowly groups into easy-to-follow categories.
Data visualization
With Prowly, you can personalize your data visualization. You can export your data to Excel (.XLSX), Numbers (.CSV), or copy it into a PR report to easily share your outcomes with your clients or company.
Prezly
Prezly is a PR CRM for agencies and businesses that want to reach out to a large number of media professionals systematically.
It offers email outreach, sites and newsrooms, CRM for public relations, PR and media analytics, and linking coverage to the PR CRM for more valuable insights.
It is best suited for PR agencies.
Pricing: Prezly pricing starts at $90 per user, per month, billed annually, and has a free trial is available
Meltwater
Meltwater is a data analytics platform that gives insights into media, social, and consumer trends.
Its features include media intelligence, media relations, consumer intelligence, influencer marketing, and sales intelligence.
It is a best fit for agencies, so smaller PR teams are better off looking at Meltwater alternatives.
Pricing: It has not been disclosed publicly, but our research on Meltwater pricing shows it's around $6,000-10,000 per year. There is no information about a free trial, but you can book a demo.
Press clipping services
These services send you updates and summaries of content where your brand was published, both online and offline. It's a tool that has been around for a while and is available in Prowly too.
With Prowly you get press clippings and a host of other PR features with a flexible pricing plan and a free trial period.
Marketing campaign measurement tools
These digital analytics tools for marketing performance measurement give you insights about specific marketing channels.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mixpanel | Product and website analytics platform that helps understand customer behavior in apps and websites | Starts at $24/month | Product managers and marketers seeking detailed user behavior insights |
| Google Analytics | Free tool for measuring various aspects of website performance, including visitors and conversions | Free | Any business with a website aiming to track and analyze web traffic |
| Meta Insights | Tracks performance of organic and paid content on Meta platforms, providing metrics and trends | Free | Agencies and in-house marketing teams using Facebook and Instagram |
| Adobe Analytics | Web analytics platform offering customer journey tracking across digital channels | Starts at $2,000/month | Business owners and agencies requiring comprehensive analytics solutions |
| Kissmetrics | Analytics tool focused on tracking customer behavior and removing revenue bottlenecks | Starts at $125.99/month | Business owners and e-commerce stores aiming to optimize conversions |
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a product and website analytics platform that helps you better understand your customers and how they behave in your app or website.
Features include website metric analysis, research validation, KPI monitoring, website and product performance reporting, and feedback collection.
It is best for product businesses and marketing teams.
Pricing: starts at $24 per month and there is no free trial.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool for measuring any aspect of your website's performance. GA shows everything from visitors to conversions and the performance of individual pages.
Features include website analytics, campaign performance tracking, conversion rate tracking, website visitor behavior tracking, and more.
It is ideal for any business with a website.
Pricing: This tool is free to use.
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) analytics
This tool helps you track the performance of your organic and paid media content on Meta's platforms.
It offers metrics and trends tracking, visual reports, ad performance overview, demographic reports and more.
It is a good fit for agencies, in-house marketing teams, and anyone with a business account on Meta.
Pricing: free to use
Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is a web analytics platform that helps you track the customer journey across digital channels.
It offers website analytics, drag-and-drop segmentation, ad hoc analysis, page reports, mobile dashboards, cross-device analysis, and more.
It is best suited for business owners and agencies.
Pricing: not disclosed publicly, research shows that it starts at $2,000 per month and there is no free trial
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is an analytics tool for tracking human behavior on your website and removing bottlenecks to additional revenue.
It comes with real-time website metrics, tracking across websites and products, funnel tracking, and detailed customer activity monitoring.
It is a good choice for business owners and e-commerce stores.
Pricing: starts at $125.99 per month. A free trial is available, but only after a demo.
Social media monitoring tools
Social monitoring tools give you details on your brand's performance on social media channels.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prowly | Real-time monitoring with sentiment analysis and estimated reach | Starts at $258/month (billed annually) | PR agencies and in-house teams seeking comprehensive media monitoring and PR tools |
| Brand24 | AI-powered social media tracking with detailed analytics | Starts at $119/month | In-house teams, agencies, and freelancers aiming for competitive analysis and reputation management |
| Talkwalker | Consumer intelligence platform with social listening and benchmarking | Not publicly available | Larger in-house marketing teams and agencies requiring detailed customer insights |
| Brandwatch | Consumer intelligence platform with real-time data access and AI-powered analytics | Not publicly available | Agencies and in-house teams of larger businesses focusing on brand interaction analysis |
Prowly
Prowly is a PR and media monitoring tool that gives real-time insights about your brand terms and target keywords.
Prowly offers real-time monitoring, keyword combinations, context, sentiment analysis, estimated mention reach, and region and language filtering.
It is a great choice for agencies, in-house PR and marketing teams, or anyone who wants a detailed and accurate social media report.
Pricing: starts at $258 per month, billed annually, with a free trial available for 7 days
Brand24
Brand24 is an AI-powered social media tracking and listening tool for marketers and brands.
It comes with competitive analysis, reputation management, hashtag analytics, PR measurement, white label reporting, and detailed analytics.
It is a solid choice for In-house teams, agencies, and freelancers.
Pricing: starts at $119 per month and a free trial is available for 14 days.
Talkwalker
Talkwalker by Hootsuite is a consumer intelligence platform that gives you detailed insights about your customers.
It comes with social listening, media monitoring, social benchmarking, audience insights, customer feedback analytics, social content ratings, and more.
It is best suited for larger in-house marketing teams and agencies.
Pricing: not publicly available and there is no free trial.
Brandwatch
BrandWatch is a consumer intelligence platform that helps businesses understand how customers interact with them across platforms.
It comes with content searching and segmentation, sentiment analysis, real-time consumer data access, and an AI-powered analytics search engine.
It is best suited for agencies and in-house teams of larger businesses.
Pricing: not publicly available and there is no free trial
Social media analytics tools
The best social media measurement tools reveal the performance of your social media channels through specific metrics.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hootsuite Analytics | Offers comprehensive social media analytics, including performance metrics and reporting tools | Starts at $99/month | Businesses seeking an all-in-one platform for social media management and analytics |
| Sprout Social | Provides in-depth social media analytics with features like engagement tracking and trend analysis | Starts at $249/month | Teams requiring detailed insights into social media performance and audience engagement |
| Buffer Analyze | Delivers simple yet effective social media analytics, focusing on engagement metrics and post performance | Starts at $15/month | Small businesses and individuals looking for straightforward analytics tools |
| Keyhole | Specializes in real-time social media monitoring, hashtag tracking, and influencer analytics | Starts at $79/month | Brands and agencies aiming to monitor campaigns and track influencer performance |
| Rival IQ | Focuses on competitive analysis, benchmarking, and social media audits across multiple platforms | Starts at $239/month | Agencies and marketers needing to compare performance against competitors |
Hootsuite analytics
Hootsuite is a free social media measurement tool that lets you measure performance through organic and paid social media channels from a single dashboard.
Features include publishing and scheduling, social media analytics, AI content creation, help figuring out the best time to post, social engagement tools, inbox and messaging tools, and more.
It is best for agencies, in-house teams, and freelance social media marketers who need marketing measurement tools.
Pricing: starts at $99 per month and a free trial is available for 30 days.
Sprout Social
SproutSocial is a social media management platform with analytics and monitoring capabilities.
Its features include social media engagement, publishing, social analytics, social listening, influencer marketing, and employee advocacy tools.
It's a great tool for agencies and internal marketing teams.
Pricing: starts at $199 per seat per month, billed annually, and a free trial is available for 30 days
Buffer Analyze
Buffer Analyze is a part of the Buffer suite of tools that helps you understand your social media platform performance.
Features include content idea libraries, scheduling, publishing, social analytics, a customized landing page creator, and an AI assistant.
It's a good choice for agencies, freelancers, and in-house marketers.
Pricing: starts at $6 per month per social media channel and a free trial is available for 14 days.
Keyhole
Keyhole is a full-stack social media tool that lets you manage your online presence, create and schedule posts, analyze their performance, and more.
Features include social media analytics, social listening, historical insights, publishing, and scheduling.
It is best for freelancers, in-house teams, and marketing and PR agencies.
Pricing: starts at $40.83 per month for the analytics suite and a free trial is available for 14 days
Rival IQ
Rival IQ is a tool for real-time social media analytics, reports, and real-time alerts.
Features include competitive analysis, channel social media analysis, social media audits, and social listening.
It's a great choice for agencies and in-house marketing teams.
Pricing: starts at $199 per month, billed annually, and a free trial is available
SEO tools
These tools help you uncover opportunities to upgrade your SEO performance and rank better with great content.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Backlink monitoring and SEO metrics | Starts at $129/month | PR teams tracking earned media value and backlinks from campaigns |
| Semrush | Keyword tracking and brand monitoring | Starts at $139.95/month | Digital PR teams combining SEO and PR visibility in one dashboard |
| Google Search Console | Website performance and search traffic analysis | Free | PR professionals monitoring branded search volume and website visibility |
| Moz | Domain analysis and competitive research | Starts at $99/month | Agencies and in-house SEO teams tracking keyword performance and competitors |
Moz
Moz is an SEO tool for monitoring your SEO performance and finding new ways to improve your rankings.
It comes with domain analysis, keyword explorer, link explorer, competitive research, backlink research, and reporting tools.
It's a good tool for agencies and in-house SEO teams.
Pricing: starts at $99 per month and a free trial is available for 30 days
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an SEO tool that helps you create great content, do keyword and competitor research, and improve your search engine rankings.
Features include keyword research, competitor research, website analytics, backlink monitoring, site audits, and content explorer.
It's a great choice for agencies, in-house SEO teams, and freelancers.
Pricing: starts at $129 per user per month and there is no free trial.
Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps you create better content and rule search engine results.
Top features include keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, content creation and distribution, PPC keyword research, and many others.
It's a solid choice for agencies, in-house teams, and SEO freelancers.
Pricing: starts at $139.95 per month and a free trial is available for 7 days
P.S. If you’re searching for the best tools available for competitor analysis, check out this article.
Google Search Console
GSC is a tool for monitoring your presence in organic search results.
It offers page performance tracking, keyword rankings and monitoring, measuring impressions and clicks, and helps keep up with search performance trends over time.
It's a great tool for anyone who has a website. Coupled with Google Analytics, it covers your SEO basics.
Pricing: This tool is free to use.
P.S. If you want to dive deeper (not only) into PR metrics, check out this reach vs. impressions comparison.
Heatmaps
These tools analyze your website to reveal patterns in how visitors access them. The "hotter" the heatmap, the more visitors come to that part of your website.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotjar | Visualizes user behavior with heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback tools | Starts at $32/month | Marketing teams and agencies |
| Crazy Egg | Provides heatmaps, visitor recordings, A/B testing, and traffic analysis | Starts at $99/month | Marketing teams seeking in-depth analytics |
Hotjar
Hotjar is a user experience and data analytics platform that shows you insights about how people access your website.
Its features include heatmaps, polls, feedback collection, video recording sessions, surveys and interviews.
It is a good tool for any marketing team or agency.
Pricing: starts at $32 per month and there is no free trial, but there is a forever-free plan
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is an analytics tool by Neil Patel that helps website owners understand the behavior of their visitors.
Features include heatmaps, visitor recordings, A/B testing, traffic analysis, error tracking, surveys, goals, and CTAs.
It is best for marketing teams.
Pricing: starts at $99 per month and a free trial is available for 30 days
Email analytics
These tools help you understand the performance of your email campaigns and key metrics such as CTRs, open rates, conversion rates, and more.
| Tool | Core feature | Pricing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Visual email builder with segmentation and detailed analytics | Starts at $13/month | Small to medium-sized businesses seeking user-friendly email marketing solutions |
| GetResponse | Real-time email insights with automation and funnel-building capabilities | Starts at $15.58/month | Businesses aiming for advanced automation and detailed analytics |
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool that lets you build your email lists and create campaigns for different audiences.
It has a visual email builder, audience segmentation, detailed email analytics, a landing page builder, email personalization, and more.
It is best for small businesses, marketing teams, agencies and anyone who needs to send business emails.
Pricing: starts at $13 per month and there is a forever-free plan for up to 500 contacts
Get response
GetResponse is a marketing automation platform that lets you harness the power of emails combined with other marketing channels.
Its features include email marketing, SMS marketing, an AI email generator, website builder, landing pages, live chat, and much more.
It's a great choice for marketers, agencies, small and large businesses, and anyone serious about email marketing.
Pricing: starts at $15.58 per month and there is a 30-day free trial
Benefits of using media measurement tools
Besides getting a seat at the table and growing your budget for PR activities, digital and traditional media measurement tools have a number of benefits.
1. Track the real impact of press coverage
Instead of guessing how far your story reached, you can measure impressions, sentiment, and audience engagement. For example, if your product launch gets picked up by five outlets but only one drives traffic or engagement, you’ll know where to focus future outreach.
2. Prove ROI to clients or leadership
Clients often ask, “What did we get from this campaign?” Tools like Prowly let you generate reports showing how many people saw the coverage, the tone of any mentions, and whether your share of voice increased. It’s easier to justify continued investment when you have the numbers to back it up.
3. Spot issues early and act fast
If a negative story starts gaining traction, tools like Mention, Prowly or Brand24 can alert you in real time. That allows you to issue a response, correct misinformation, or brief spokespeople before things spiral.
4. Understand which messages actually resonate
Not every press release lands the way you intend. With sentiment analysis and engagement tracking, you can see which parts of your messaging stick. For example, if journalists keep quoting a specific stat or angle from your release, you’ll know to lead with that hook in future pitches.
Join 1,000+ businesses and start measuring your PR campaigns with Prowly.
Practical applications of media measurement tools
Now that you've seen the different tools for measuring the effectiveness of your PR and media strategies, let's show you how a few of them work in real life.
Prowly lets you track media coverage and analyze how your PR efforts land with journalists and the public. For example, after sending a press release through Prowly’s media database, you can monitor who picked it up, what the sentiment was, and how much reach it generated.
If your campaign gets coverage in multiple outlets, you can use Prowly’s reporting tools to group those mentions by campaign and instantly create a clean report to share with clients or leadership.
With Mention, you can stay on top of what people say about your brand across social platforms and news sites. You'll be alerted immediately if there’s a sudden spike in brand mentions. This helps with real-time crisis response or spotting organic buzz you might want to amplify with paid media.
While basic, Google Alerts still serves as a free way to track media mentions. If you're running a small campaign with limited resources, setting alerts for your brand name and campaign keywords can give you a low-maintenance way to stay in the loop without paying for full analytics.
Frequently asked questions
What are media measurement tools?
Media measurement tools are software solutions that track and analyze your brand's presence across various media channels. They help PR and marketing teams understand the effectiveness of their campaigns by providing insights into reach, engagement, sentiment, and more.
Why are media measurement tools important for PR professionals?
These tools let PR professionals quantify the impact of their efforts, demonstrate ROI to stakeholders, and refine strategies based on data-driven insights. By understanding what resonates with audiences, teams can make informed decisions to enhance future campaigns.
How frequently should I analyze media coverage?
Regular analysis is beneficial. Depending on the volume of media activity, weekly or monthly reviews can help you stay informed and make timely adjustments to strategies.
