Performance PR: What Is It and Why Should You Include It in Your Marketing Mix

A New Marketing Strategy

If you are reading this, chances are you know how to run the modern marketing playbook for a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand. You understand all of the changes each marketing channel experiences as the digital marketing landscape evolves. You regularly test both copy and creative to optimize for a slight increase in conversion rate (CVR) or decrease in cost-per-action (CPA). If this applies to you, you also shrug your shoulders when you hear the words “public relations” (PR) described in the context of performance marketing.

You probably don’t believe it’s in touch with today’s modern consumer, and most definitely, can’t be quantified when it comes to impact (i.e. return on ad spend or ROAS). Before you click away, hear me out: What if I told you that there is a world where the conversion rates of performance marketing and the brand awareness of public relations can coexist to form a new marketing weapon? This is where “performance public relations” comes in.

What is Performance PR?

Public relations strategies are utilized to increase brand awareness for various brands and products. PR agencies are hired to pitch stories and land placements in as many high-quality publishing sites as possible. This takes time, money, and is difficult to attribute effectively. On the other hand, performance PR is a new form of affiliate marketing that accelerates web traffic and sales for a brand’s website while creating a meaningful monetization source for publishers via referral fees.

An example of performance PR at work is this story/review published in Self Magazine.

Placed by my performance agency, Rubix, this is an article written by a Self journalist with embedded affiliate links. For every user who clicks through and makes a subsequent purchase, the publisher gets a commission, which can range from 5 to 15%. While this may seem like an extra expense that you need to account for, it’s important to contrast this with the amount of money you would have to spend via another paid acquisition channel. I’d be willing to wager that the 5 to 15% commission is substantially lower than your current Facebook CPAs.

In addition to the immediate revenue opportunity, performance PR offers two additional benefits:

1. The widespread exposure that these publishers drive for your product across their site, social channels, newsletters, etc. undoubtedly increases your brand’s awareness and relevance.  
2. As you begin to place more and more performance PR pieces, the accumulation of these backlinks to your site drives dramatic SEO value. Think about it: how many times have you searched, “best gifts for mother’s day” and clicked on one of the first few articles you saw?

Why it works

As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, so too must the modern marketer. With consumers now spending up to six hours per day on their phones, their level of sophistication is at an all-time high, and there are two characteristics that make them prime targets for performance PR:  

1. They’ve become impervious to traditional sales offers (buy one, get one), unprovable product benefits, and price loyalty, and are looking for a trusted source to validate their purchase.
2. They're accustomed to instant consumption: If they see a video that piques their interest, they want to watch it now. If they see a product they want, they’ll buy it on the spot.

Performance PR helps the customer attain the validation they're looking for via trusted publishers while also allowing them to transact on the product in just a few clicks.

Long-Term Benefits

Unlike an Instagram or Snapchat ad, which can lose its effectiveness in a matter of weeks, if a piece of performance PR is well-received, the value is virtually limitless.

Turbocharge your content marketing efforts

Every marketer’s dream is to conceive, create, and implement evergreen content. That strategy typically requires an abundance of freelance writers, content marketers, and SEO strategists with the goal of building brand awareness and driving ongoing traffic to your site. For a fraction of the cost and effort, a well-executed performance PR strategy can achieve a very similar set of objectives.

Bolster your paid media strategy

If an emerging CPG brand negotiates a well-placed article that advances a brand’s narrative, features a favorable product review, and includes affiliate links, that piece can also be leveraged across your other paid channels. Because of the credibility that comes with being featured in a top-tier or leading trade publication, running that piece of content as a paid ad oftentimes delivers very favorable CPAs. In a world where you can never have too many ads to test, an arsenal of performance PR pieces can help keep your creative fresh.

Conclusion

With the cost of customer acquisition rising, companies big and small are becoming more creative in their approach to content. Traditional PR can be a great driver of awareness and consideration but can cost a lot of time and money and is hard to measure. If you are a high-growth D2C brand seeking new ways to increase revenue without substantially increasing your customer acquisition costs, Performance PR can be an accretive and effective channel to produce results.