Search advertising & SEO depend on PR

For as long as it has existed, the PR industry has lived in the shadow of advertising. Over the years, it was viewed by many – including those in the industry – as cheap advertising. PR measurement perpetuated the myth, with the infamous ‘advertising value equivalent’, or AVE, used to show what amazing value PR represented.

All of this could be about to change. Far from being the poor relation of advertising, new research from Metricomm shows that media coverage plays a key role in search advertising and SEO success. 

For the first time, we reveal the extent to which the audience reading online media coverage contributes to a quantifiable uplift in search, directly influencing the effectiveness of paid search advertising. If there is no search, the advertising will have no effect. If media coverage can be used to generate higher levels of search, paid advertising has a greater influence on consumers, encouraging them along the path to purchase.