If you’re here, you might’ve come for tips and tricks of the PR trade, and for that, I’m sorry. Not because I haven’t loved sharing best practices from my 18 years in PR, but because that’s no longer Off The Record’s focus.

Why? Because I’m done masking behind “teaching” by “telling” and better at teaching by showing. But this shift is largely inspired by my real-life startup clients, some of whom I’ve worked with multiple times over the last two decades. They’re technology startup founders, CEOs, CMOs, and VPs of marketing. They’re heads of communications departments. They’re in charge of brand, reputation, MarComm, and this is where I come in: they’re in charge of PR.

As I said, I’m better at “showing” (and writing) than I am at telling. This shifts how I want to use this platform, while still serving as a source of information for technology startup founders and C-suite executives who are looking to learn a thing or two about PR. And no, we’re not here for me to sell you on PR.

A lot has changed for me in 2026. Five short days into the year, my mom lost her battle to lung disease and dementia. I started a new gig, dipping my toes back into the agency world.

I went back to school and am now ankle-deep in my Master’s program at Washington State University (Go Cougs!), my alma mater, where I met my husband 22 years ago.

So off with the masks. These are my stories from the trenches of technology startup PR. Real (mostly unfiltered) PR moments from the last two decades.

I’ve thought about which story I should start with, so I hope you enjoy this doozie that I like to call:

“Worse than a kissing cam scandal.”

This was a long while ago, definitely before my son was born, and he’ll be 11 in August. I was working as a PR Director at a mid-size agency. It was a normal day in the office until my boss’s boss flagged me into a virtual meeting with a very cryptic message: “I need you to deal with something.”

As a fan of crime novels, I immediately thought we were about to hide a dead body. In many ways, it was worse.

This is a crisis PR situation.

One of our startup clients had recently hired a new CEO, a charismatic, highly connected entrepreneur who was already well known throughout his area and within the startup and investment circles. His reputation was a major reason the company brought him on in the first place. He had the kind of profile investors loved: polished media presence, strong founder story, deep networking relationships, and a track record of scaling businesses quickly. The company positioned his arrival as a turning point for growth, and we had spent weeks helping build visibility around the leadership transition through media outreach, investor communications, and thought leadership opportunities.

Then everything imploded almost overnight.

Just weeks after stepping into the role, a single report in his local newspaper (which you can no longer find online) surfaced that the CEO had been charged with killing an endangered species during what was publicly being referred to as a “hunting trip” involving several other executives and business leaders from the region.

Even now, I’m intentionally keeping “hunting trip” in quotation marks because the details surrounding the event were sensitive, and frankly bizarre enough that the reality sounded worse than speculation. The story quickly became the kind of thing reporters obsess over: wealthy executives, secrecy, power dynamics, potential criminal behavior, and a company with fresh venture funding suddenly tied to a scandal no one could have anticipated.

What made the situation particularly horrid was that the startup itself had absolutely nothing to do with the incident. The alleged actions happened before the CEO joined the company, yet because he had become the public face of the brand almost immediately after being hired, the company was now being dragged directly into the controversy.

Internally, the atmosphere shifted from excitement to chaos in less than 24 hours.

Investors worried the company would become permanently associated with the scandal. The company and its employees feared public backlash or professional ties to the situation. Leadership was divided on whether to defend the CEO publicly, distance the company immediately, or stay silent altogether. Some executives wanted to disappear completely until the story passed. Meanwhile, we knew we were moments away from journalists pushing for comments before facts had even fully surfaced.

The challenge wasn’t just preventing media stories. It was navigating an ethical, legal, and reputational minefield in real time while emotions inside the company were running high. And unlike many startup PR crises that revolve around product issues, layoffs, or funding rumors, this one was a deeply personal, emotionally charged scenario that made every decision significantly more delicate.

So what did we do? Subscribe and stay tuned for Part 2.

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Unfiltered Plug: If you’re a technology startup needing PR, get in touch. Check out lab.Comms, 18-years of startup PR services at www.lindsbcomms.com.

PR pros work really hard to book press interviews, but here’s the reality: many of them never result in coverage. Getting the meeting is just step one. Turning that conversation into a quoted article? That’s the hard part.

The problem most often? You’re not saying anything new, interesting, or memorable.

After working with hundreds of tech startups over the years, one thing is clear: the fight for media coverage is tougher than ever. Reporters are inundated. Stories are tighter. And many startups simply don’t yet have the business metrics, customer validation, or case studies that typically tip a story from “interesting” to “publishable.”

The good news? You can dramatically increase your odds. This post is about making the most of your media interview opportunity, and ultimately setting yourself up for coverage success.

10 things to prep before an interview

1. Lead with news and forget your elevator pitch.

Reporters need a reason to write now. Is there funding, growth, a major customer win, new data, a bold POV? “We exist” is not news. Most founders will say “We’re an AI-powered contract review platform helping legal teams work more efficiently.” That’s an elevator pitch. It explains what you do. It does not give a reporter a reason to write today.

What gets attention instead: “In the past six months, we’ve cut contract review time by 42% across 18 mid-sized law firms — and one Am Law 100 firm just replaced two legacy vendors with us.” Now you’ve introduced:

• A time peg (past six months)

• Specific metrics (42% improvement)

• Customer traction (18 firms)

• A notable validation signal (Am Law 100 firm replacing incumbents)

That’s showing movement, momentum, and a stronger storyline.

2. Bring real metrics.

Revenue growth. User growth. Retention. Adoption rates. Efficiency gains. If you don’t share numbers, the story becomes vague, and vague stories don’t get written.

Your spokesperson might say, “We’re growing really quickly,” or “Customer adoption has been strong,” and “We’ve seen great traction.” Those statements mean nothing without numbers. A reporter cannot build a story around “strong.”

• Instead of, “We’re growing quickly,” say “We’ve grown ARR from $1.2M to $4.8M in 12 months and added 73 new enterprise customers this quarter alone.”

• Swap, “Customers love the product,” for “Our net revenue retention is 132%, and 64% of customers expanded their contracts within the first year.”

• Instead of, “We improve efficiency,” say “Our platform reduced outside counsel spend by 28% for a Fortune 500 client in the first six months.”

Now the reporter has a growth narrative, scale indicator, validation signal, and a quantifiable outcome. That’s the difference between “interesting company” and “data-backed story.”

3. Have at least one named customer (if possible).

Customer proof changes everything. A real-world use case beats a product description every time. I hear “We work with several leading enterprise clients,” on the regular. Standard language like,“We’re in pilots with major firms,“ or “We can’t disclose names, but they’re very recognizable.” To a reporter, that signals risk. If no one is willing to be named, is the traction real?

Before the interview, ask yourself: Do we have at least one customer willing to be named? Can we share one specific outcome they achieved? Would that customer take a reference call from the reporter if asked? If the answer to all three is yes, your odds of coverage increase dramatically. If the answer is no, consider securing one referenceable customer before pitching, or structuring the story around a data-backed case study instead of general claims.

4. Share a strong, defensible point of view.

The most quotable founders aren’t neutral. They have opinions about the market, competitors, trends, regulation, pricing models, or where the industry is headed. Safe, middle-of-the-road answers rarely make it into print because they don’t move the story forward.

“The market is evolving” is boring.

“AI is creating opportunities and challenges,” is something anyone could say.

“We think there’s room for multiple players” is a clear sign of dodging the question.

These phrases are unquoteable. What works are phrases like:

• “Our view is that 80% of AI legal tools will disappear in the next 18 months because they’re just thin wrappers on public models.”

• “Billable hour firms that don’t rethink pricing in the next two years will lose work to AI-native competitors.”

Now you’ve given the reporter tension, stakes, and a forward-looking claim. That’s something they can build a story around whether they agree with you or not.

Before the interview, pressure-test your POV: Is this specific, not generic? Is it defensible with data or experience? Would someone reasonably disagree with it? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. Strong coverage often comes from a strong perspective and not safe and risk-averse commentary.

5. Avoid jargon and feature dumps.

A media interview is not a product demo. It’s not the time to walk through your dashboard, list integrations, or explain your proprietary architecture. Reporters don’t write stories about feature sets. They write about problems, impact, and differentiation.

Your spokesperson might say: “We leverage a multi-layered AI orchestration engine with customizable workflows, seamless integrations, and real-time analytics.” That sounds impressive internally. To a reporter, it’s noise.

Instead of leading with features, translate them into outcomes and stakes. Swap, “Our platform includes automated document classification, AI-assisted redlining, and dynamic clause libraries” for: “Mid-sized law firms are losing thousands of billable hours each year to manual contract review. We’ve automated the most repetitive 60% of that process, cutting turnaround time nearly in half.” Instead of, “We built a proprietary large language model optimized for legal workflows,” say, “Most AI tools hallucinate when handling complex contract language. We trained our system on 12 million verified legal documents to reduce factual errors in high-risk clauses.”

Now the reporter understands the real-world problem, why it matters, what’s broken in the status quo, and what makes you meaningfully different, which shifts the conversation away from “product description” to “story.”

6. Anticipate the hard questions.

Competition. Market saturation. AI hype. Monetization. If you stumble here, confidence drops and so do your odds of inclusion.

A media interview isn’t just an opportunity to share your wins. It’s also a credibility test. Reporters are trained to probe risk, challenge assumptions, and pressure-test your story. If you get defensive, vague, or evasive, that hesitation often makes it into the reporter’s notes — and sometimes keeps you out of the story entirely.

Have crisp, confident answers to:

• Who are your top 3 competitors and why do you win?

• What’s your biggest risk right now?

• How do you make money and is it working?

• What would a skeptic say about your space?

If you can answer those without flinching, you don’t just sound prepared. Instead, you sound credible. And credible sources get quoted.

7. Make the reporter’s job easier.

Offer follow-up materials: data, charts, screenshots, customer intros, or concise background notes. The easier you make it to write, the more likely you’ll be included. Reporters are juggling multiple sources, tight deadlines, and competing angles. If they have to chase you for basic facts, clarify numbers, or wait days for approvals, you’ve just made yourself the harder source to include.

What often happens after the interview, the founder says, “Let us know if you need anything.”

The reporter does need things but now they have to ask, follow up, and wait. In a competitive story, that friction can cost you the quote.

At the end of the interview, a spokesperson or their PR rep should say something like: “I’ll send over a short follow-up email with the metrics we referenced, a customer case study, and a clean screenshot in case it’s helpful.” Then actually send:

• A 3–5 bullet recap of key stats (ARR, growth, retention, etc.)

• One short, tight customer example with measurable impact

• A high-res logo or product screenshot

• A named customer who is willing to speak if needed

• Your correct title, spelling, and preferred attribution

Assume the reporter is writing 3–5 other stories that week. The source who delivers clean, organized, usable information within hours (not days) is far more likely to be included. Beware: Making it easy isn’t about overloading them with materials, it’s about anticipating what they’ll need and delivering it before they have to ask.

8. Be concise and structured:

The hard truth? Rambling kills quotes and strong soundbites win coverage, so think in headlines and not paragraphs. A reporter is listening for clean, usable lines. If your answer takes three minutes, circles the point, and includes five side tangents, they’ll struggle to extract a quote and may move on to someone who said it better in one sentence.

What rambling sounds like: “So what we’re really trying to do is rethink the way legal teams interact with AI, because historically the tools haven’t been purpose-built for their workflows, and when you look at the broader market…” By the time you land the point, the moment is gone.

Instead of a long explanation, compress it: “Our thesis is simple: AI shouldn’t replace lawyers — it should remove the 40% of their work that’s repetitive,” or “Most AI legal tools promise speed. We built ours for accuracy in high-risk environments.” Now you’ve given the reporter a clean quote, a clear position, and a line that can anchor a paragraph that’s usable.

Before any interview and for each key message, write a 12–15 word version. If you can’t say it clearly in one or two sentences, it’s not sharp enough yet. The goal isn’t to sound rehearsed, it’s to sound quotable.

9. Understand the outlet’s (and journalist’s) audience.

Is this reporter focused on funding? Legal risk? AI ethics? Industry disruption?

Tailor your answers to their beat, not your generic talking points.

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is giving the same interview to every outlet. A legal industry trade reporter is not looking for the same angle as a business publication. A tech ethics journalist is not looking for a product walkthrough. If you don’t align with what they actually cover, you’re creating friction from the start.

Let’s say you’re announcing a new AI-powered compliance platform. The generic answer looks like, “We built an AI tool that helps companies streamline compliance workflows and improve efficiency.”

Imagine two different reporters:

1. A funding-focused reporter (e.g., covers raises and growth). They care about traction and market validation. A better answer is,“We’ve grown from $0 to $6M ARR in 18 months, and 40% of our pipeline is inbound from regulated fintech companies.”

2. A legal risk / AI ethics reporter. They care about guardrails and exposure. Say something more like,“Most AI compliance tools operate as black boxes. We built audit trails and explainability into every output because regulators are increasingly scrutinizing automated decision-making.”

These are the same company and same product, but three different angles. Before the interview, spend 15 minutes reviewing the reporter’s last 5–10 articles and ask:

• What themes keep showing up?

• Do they quote founders, customers, analysts, or all three?

• Are the stories data-heavy? Regulatory-focused? Trend-driven?

If their recent coverage consistently includes strong executive POV or named customer quotes, that’s your signal to show up prepared with the type of commentary that actually results in ink for that outlet. The goal isn’t to manipulate the story, it’s to meet the reporter where they are and give them exactly what fits their beat.

10. Remember that you’re competing:

This is the part founders often forget: you are rarely the only source. In trend pieces, funding roundups, AI features, or industry analysis stories, reporters are usually speaking to 3–6 companies. They will include the strongest, clearest, most differentiated quotes. If you don’t give a compelling quote or data point, then someone else will. If your answers are generic, overly cautious, or repetitive of what others are saying, you become the easiest cut.

Imagine a reporter is writing about AI adoption in law firms and interviews four CEOs. A generic response would be, “We’re seeing strong interest in AI, and firms are excited about the potential.” That quote could come from anyone. It adds nothing new. A stronger response is,“In the last 12 months, we’ve seen AI move from pilot projects to budget line items. 63% of our customers increased AI spend this year — even as overall tech budgets stayed flat,” or: “The biggest misconception is that AI adoption is a technology problem. In our experience, it’s a partner compensation problem.” Now you’ve added data, introduced tension, given the reporter a sharper angle, and differentiated yourself from other voices, which is how you survive the editing process and get ink.

Before the interview, ask yourself: 1) What can we say that others in our space probably won’t? 2) Do we have one surprising stat or contrarian insight? 3 )If the reporter only includes one quote from us, what do we want it to be? Because that’s the reality: You may only get one line. Make sure it’s the one that earns you a spot in the story.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember this:

A media interview is an opportunity and not a guarantee. Coverage happens when there’s real news, proof, a clear point of view, and the reporter has something quotable and useful. If you treat every interview like it will result in coverage, you’re already ahead of most.

If 90% of startups flame out because they never really hit product‑market fit, your biggest risk isn’t “nobody knows we exist.” It’s that you’re talking to the wrong people about the wrong problem.

Think of a seed‑stage startup with a simple expense‑tracking tool. At first, they target individual employees and pitch lifestyle outlets about “finally organizing your personal receipts.” They get signups, but almost no paying users. Then they reframe the story for small‑business owners and bookkeepers: not “organize your receipts,” but “stop losing money and time at tax season.” They pitch small‑business blogs, accountant newsletters, and local business journals. Traffic is smaller, but leads are serious, demos convert, and subscriptions grow.

Same product, different PR narrative, and suddenly their real market is obvious. Not busy employees, but business owners terrified of tax mistakes and cash‑flow surprises. That’s PR as a scrappy market‑validation strategy. It shows which problems get attention and which audiences actually turn that attention into pipeline.

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The Uncomfortable Truth About “PMF”

This is where PR is wildly misunderstood. Most teams treat it as a one‑time awareness blast (“We’ll do PR when we launch”), instead of what it can be: a running product marketing fit (PMF) validation system. Look at the failure data: CB Insights‑style post‑mortems repeatedly highlight “no market need” in ~35% of cases. Not “no press,” not “no brand,” but no real demand. That’s a PMF problem.

Used correctly, PR is one of the fastest ways to pressure‑test what the market needs. Every pitch, story angle, and outlet is a tiny experiment.

Every pitch, story, and outlet is a small experiment: who opens, what gets covered, who clicks or books a demo. Used this way, PR stops being vanity coverage and becomes one of your cheapest ways to see who cares about what, and enough to act.

Define What You’re Actually testing

Before you chase coverage, you need to define what you’re actually testing. Treat every PR push as a set of live hypotheses.

Written down, that might look like:

For example, a compliance‑automation startup first bets on: CIOs at mid‑market fintechs, scared of audits, triggered by new regulations, convinced by certifications and case studies. They pitch security and fintech trades, get some coverage but weak inbound traffic or leads.

Next, they try: Ops leaders at fast‑growing SaaS companies, drowning in manual reviews before renewals, triggered by quarter‑end crunch, convinced by time‑saved and revenue‑protected. They aim PR at SaaS ops and RevOps outlets and finally see it. More qualified inquiries, sharper ROI questions, real pipeline. Same product but a different hypothesis.

Why PR is a Market-Evaluation Tool

Your buyers are already self‑educating. They read reviews, niche newsletters, and Slack threads, and they dodge irrelevant outreach. That’s why third‑party context matters. When your story shows up in a trusted outlet or podcast, buyers use it to decide whether the problem is real, who it’s for, and why now, often before you ever reach out. PR turns that behavior into market tests.

For example, an HR tech startup tests one story about “saving HR admins time on paperwork” in general business press, and another about “reducing burnout for frontline managers” in HR‑specific newsletters. The first gets feel‑good coverage but little action; the second drives demo requests from exactly the managers they want. Same product but different PR tests, and the results show where the real market is.

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PR-to-PMF Playbook: 6 Ways to evaluate Target Markets

If you stop treating PR as a launch megaphone and start treating it as a testing lab, it becomes one of your cheapest ways to evaluate markets. The six plays below are deliberately short and tactical, and each one comes with a clear “what to measure” so you’re not guessing.

1. Message Testing:

Instead of betting everything on one “perfect” story, pitch 2–3 sharply different angles to different segments: e.g., one for “save time,” one for “hit revenue targets,” and one for “avoid risk.” Watch which problem editors pick up, which subject lines get replies, and which angles pull in the right titles. Your scoreboard here is simple: reply rates, quality of inbound (titles, company fit), demo requests, and time‑to‑close by segment. The winning story earns its way into your homepage, sales decks, and later your paid campaigns.

Imagine a B2B fintech startup selling a cash‑flow tool. They test three earned angles: “close your books 40% faster,” “never get blindsided by a cash crunch again,” and “stay compliant with new reporting rules.” Accounting trades pick up the “close faster” angle, but it mostly drives junior accountant interest. A CFO newsletter runs the “no surprises” cash‑crunch story and suddenly VP Finance and CFOs start booking demos. The compliance angle lands, but only with a small niche. Same product, three stories—PR makes it obvious that “no more cash‑flow surprises” is the pain senior buyers actually move on.

2. “Problem interviews”:

Don’t just push your story; use PR to pull the real story out of buyers. When a pitch or article sparks interest, treat those replies and demos like mini journalist interviews. For example, ask open questions instead of jumping straight to a deck.

Listen for repeated phrases, trigger events, and budget language—that’s your product‑market data. For example, an HR tech startup offers 20‑minute “burnout briefings” to readers who respond to their PR hits. On calls with frontline managers, they keep hearing:

“We lose good people after peak season”

“New shift policies always blow up Slack”

“We only get budget when turnover is a crisis.”

Those patterns tell them the real buying moment isn’t generic “productivity”—it’s peak season and post‑attrition panic. They feed those exact words and scenarios back into messaging, sales scripts, and future PR angles.

3. Share of Voice + Competitor Narrative Mapping:

Audit how the category is actually talked about, and who “owns” which ideas, using social, search, PR, and content data. For each theme, we quantify SOV by topic, sentiment, and message pull-through – to see where your brand leads, where you’re absent, and where the white space is.

The output is a simple narrative map: what customers actually talk about vs. how strongly each competitor is linked to those topics. This highlights a short list of high-value, low-ownership territories your messaging should claim.

4. Category and Search-Demand Validation:

Validate that PR themes match how people actually search and how media frames the space. We track branded and non-branded search lift, and direct traffic to POV pages after coverage, to confirm that your narratives show up in queries, clicks, and time on page (not just headlines).

These signals tell us which stories convert attention into demand, and which to retire. We double down on themes that reliably move search and direct traffic after each major hit, so your category story is anchored in the language and behavior of how people are actually hunting for solutions.

5. Credibility Assets That Reduce Purchase Anxiety:

Systematically build and deploy proof so buyers feel safe saying “yes.” That means case studies, customer quotes, benchmarks, and “how we did it” explainers mapped to specific objections and stages of the journey. We measure sales-cycle compression and conversion rate changes when assets are used (on calls, in sequences, on key pages).

6. Channel Fit Equals Market Fit:

Treat channel response as a core part of market fit and not a distribution afterthought. If Segment A reliably moves off podcasts and trade coverage while Segment B only reacts to analyst notes and peer reviews, that’s a signal about how they buy, who they trust, and how considered the purchase is. We track **channel-to-pipeline contribution by segment**—which combinations of channel + message actually generate qualified opportunities, not just impressions.

Common Founder Mistakes (and how to fix them)

Startups often cite failure as “the product wasn’t ready.” In CB Insights’ review of 101 failed startups, 42% said the real reason was “no market need”. In translation: they never got real market signals (just vibes).

1. Mistake #1: “We need more coverage.”

Most founders say, “We need more coverage,” when the real problem is, “We don’t know what’s working.” You don’t need more logos and mentions, you need better signal., or clear proof that the right people are moving closer to a decision – like target buyers booking calls, starting trials, paying you, or forwarding your deck. Noise is what most teams optimize for: likes, “great post!” comments, vanity press, unqualified traffic.

2. Mistake #2: “PR is top-of-funnel only.”

Only if you’re lazy about it. Intentional PR is mid- and bottom-of-funnel: long-form case studies in niche outlets your buyers trust, founder pieces that kill objections, expert commentary that shows up in the research phase. Done right, prospects hit your site already primed and pre-sold.

3. Mistake #3: “We’ll figure it out after launch.”

This is how you donate your runway back to the market. The post-mortems are full of teams that shipped, waited, and “optimized later” until the bank account said otherwise. Treat positioning, narrative, and distribution like features. That means you prototype them, test them, and ship them before launch.

Before you pour more money into paid or start hiring a bigger GTM team, hit pause and run a 30-day PR market validation sprint. For the next 30 days, pick:

• Two segments

• Three core messages

• Two channels

• One strong proof asset (case study, demo video, or teardown)

Treat it like an experiment. Push those messages through those channels to those segments and track only one thing: pipeline signal (qualified replies, trials, deals advancing). If that 30-day sprint doesn’t move signal, then more spend and more headcount definitely won’t.

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BONUS: PR Market Fit Scorecards

Message Resonance

Audience Pull

Conversion Evidence

Proof Readiness

Efficiency (PR CAC)

Wrap-Up

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PR measurement is broken, especially for startups. Most early-stage companies are still reporting metrics designed for Fortune 500 brands with massive budgets, dedicated analytics teams, and years of historical data. Meanwhile, founders are being told their PR is “working” because impressions went up… even when pipeline, hiring, and fundraising haven’t moved an inch.

In 2026, PR measurement must answer a simpler question: Is our visibility helping the business grow, right now and over time?

That requires a different KPI framework—one designed for speed, efficiency, and compounding impact.

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Why PR Metrics Are Different for Startups

Startups operate under constraints that traditional PR measurement ignores: founder time is the most expensive resource, budgets are tight, brand equity is minimal, and runways are short. This makes momentum far more important than perfection. With only about 10% of startups surviving long term, every PR activity must earn its place by driving tangible results, not just visibility (source).

Unlike large companies, startups don’t need hundreds of mentions. They need the right mentions in the right places, seen by buyers, investors, and partners who can actually move the business forward. Increasingly, that also means being surfaced by AI systems that now shape buyer research before any human conversation happens, accelerating the shift away from vanity metrics toward PR measurement tied directly to business impact (source).

Startup PR Red Flags

These metrics often look impressive in PR reports but rarely matter for early-stage startups – where total media impressions only signal reach, not results. What matters is whether press drives signups, demos, or revenue.

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) remains a widely criticized vanity metric with no proven link to trust or buying behavior. Social media follower counts inflate ego, not impact; engagement rate and founder authority are far stronger indicators of influence. Press release distribution volume measures activity, not outcomes. Earned coverage and real journalist relationships are what move the needle. And domain authority, in isolation, is meaningless unless it contributes to organic traffic, AI visibility, or conversions. If a metric doesn’t inform a business decision, it isn’t insight (it’s noise).

Key Principles for Startup PR Measurement

Before diving into KPIs, startups need a clear measurement philosophy. Revenue must outweigh vanity. If a metric doesn’t connect to pipeline, fundraising conversations, or talent acquisition, it shouldn’t be prioritized. Founder time is the real cost center, so measuring cost-per-coverage in hours is often more revealing than tracking spend.

Visibility inside tools like ChatGPT increasingly matters more than a static press page, while the most effective PR programs focus on compounding momentum and not one-off wins. Above all, quality beats quantity: a single article in the right outlet that drives real signups or credibility is more valuable than a flood of press releases that convert nothing.

The 5 PR KPIs That Actually Matter in 2026

1. AI Discoverability Score (ADS)

Most buyers now start with AI search. If ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity don’t mention you, you effectively don’t exist to your next customer. Say you run a startup that helps companies recover data after cyberattacks. A potential buyer opens ChatGPT or Perplexity and asks, “What’s the best way for a small business to recover quickly after ransomware?”

If the AI answers by explaining backups, disaster recovery, and then mentions your product by name (and describes it correctly), you show up in the buyer’s mental shortlist. That’s a problem-to-solution match. If it also says, “According to [Founder Name], CEO of [Your Company]…” or references a quote you’ve published, that’s founder/product mention rate. If the AI correctly explains what you do, who it’s for, and roughly how you’re priced, that’s accuracy. And if someone asks a broader question like “Who are the leading players in cloud backup for SMBs?” and your brand appears alongside others in that category, that’s category association.

If you’re missing from those answers, even if your product is great, the buyer may never know you exist.

2. Earned Media Efficiency Ratio (EMER)

This is helpful if you land a feature in a major tech outlet. Instead of just tracking the clip, you look at what it actually did: did readers click through and request a demo or sign up (press-to-pipeline)? How many total founder and team hours went into earning that coverage (cost per coverage)? Did the traffic from the article convert into real leads (traffic conversion rate)? And when you compare mentions in that outlet to better-funded competitors, how often did your startup show up (share of voice)?

3. Founder Authority Index (FAI)

For an early-stage startup, buyers, candidates, and investors are really betting on the founder. So instead of just posting into the void, you look at whether people actually engage with the founder’s ideas on LinkedIn (engagement rate). You can also track how often journalists, podcasts, or event organizers reach out without being pitched (media invitations). Take notice when the founder gets quoted or referenced as an expert in articles or by peers (expert citations). And watch whether the founder’s name starts popping up organically in newsletters, Slack groups, Discords, Reddit, or niche forums (community influence).

4. Launch Velocity Score (LVS)

A launch only matters if it reaches. So instead of just announcing news, you measure how fast and how far it spreads: how many people saw it in the first 48 hours (reach), how many different platforms picked it up organically (multi-platform spread), and whether the outlets that actually matter to your buyers covered it (Tier 1 pickup rate). High velocity means your launch broke through (not just that it went live).

5. Organic Search Momentum (OSM)

Good PR should make you easier to find over time. After coverage runs, you look for more people searching your brand by name (branded search growth), new high-quality sites linking back to you from earned media (press-driven backlinks), and improved rankings for the category keywords your buyers actually use (keyword movement). And as AI-powered search expands, you also track whether Google’s AI Overviews start mentioning your brand for those searches. If search visibility isn’t improving, your PR isn’t compounding.

Measure What Compounds

Startup PR measurement isn’t about proving activity, it’s about proving momentum. The strongest PR programs show up where buyers (and AI systems) are actually looking. They turn third-party credibility into measurable conversions, and compound authority over time without draining founder bandwidth. If your KPIs don’t help you make faster, smarter decisions (or don’t map directly to growth) they aren’t KPIs at all. They’re distractions.

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In 2025, I crossed my 100th startup client. After 17 years in PR and hundreds of founders, CEOs, and C-suite leaders across consumer and B2B tech, I’ve seen the same mistake at every stage. It’s time to talk about it.

Launching a product? PR gets called weeks before GA, after the story is locked. But PR belongs in the GTM room early, shaping the narrative before competitors do and before hype outpaces credibility.

Seeing growth? Metrics get hidden instead of amplified. Silence feels safe, but it rarely is. Ongoing PR ensures momentum is translated into trust, demand, and long-term brand value.

Raising capital? PR is considered after the round closes, leaving leverage on the table. Involving PR earlier sharpens the investor narrative and sets up a credible, well-timed announcement.

Different moments. Same mistake. PR is treated as a reaction and not a strategy.

23 reasons startups should have PR right now

(This list is organized by the stage of the company)

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Seed Stage: “We need legitimacy.”

Investors and stakeholders increasingly treat media visibility as a legitimacy signal, not just a nice-to-have. According to industry data, pre-Series A startups with consistent press visibility raise 35% more funding than those with no media coverage, underscoring the impact of early external validation on investor confidence and perceived momentum. 

A survey of investor due diligence practices found that 92% of venture capitalists review press coverage when evaluating early-stage companies, meaning startups without media presence risk being overlooked or seen as less credible. 

Companies that delay PR until major milestones often miss the “freshness window” for shaping perception and lose the chance to build narrative momentum when it matters most, resulting in weaker visibility and diluted brand positioning later in their growth journey. 

At the seed stage, you need to focus on your founders, vision, problem framing, POV, and early traction. No one knows or trusts you yet.

Series A: “We need growth and proof.”

Even at Series A, PR isn’t just “nice to have.” It measurably affects growth, trust, and investor confidence.

Startups that invest in media relationships and earned coverage 12–18 months before a Series A raise are shown to be 3× more likely to hit their target funding amount and can see 15–25% higher valuations compared to peers without early PR efforts because they enter the market with established credibility and narrative presence (source).

Favorable media coverage increases brand trust by roughly 35% (source), directly improving buyer confidence and shortening sales cycles. Companies that delay building visibility are more likely to be overlooked in crowded markets, leading to weaker deal flow and slower go-to-market momentum.

At Series A, your PR focus should be on customer stories, category POV, exec visibility, and product credibility. There’s a significant risk for stalling after the first raise, which underscores the need for PR at this stage.

Series B-C: “We need scale and consistency.”

Even as startups scale through Series B and C rounds, strategic PR remains critical to sustained growth, credibility, and market positioning. Consistent media visibility helps companies build brand authority and reinforces customer and investor confidence at a time when scrutiny is rising and competition is fierce.

Research shows that startups with ongoing PR and media engagement that drive third-party recognition are far more likely to remain top of mind with investors, partners, and customers. This is a form of signal bias that venture capitalists and industry decision-makers increasingly use to differentiate crowded fields and surface investment opportunities. 

Startups that delay building these relationships often struggle to gain traction in new markets, lose momentum in hiring and sales conversations, and miss out on credibility signals that reinforce leadership visibility and long-term category relevance.

At this stage, PR should be focused on consistency, scale, credibility, and leadership visibility. You might be dealing with fragmented messaging and rising scrutiny, driving the need for PR.

Series D/Pre-IPO: “We need trust at scale.”

At the Series D and Pre-IPO stage, reputation isn’t just perception; it’s business risk. According to research on investor behavior in public companies, nearly 70% of investors consider media and analyst sentiment when evaluating late-stage and pre-IPO companies. This is because consistent external validation correlates with marketplace trust and perceived governance quality.

Other research shows that firms with established PR and earned media strategies demonstrate up to 30% higher investor engagement and stronger aftermarket valuation performance than peers that delayed narrative and media groundwork, primarily because early visibility builds familiarity and reduces perceived risk at scale.

Companies that postpone PR until late in their lifecycle often face steeper challenges in shaping long-term narrative, aligning internal and external communications, and managing heightened scrutiny from regulators, customers, and analysts.

Typically by pre-IPO or Series D, PR’s focus is on reputation management, consistency, governance, and long-term brand equity. This is when your reputation risk becomes business risk, making PR imperative.

As I’ve said, I’ve seen the same mistake over and over: PR is treated as something you turn on when you’re already under pressure. A launch is coming. Growth is slowing. A round is closing. Scrutiny is rising.

Then PR gets the call.

But PR doesn’t work on demand. It compounds. The companies that scale well don’t wait until they “need” PR. They build it early, use it consistently, and let credibility, relationships, and trust accumulate over time. Once you need PR urgently, you’ve already lost leverage.

Waiting isn’t neutral. It lets competitors define the narrative, investors meet you without context, and sales fight skepticism that didn’t have to exist. Your story forms either way — the only question is whether you shaped it.

For all of the execs out there waiting until the last minute to loop in PR support, or until you “need” PR, you’re already reacting instead of leading.

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In the previous post in this series on PR measurement, I outlined the first five core KPIs every tech startup should track to determine whether its earned media strategy is working. Those metrics, including share of voice, message penetration, sentiment, coverage quality, and volume, form the baseline most modern PR teams operate from today.

But they’re only half the picture.

If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that visibility alone is no longer a sufficient measure of PR success. Coverage doesn’t live and die on the publication page anymore. It moves – across websites, social platforms, investor decks, sales conversations, hiring pipelines, and analyst reports.

To understand whether PR is truly contributing to business momentum, teams need to look beyond coverage itself and measure what happens after the story runs.

Below are the next five KPIs that complete a modern, outcome-driven PR measurement framework. Together with the first five, they provide a practical baseline for assessing real PR impact in 2025 and beyond.

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Warning: This post was developed using AI, with significant human oversight.

I recently posted a short video on LinkedIn meant to show my growth over the past year. What surprised me wasn’t the response to the message; it was the response to the mechanics.

Because the LinkedIn algorithm sucks, this post only saw 133 impressions over the course of a week. It reached only 64 members despite my small group of 2,830 followers.

One person’s comment (of two comments), in particular, got my attention. A former colleague, Nick Brackney, now an AI evangelist at Dell, reached out after seeing it:

“You should write about this. What did you use to build the video? You’re one of the few professionals I see really leaning into AI tooling to make yourself look better — and it works. People should learn how to do this.”

So here it is: This story (and LinkedIn video) wasn’t the result of a prompt, which is what most people think of when we say “AI.”

There was no moment where I typed “make me a viral LinkedIn video” and waited for magic. Instead, I started with real data, applied human judgment, and used AI tools to dramatically compress the time it took to turn insight into content. AI didn’t create the story, but it sure helped me see it faster and execute it better.

LinkedIn Analytics → Google Sheets

I exported a full year of LinkedIn analytics and cleaned the data in Google Sheets.

The goal wasn’t to showcase growth or vanity metrics. My engagement was modest. Impressions weren’t explosive. But lead generation? Very strong. As I mentioned in the original post, a large majority of my business leads in 2025 came directly from LinkedIn referrals.

Once the data was organized and appropriately visualized, the story became obvious. That part still requires judgment. AI can help summarize or analyze, but deciding what actually matters to the business is real human work. And for me, that meant leads and not eyeballs on my post.

What’s worth noting is that AI influenced every piece of content I published in 2025 in some way. It was a personal goal of mine to launch my Substack in late 2024. AI is a massive part of my 5-year business plan and growth, too.

In 2025, I used AI to:

• Fine-tune and edit my writing.

• Brainstorm Substack headlines that later became LinkedIn posts.

• Create simple, compelling graphics.

• Learn, create, and launch my first freelancer website, www.lindsbcomms.com.

• Radically reduce the time it takes to find and organize LinkedIn profiles – for example, the top 50 reporters I wanted to build relationships with in 2025.

That last one matters more than it sounds. AI didn’t replace relationship-building. It removed the busywork so I could spend my time engaging with people instead of searching for links. Organizing the right components of a pitch and making sure my story makes sense in a unique (but straightforward) way.

In a world where AI is driving the cost of content creation toward zero and threatening to replace us all, the real pros who survive won’t be the ones producing the most content. They’ll be the ones who use AI to build effective channels, repeatable processes, and work that clearly impacts the bottom line.

For example, I use AI-generated comic-book-style graphics on my website. It’s more of a science experiment than a formal strategy, but I like it because it reflects my personal style: practical, slightly unconventional, and focused on efficiency.

Canva AI as an Accelerator

For the video itself, I used Canva’s AI-assisted search to quickly find a template that matched the tone I wanted (“social media celebration” was close enough). From there:

• I wrote every word.

• Each slide is mapped to a specific data point.

• AI handled layout, pacing, and formatting.

• One of the video elements was created using Canva’s AI tools.

This is what I mean by acceleration. AI didn’t replace my thinking; it removed friction.

A Side Note on AI and Writing

While I wrote the LinkedIn post 100%, that was a deliberate choice. To be clear, AI plays a role in about 95% of my writing process overall. But how I use it depends entirely on the audience and the context.

• Pitches: No AI. I want to build authentic relationships in the most human way I can in a digital world.

• Client emails: Sometimes. Authenticity matters, but I often use AI to generate a clean TL;DR.

• Press release first drafts: Absolutely, with significant human oversight. Drafting is table stakes; strategy and individualized story pitching are where PR pros add value.

• SEO headlines, AP-style edits, publication-specific tuning: 100% yes. AI is incredibly effective here.

My Actual Take on Using AI for Content

Here’s the advice I give professionals who want to “use AI” but don’t know where to start: Start with the tools you already use regularly.

Most of the tools you use every day already include AI features or agents, such as design platforms, analytics dashboards, and productivity software. I have Slack summaries, don’t you?

You can learn a lot about how these systems can help you before jumping into advanced LLM workflows. Once you understand how AI supports your thinking (rather than replacing it), experimenting with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity becomes far more intuitive – especially as they increasingly integrate directly into existing stacks.

For example, I use AI-generated visuals using WordPress’s AI image tool on my website instead of stock photography. They’re faster, more specific to my needs, and far less generic. AI didn’t do my job for me, but it dramatically compressed time (and cost).

As a freelancer, I use ChatGPT like a sidekick. I’m constantly asking questions about how my work could be clearer, sharper, or more effective. Not replacement, but acceleration.

Finally, because I’m all about DIY PR here, I offer my fellow professionals the following practical AI tips –especially if you’re just getting started.

10 Practical AI Tips

1. AI is most useful once you know what you’re trying to fix or speed up.

2. If you wouldn’t delegate it to a junior teammate, don’t delegate it to AI.

3. Use AI to eliminate friction, not responsibility.

4. AI is best after the first draft.

5. Speed is the real advantage (quality still requires humans).

6. Let AI handle formatting, organizing, and summarizing. Keep decisions for yourself.

7. If the output feels generic, it probably is.

8. AI shouldn’t make your work louder (just clearer).

9. Use AI where mistakes are cheap.

10. Your voice is the differentiator.

I’d love to hear how other professionals plan to use (or not use) AI in 2026! Leave a comment!

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Why Do Execs Wait Too Long to Use PR?

In 2025, I crossed the 100th startup client milestone. After 17 years in PR and hundreds of founders, CEOs, and C-suite leaders across consumer and B2B tech, I’ve seen the same mistake at every stage. It’s time to talk about it.

Launching a product? PR gets called weeks before GA, after the story is locked. But PR belongs in the GTM room early, shaping the narrative before competitors do and before hype outpaces credibility.

Seeing growth? Metrics get hidden instead of amplified. Silence feels safe, but it rarely is. Ongoing PR ensures momentum is translated into trust, demand, and long-term brand value.

Raising capital? PR is considered after the round closes, leaving leverage on the table. Involving PR earlier sharpens the investor narrative and sets up a credible, well-timed announcement.

Different moments. Same mistake. PR is treated as a reaction and not a strategy.

23 reasons startups should have PR right now 

(This list is organized by stage of company) 

Seed Stage: “We need legitimacy.”

Investors and stakeholders increasingly treat media visibility as a legitimacy signal, not just a nice-to-have. According to industry data, pre-Series A startups with consistent press visibility have been shown to raise 35% more in funding than those with no media coverage, signaling the impact of early external validation on investor confidence and perceived momentum.  

A survey of investor due diligence practices found that 92% of venture capitalists review press coverage when evaluating early-stage companies, meaning startups without media presence risk being overlooked or seen as less credible.  

Companies that delay PR until major milestones often miss the “freshness window” for shaping perception and lose the chance to build narrative momentum when it matters most, resulting in weaker visibility and diluted brand positioning later in their growth journey. 

At Seed Stage, you need to focus on your founders, vision, problem framing, POV, and early traction. No one knows or trusts you yet. 

Series A: “We need growth and proof.”

Even at Series A, PR isn’t just “nice to have.” It measurably affects growth, trust, and investor confidence. 

Startups that invest in media relationships and earned coverage 12–18 months before a Series A raise are shown to be 3× more likely to hit their target funding amount and can see 15–25% higher valuations compared to peers without early PR efforts because they enter the market with established credibility and narrative presence (source). 

Positive media coverage increases brand trust by roughly 35% (source), directly improving buyer confidence and shortening sales cycles. Companies that delay building visibility are more likely to be overlooked in crowded markets, leading to weaker deal flow and slower go-to-market momentum.

At Series A, your PR focus should be on customer stories, category POV, exec visibility, and product credibility. There’s significant risk for stalling after the first raise, which underscores the need for PR at this stage. 

Series B-C: “We need scale and consistency.”

Even as startups scale through Series B and C, strategic PR remains critical for sustained growth, credibility, and market positioning. Consistent media visibility helps companies build brand authority and reinforces customer and investor confidence at a time when scrutiny is rising and competition is fierce. 

Research shows that startups with ongoing PR and media engagement that drive third-party recognition are far more likely to remain top-of-mind with investors, partners, and customers. This is a form of signal bias that venture capitalists and industry decision-makers increasingly use to differentiate crowded fields and surface investment opportunities. 

Startups that delay building these relationships often struggle to gain traction in new markets, lose momentum in hiring and sales conversations, and miss out on credibility signals that reinforce leadership visibility and long-term category relevance.

At this stage, PR should be focused on consistency, scale, credibility, and leadership visibility. You might be dealing with fragmented messaging and rising scrutiny, driving the need for PR. 

Series D/Pre-IPO: “We need trust at scale.”

At the Series D and Pre-IPO stage, reputation isn’t just perception, it’s business risk. According to research on public company investor behavior, nearly 70% of investors consider media and analyst sentiment when evaluating late-stage and pre-IPO companies. This is because consistent external validation correlates with marketplace trust and perceived governance quality. 

Other research shows firms with established PR and earned media strategies demonstrate up to 30 % higher investor engagement and stronger aftermarket valuation performance compared with peers that delayed narrative and media groundwork, largely because early visibility builds familiarity and reduces perceived risk at scale. 

Companies that postpone PR until late in their lifecycle often face steeper challenges in shaping long-term narrative, aligning internal and external communications, and managing heightened scrutiny from regulators, customers, and analysts. 

Typically by pre-IPO or Series D, PR’s focus is on reputation management, consistency, governance, and long-term brand equity. This is when your reputation risk becomes business risk, making PR imperative. 

Like I’ve said, I’ve seen the same mistake over and over: PR is treated as something you turn on when you’re already under pressure. A launch is coming. Growth is slowing. A round is closing. Scrutiny is rising.

Then PR gets the call. 

But PR doesn’t work on demand. It compounds. The companies that scale well don’t wait until they “need” PR. They build it early, use it consistently, and let credibility, relationships, and trust accumulate over time. Once you need PR urgently, you’ve already lost leverage.

Waiting isn’t neutral. It lets competitors define the narrative, investors meet you without context, and sales fight skepticism that didn’t have to exist. Your story forms either way — the only question is whether you shaped it.

For all of the execs out there waiting until the last minute to loop in PR support, or until you “need” PR, you’re already reacting instead of leading.

Before diving into the KPIs every tech startup should track, it’s worth grounding ourselves in how we got here. In my first post in this series, I discussed our upcoming posts on PR measurement and how it’s evolved from success defined by clip counts and impressions to one characterized by context and impact.

But today, especially in tech, that shift matters more than ever. Startups don’t just need coverage; they need coverage that changes people’s behaviors, shapes markets, fuels growth, and aligns with business outcomes. Which brings us to the next part of the conversation: the 10 core KPIs every tech startup should use to understand whether their earned media strategy is actually working.

First, you have to start from the beginning to understand where we’re at today.

From AVE to Barcelona: A brief history of PR measurement

For decades, PR measurement died on the hill of narrowly set, legacy KPIs and metrics that changed very little over time. These “old-school” measures focused almost exclusively on outputs, including:

KPI: Coverage

• Metric: Counting clips

• Metric: Tallying potential impressions

• Metric: Tracking circulation or audience numbers

A particularly influential metric was Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE), which attempted to assign a dollar value to earned media by comparing it to the cost of equivalent advertising space or airtime. These approaches treated earned media as a proxy for paid advertising, focusing on column inches, airtime length, or estimated audience size.

Story counts, potential reach, and AVE are still used to measure PR today, despite AVE being heavily criticized as misleading and disconnected mainly from real business impact. In fact, the AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) explains that AVEs only measure media space cost and recently launched a “Say No to AVEs” campaign.

As journalism shifted from print to digital, and traditional news economics began a long decline, these metrics became even less effective. Digital advertising impressions were commoditized, affiliate models rose, and SEO began to reshape how content was discovered and valued. PR had to evolve alongside these changes.

From 2000-2020, U.S. newspaper weekday circulation dropped from 55.8 million to 24.2 million. Over the same period, newspaper-publisher revenue dropped by ~52 % (from ≈ $46.2 b billion in 2002 to ≈ $22.1 b billion in 2020). See “Internet Crushes Traditional Media: From Print to Digital” by US Census Bureau.

Another study found that in the U.S., employment in newspaper newsrooms was only ~40% of its 2006 level by 2020, while newspaper advertising revenue was only ~18% of its 2006 level. Researchers found that a print-edition newspaper’s advertising revenue decline was closely tied to the growth of digital platforms (e.g., Google/Facebook) which diluted pricing power for newspapers (Source).

The Barcelona Principles and the shift to outcomes

Around the 2010s, particularly following the introduction of the Barcelona Principles in 2010, PR measurement began moving from counting outputs to evaluating outcomes and impact. Modern frameworks started incorporating:

• KPI: Sentiment

• KPI: Message penetration/key message pull-through

• KPI: Quality of coverage/prominence

• KPI: Share of voice

• KPI: Digital engagement

• KPI: Referral traffic and behavior

• KPI: Business indicators, such as pipeline influence, hiring impact, or reputation lift

This shift from quantity to quality, and from impressions to impact, anchored a more strategic view of PR: that the function’s value lies not in how many articles are secured but in whether the right narratives land, shape perceptions, and support long-term business and reputation goals.

This historical progression sets the stage for the KPI framework many tech-focused PR programs use today.

Start with 5 core KPIs for tech startups and earned media

(Hopefully you’re already tracking these)

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Welcome (back) to Off The Record. Today marks my first-ever paid post. Will you help me be a paid writer? After launching my Substack just a year ago, I now have just under 100 free subscribers. I’m so happy you’re here, and I’m proud of our accomplishments in 2025, because I have no idea what I’m doing (don’t tell anyone).

As an AuDHD, I’m more of a “what’s next” kind of person. I’d rather launch a business than fold my laundry, ya know?

But I have learned a ton that I need to adjust for in 2026. I’ve been very reflective lately; ‘tis the season.

But reflective thinking got me deep down the path of everyone’s favorite (and least favorite) topic – well, topics: AI/GEO (fav) and PR measurement (least fav). So that’s where I’m starting for my next 12-month Substack year, and my paid content. I promise to make your subscription ($$ or not) worth it – and if you disagree, please share your feedback and suggestions!

On to today’s topic and a foreshadowing of the upcoming series:

GEO, AI, and the New Rules of Measuring PR Results in 2026

I want to offer all of my subscribers at least a sneak peek before I kick off this multi-post series, with weekly posts all of December and January on PR KPIs and metrics in 2026, including top (mostly free) AI tools.

Which is where I’ll start for my free subscribers!

GEO: The new elephant in the room

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is emerging as a critical counterpart to traditional SEO. 67% of organizations worldwide have adopted large language models (LLMs) for their operations as of 2025 (Source), with the global LLM market forecasted to reach ~US$82.1 billion by 2033. In another dataset, 63% of marketers reported prioritizing generative search optimization (GEO) in their 2024–25 content strategies (Source).

GEO focuses on how brands appear inside AI-driven “answer engines” – with the most popular LLMS including:

These tools increasingly act as gatekeepers of information. If a brand does not appear in their responses—or appears inaccurately—it is already losing ground. GEO is already becoming a core dimension of PR and communications strategy, directly affecting how prospects, journalists, analysts, and other stakeholders encounter a brand for the first time.

LLM adoption and GEO strategies are now the norm:

• E-commerce sites reported a 22% drop in search traffic due to AI-generated suggestions instead of traditional search clicks (Source).

• AI-generated answers (“zero-click”) now dominate more search/answer experiences, making traditional SEO alone insufficient (Source).

One guide even states that brands can boost “brand citations” in AI-search by over 150% through GEO strategies (Source).

So how can you be successful with GEO strategies in 2025, and what should you measure?

You’re going to need to subscribe 🙂

Why I’m starting 2026 (early) with PR measurement

Again, ‘tis the (reporting) season.

This PR Measurement series examines where PR KPI and metrics come from, the top KPIs that still matter, and how AI and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are reshaping what should be tracked in 2026 and beyond.

As annual planning cycles converge, clients are finalizing budgets while PR teams are closing out YTD coverage reports. But while many PRos (PR pros) have grown accustomed to inbound questions about how to measure public relations (PR), it’s still a common struggle to quantify and report in a way business leaders understand: KPIs (and metrics).

According to an Institute for PR survey, 89% of PRos said measurement was used to demonstrate impact to leadership or clients – indicating that client/leadership demand for measurable PR results is very high.

But in the same study, 85% of PRos track number of stories placed, 76% track reach/impressions, and 46% track website impact, an implication that traditional output metrics (clips, reach) remain common, even though their business relevance is increasingly questioned.

At the same time, the PR landscape is undergoing another fundamental shift as generative AI and large language models (LLMs) become de facto “gatekeepers” of information. Tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity now shape how stakeholders search, learn, and decide. Yet many organizations continue to measure PR with frameworks designed for a pre-digital, pre-AI era. Here are some figures on AI (LLM) adoption:

GPT: ChatGPT has around 800 million weekly active users in 2025, double the number from February 2025, and processing approximately 2.5 billion user prompts per day worldwide (Source).

Gemini: Google Gemini (formerly Bard) had over 82 million active users monthly as of Q2 2025 and powers about 21% of global generative-AI search interactions (Source).

Claude: Claude AI saw its traffic grow by +620% year-over-year (2023→2025), reaching ~38 million monthly visits in early 2025 (Source).

Perplexity: Perplexity AI handles more than 780 million search queries per month in 2025 and is used in 238 countries. Perplexity supports 46 languages and counts over 22 million monthly active users in 2025 (Source).

Tackling 2026 PR measurement: In the upcoming series, you’ll get…

1. 10 core KPIs for tech startups and earned media

2. KPIs as a strategic mindset: What stays in 2026 and what goes

3. Ten best practices for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

4. Top 10 KPIs in 2026, including:

   1. Modernizing 4 non-negotiable KPIs with AI

   2. 3 evolving KPIs that stay in the mix

   3. 3 New KPIs for 2026

5. The Best (Free) AI tools to power these KPIs in 2026

As a teaser, here’s how you can start tracking SOV with AI now:

AI Tools for Share of Voice (SoV)

Measuring competitive visibility, category conversation share, AI-driven search results. Best free tools:

• Perplexity AI (Free): Great for quick competitive snapshots, “who’s being cited,” and AI-overview comparisons.

• Google Trends (Free): Ideal for branded search volume, category query patterns, and demand shifts tied to earned media.

• Feedly AI (Free tier): Monitors competitor narratives and emerging topics across media + blogs.

MuckRack Alerts (Free tier): Simple, real-time mention tracking for competitor names, execs, and category keywords.

Okay, okay, one more teaser.

10 best practices for GEO, and how to use AI

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