Measuring Public Affairs Success: Key Metrics and Limitations
After speaking at three events in one week on this subject I wanted to share some reflections – given how important this topic is. As Public Affairs professionals, demonstrating the impact of our work is essential for guiding strategic decision-making and showcasing value to our organizations. It is what we strive to deliver after all – success. But how do we accurately measure and communicate success, and what are the limitations we need to consider? From the last week I can summarize that across NGOs, Corporates and Associations we are broadly all doing the same things (albeit using different words) and struggling with the same things. It is also clear that we need to get the right balance of qualitative and quantitative to reflect the nature of the work we do. A useful framework to start is to think of the separation between the ‘WHAT’ (the outcome we are working towards) and the ‘HOW’ (our tactics). Here I am talking critically about the WHAT as this is the foundation. So;
These are the most solid (and common) metrics for measuring (the WHAT) in Public Affairs success:
👍 Did you meet your objectives and KPIs – clearly depends on how well the objectives are written
👍 Internal Stakeholder satisfaction (survey) – very useful to gauge your internal support / understanding / expectations
👍 Legislative Wins / Losses – a relatively easy top line tracker of what you managed to achieve
👍 Costs reduced / avoided ($) – useful mostly for Corporates (with some caveats)
👍 Revenue generated ($) – (very) useful mostly for Corporates (with some caveats)
👍 Media Coverage and Sentiment Analysis – depends on a good baseline and follow-up
👍 External Stakeholder Satisfaction / Views (surveys) – again needs a baseline
👍 General Public Perception / Attitude (surveys) – again needs a baseline
👍 Return on Investment calculation ($) – a very powerful measurement (Corporates again)
And here are some of the limitations:
🚫 Attribution Challenges – who actually achieved what
🚫 Long-Term Impact – some changes take time to materialize so how do you message/manage this
🚫 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Measures – data is needed but so too are anecdotes and stories
🚫 External Factors – Public Affairs work can be impacted (blindsided) by any number of developments. You get the HOW right but not get the WHAT (more on this in another post)
🚫 Subjectivity – Some of the metrics above (perception / sentiment) can be very subjective
🚫 Not one size fits all – Some metrics are better for Corporates and others for Trade Associations and others for NGOs. And everything needs to work for/in your organisation
I am pleased that so many people attended the events in the last week and engaged in what is an almost existential discussion for Public Affairs. We simply need to be much better at defining and articulating what success looks like and then measuring if we achieved it or not.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
