In the high-stakes world of B2B technology, public relations is no longer about vanity metrics or simple brand awareness. It’s about measurable impact—building market credibility, driving stakeholder interest, and supporting business growth. But how do you know if your PR agency is delivering real results?

One of the most common concerns we hear from executives is, “I’m tired of vanity metrics that don’t move the business.” That’s why it’s critical to hold your agency accountable with data that connects B2B tech PR metrics to strategic outcomes.

This blog post outlines the key B2B tech PR metrics your agency should be tracking, grounded in industry best practices and aligned with executive priorities. Whether you’re a CEO seeking clarity, a CMO pushing for ROI, or a VP of PR responsible for agency oversight, you’ll learn how to use these B2B tech PR metrics to evaluate your PR investment with confidence.

1. Share of Voice (SOV)

What it measures: Your brand’s media presence relative to competitors.

Share of Voice is foundational to B2B tech PR metrics because it shows how prominently your brand features in industry coverage compared to competitors. It’s based on media coverage volume, impressions, and share of mentions across key outlets. Tracking it over time reveals whether you’re gaining visibility or being outpaced.

Your agency should go further by tracking Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) visibility—your brand’s presence in AI-generated content—to ensure relevance in new discovery platforms. “We aren’t tracking AI visibility and that feels risky.” If that resonates, it’s time to raise the bar on measurement.

2. Unique Monthly Visitors (UMVs)

What it measures: The audience size of the publications where your brand is featured.

Unique Monthly Visitors represent how many people could see your media coverage based on a publication’s monthly web traffic. High UMVs signal broader reach but don’t equate to engagement on their own. That’s why this metric should be used in tandem with Referral Traffic, time-on-site, and conversion rates to understand actual impact.

Executives often ask: “What B2B tech PR metrics do VPs of PR need to report?” UMVs are one but not the only one. They’re an important input for evaluating visibility, but shouldn’t stand alone in assessing influence or ROI.

3. Ad Value Equivalency

What it measures: The estimated cost of buying equivalent advertising space.

Ad Value Equivalency (AVE) translates earned media into a dollar amount by estimating the cost of equivalent paid placements. While widely used in B2B tech PR metrics, AVE alone does not prove PR success. It doesn’t capture sentiment, audience quality, or alignment with messaging.

Your agency should use a consistent, industry-standard algorithm to calculate Media Value and clearly communicate what it means—and what it doesn’t. Why does AVE alone not prove PR success? Because PR’s value isn’t just volume; it’s influence. AVE can be useful as part of a broader PR scorecard, but should never be your only measure.

4. Publicity Value (PR Value)

What it measures: A weighted assessment of a placement’s tone, credibility, and alignment.

Publicity Value goes beyond AVE by incorporating sentiment, outlet tier, and message alignment. This makes it a far more strategic tool for use in B2B tech PR metrics. If you’ve thought, “Our coverage reads neutral, it’s not aligned with our message,” you need to be tracking this metric.

Your PR agency should use reputable platforms to calculate PR Value in a standardized way. It’s also a key tool for understanding whether your media wins are supporting brand positioning or just filling column inches.

5. Social Share Count

What it measures: How many times your coverage is shared on platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

A high Social Share Count reflects resonance—it means your content is being seen, validated, and passed along by people who matter. In B2B tech, this includes peers, analysts, and prospective customers. If your media placements aren’t getting shared, it may signal a lack of relevance or urgency.

Agencies should analyze which topics or outlets consistently perform well socially. This insight informs both media targeting and thought leadership strategy. If you’re wondering, “How do I track AI-driven brand visibility?”—start by pairing social metrics with AEO Visibility to capture both human and AI engagement trends.

6. Direct Web Traffic from Editorial Placements

What it measures: The number of visitors who click through to your site from earned media.

This is one of the clearest B2B tech PR metrics that indicates that PR is generating action, not just awareness. If you’re thinking, “We don’t know if PR is driving actual stakeholder interest,” this metric helps answer that. High-performing placements should drive real traffic, not just high UMVs.

Your agency should use UTM-tagged links or referral tracking to measure this impact. For B2B tech companies with long sales cycles, even a small boost in traffic from the right outlet can be the difference between invisibility and pipeline movement. PR that drives interest is PR that performs.

7. Referral Traffic (Direct and Indirect)

What it measures: Website visits from third-party media sources, both immediate and long-term.

Referral Traffic shows how earned media continues to add value over time, especially when stories are syndicated, cited, or picked up by aggregators. This traffic may not spike immediately, but it adds up over weeks and months.

If your agency’s B2B tech PR metrics aren’t reporting on this, you’re missing part of the attribution picture. It’s a vital link between PR coverage and digital marketing outcomes, and it strengthens your case for media placement ROI and pipeline attribution.

8. Anecdotal Evidence and Qualitative Feedback

What it measures: Stakeholder reactions that reflect brand impact, such as client comments, investor references, or analyst mentions.

While not always measurable in a dashboard, qualitative feedback is often the most strategic signal of all. When an investor says “I saw your CEO quoted in Forbes,” or a prospect references a media article in a sales call, that’s influence in action.

These stories help fill the gaps between numbers and outcomes, and they’re often what senior leaders remember. Your agency should proactively surface this type of feedback and pair it with hard B2B tech PR metrics for a complete performance view.

9. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Visibility

What it measures: Your brand’s presence in AI-generated responses from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

As generative AI changes how buyers and influencers discover information, your PR strategy must evolve. AEO Visibility reflects whether your brand appears in AI-generated answers, and if the information cited is accurate and favorable.

How do I track AI‑driven brand visibility? Start by auditing generative search platforms for brand mentions and evaluating whether your media content is informing those responses. If your brand isn’t showing up in these engines, you’re invisible to a fast-growing class of decision-makers. Your agency should be monitoring and optimizing for this new frontier.

Final Thoughts

“We can’t link PR to pipeline or revenue.” This pain point is more common than it should be. If your PR agency isn’t tracking meaningful B2B tech PR metrics, or can’t articulate how those metrics support business goals, it’s time to re-evaluate.

The best agencies use a balanced approach: Share of Voice, Publicity Value, Social Share Count, Referral Traffic, AEO Visibility, and more—all tied to real business outcomes like pipeline attribution and Media placement ROI.

PR isn’t about impressions. It’s about impact. And that starts with measuring what matters.

Key Takeaways

• Visibility That Speaks Volumes: Share of Voice and AEO Visibility aren’t just buzzwords—they reveal how often your brand is mentioned in media and AI-generated content compared to competitors, ensuring you’re part of the conversation that matters.
  
• Reach Isn’t Enough: Unique Monthly Visitors (UMVs) show potential exposure, but without tracking referral traffic and engagement, you’re only seeing the tip of the impact iceberg.
  
• Dollars Don’t Tell the Whole Story: Ad Value Equivalency (AVE) can put a price tag on coverage, but it can’t measure credibility or message alignment—making Publicity Value a smarter, more strategic metric.
  
• Clicks That Count: Measuring direct and referral traffic from earned media proves whether your PR is prompting real action from readers—not just views, but visits that can lead to revenue.
  
• When AI and Humans Agree: Anecdotal wins like investor mentions and analyst quotes, combined with AEO visibility in tools like ChatGPT, show your message is landing with both people and machines.

Ready to Measure What Matters?

If you’re rethinking how your PR performance is tracked—or realizing your current agency isn’t connecting the dots between visibility and business impact—Gabriel Marketing Group can help. We specialize in results-driven PR for B2B tech companies, with a measurement framework that goes beyond vanity metrics to show real influence, engagement, and ROI.

Let’s talk about how we can elevate your brand and your bottom line.

Schedule a consultation with us today!

About the author: Leah Nurik is founder and CEO of Gabriel Marketing Group, a top B2B tech public relations firm specializing in strategic communications and media visibility for high-growth technology companies.