Communications measurement is one of the areas where there’s the biggest gap between what gets measured and what actually matters. Reach and impressions are easy to count but often mean very little. Behaviour change, attitude shift, and decision-making influence are harder to measure but far more useful. Here’s a practical approach to getting the balance right.
Start with what success looks like
Before you plan any measurement, ask: what is this communications work trying to achieve? What would be different if it worked? The answer to those questions defines what you should be measuring — not what’s easy to count, but what indicates that the work is having its intended effect.
The three levels of measurement
Outputs: what you produced — content published, coverage achieved, posts sent. Easy to count, limited in value on their own.
Outtakes: what audiences did with it — shares, clicks, sign-ups, attendance. More indicative of engagement but still not the full picture.
Outcomes: what changed — awareness, understanding, attitude, behaviour. These are the measures that actually demonstrate impact, and the ones most worth investing in tracking.
Practical tools
Surveys (before and after) measure attitude and awareness change. Stakeholder interviews track qualitative shifts. Behavioural data — website conversions, event attendance, policy sign-offs — captures action. You don’t need all of these; pick the tools that match the scale of the work and the questions you’re trying to answer.
Report honestly
If something didn’t work, say so and explain what you’d do differently. Honest evaluation builds more trust than a report that cherry-picks the good numbers. It also makes you more useful — clients can act on honest findings; they can’t act on spin.
The measurement framework template below helps you build an evaluation framework that maps outputs, outtakes, and outcomes for any comms project.