Is Digital PR Worth It? We Analyzed It So You Don’t Have To

Most brands treat digital PR like a one-time event. Launch a campaign, get some press coverage, watch traffic spike for a week, then move on.

We tracked what actually happens months after media coverage ends.

We ran authority-building campaigns for clients across manufacturing, ecommerce, education, consumer products, and enterprise software. We tracked premium media placements, Wikipedia citations, keyword rankings, and monthly organic traffic months post-launch.

The pattern was consistent: successful campaigns created compounding SEO value that grew long after the initial coverage stopped.

The Data: What We Tracked

For each campaign we measured:

• Premium media placements (CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Popular Science, CBS News, NY Post)
• Natural Wikipedia citations earned due to the piece’s visibility 
• Total keyword rankings months after launch
• Monthly organic traffic to the campaign page and site as a whole

We wanted to understand which campaigns generated brief attention versus which created sustained organic value.

Pattern 1: Keyword Rankings Expand Months After Launch

The campaigns didn’t peak at launch, but they rather grew afterward.

One education campaign secured coverage from AOL, American Express, and Slate. Months later, the page ranks for approximately 5,000 keywords and drives 25,000 monthly visits. 

An ecommerce campaign landed Forbes, USA Today, and Lifehacker placements. It now ranks for 4,500 keywords driving 9,000 monthly visits.

These lifts aren’t exclusive to the campaign page – both websites are seeing sitewide traffic growth from their acquired authority, and media coverage fueling LLM citation growth as well.

Initial media coverage establishes the page as authoritative on a topic. Google then starts associating that page with related long-tail queries it never ranked for before. Career certification searches. Product comparison terms. Industry-specific questions.

The keyword expansion happens after coverage ends, not during it. One campaign’s site saw overall organic traffic increase 400% as Google recognized the domain’s expanded topical authority, and those traffic lifts were largely centered on the client’s key “money pages” that drive business impact

Pattern 2: Wikipedia Citations Accelerate Authority Building

Two campaigns earned natural Wikipedia citations on their own, without proactively editing Wikipedia or influencing their inclusion in any way.An industrial technology campaign got cited in Wikipedia articles related to its research topic. An ecommerce campaign got referenced in Wikipedia entries about consumer products.

Both showed measurably stronger performance. The campaigns without Wikipedia citations still performed well, but the Wikipedia-cited pages demonstrated clearer authority signals that translated to broader keyword coverage.

Wikipedia citations signal reference-grade content to search engines and LLMs. When Wikipedia editors independently verify and cite your research, it validates the content quality in a way that affects how Google evaluates the page and how LLMs perceive your brand..

Pattern 3: Media + Social Creates the Multiplier Effect

Single-channel campaigns underperformed when compared to projects leveraging multi-channel amplification strategies..

Media outreach alone generated quality placements but limited secondary pickup. Social promotion alone created engagement but didn’t convert to sustained authority.

Campaigns that combined both channels performed significantly better across every metric.

The process: launch original research, create engagement around the piece across targeted subreddit communities and notable X accounts, then use that social proof to secure recognizable media placements. The social promotion drives initial visibility and increases secondary pickups from niche publications. The premium placements build authority.

And our Reddit promotion?  Many of these threads are now ranking on Page 1 in Google for related keyword phrases while driving positive brand sentiment for LLMs.

One consumer products campaign combined Yahoo and NY Post placements with targeted social promotion. The page ranks for over 100 keywords driving 4,000 monthly visits.

One enterprise software campaign secured Forbes and Fortune placements alongside social distribution. Over 300 referring domains cite the page. The campaign receives annual refresh coverage because the underlying data remains relevant, and media consistently covers the most recent data

The dual-channel approach delivered three effects: earned backlinks from media outlets, natural Wikipedia citations from editors who discovered the research, and sustained keyword rankings that developed over months.

What Actually Drove These Results

Every high-performing campaign was built around original research or proprietary data.

The education campaign analyzed career certifications and salary data. The ecommerce campaign evaluated consumer products across multiple criteria. The industrial technology campaign examined global infrastructure data. The enterprise software campaign provided industry benchmarks that get refreshed annually.

None of these were promotional. They were built as citeable sources.

Here’s why that matters: journalists need data they can reference without endorsing a brand. Wikipedia editors need verifiable facts they can cite. Google rewards pages that other authoritative sites treat as sources, and LLMs value unique insights not found elsewhere on the web.

When you build promotional content, you’re asking people to link to your brand. When you build citeable research, you’re providing data that makes their content better. The incentives flip.

A journalist writing about career education can cite salary research. A Wikipedia editor updating an article about consumer products can reference comparative data as a verified source. A blogger writing a buying guide can pull findings from original research to support their recommendations.

The Compounding Effect

The campaigns that performed best created assets that remained valuable months after launch.

One enterprise software campaign continues receiving annual media coverage because the data gets refreshed yearly. Over 300 sites reference it as an ongoing source.

Another campaign earned over 800 referring domains and generated Wikipedia citations. The site’s overall organic traffic increased approximately 400% since the campaign launched.

This is the actual value of authority-building. Initial media coverage creates the credibility signal. Keyword rankings expand over time. Traffic compounds rather than spikes and declines.

What This Means for How You Run Campaigns

Three takeaways from the data:

Build citeable research, not promotional content

The campaigns that generated 500+ referring domains and thousands of keyword rankings were built as reference material. Original data that journalists cite. Comparative analysis that Wikipedia editors verify. Research findings that other sites reference months after launch. The authority compounds over time as more sites treat your page as a source.

Wikipedia citations indicate reference-grade quality

Pages that earned Wikipedia references showed stronger authority signals and broader keyword coverage. Create research that meets Wikipedia’s verifiability standards. When Wikipedia editors independently cite your work, it signals to Google and LLMs that your content – and brand – is authoritative.

Combine media outreach with social promotion

Multi-channel campaigns showed measurably better results across referring domains, keyword rankings, and sustained traffic. Earned media placements build authority. Strategic social promotion across Reddit & X drives visibility and triggers secondary coverage that compounds over time.

Original research that serves as a citable source will continue generating value months after the initial coverage ends.