In December, Walmart’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs Dan Bartlett asked, “Is the [comms] function tolerated or valued?” His question captures the common challenge of getting C-suite buy-in and support for communications as a strategic business function that is integral to organizational success.
As part of proving the value of communications, it is essential to establish a key performance indicator (KPI) framework that reflects both the tactical and strategic nature of the day-to-day work, while validating the mere existence of the communications function vis-à-vis broader organizational objectives. Sure, you are posting to social media platforms and pitching media outlets. But why are you spending time and resources on these tactics, and how do they help drive broader organizational objectives? That is the ultimate question that an effective KPIs framework should answer.
In a 2025 PRWeek/Cision study, 37% of senior communications professionals identified the inability to measure impact as a top-three challenge, often related to cascading issues of difficulties in securing appropriate budgets (34%), making the case for better tools (27%) and proving value to get C-suite buy-in (18%). Without effective measurement, the communication function’s influence is undermined, undervalued and overlooked.
At the same time, in a 2022 survey conducted by APCO in collaboration with Page Society, 81% of communications executives identified building and protecting reputation as their most important communications goal. If protecting reputation is the North Star for a communications team, should they be measuring impact—or just activities? In reality, the answer is “both.” To prove value, we need to measure what matters: perception change, behavior influence and business outcomes—not just clips and impressions. However, if you are not tracking metrics related to the specific tactics and activations underpinning your comms strategy, you won’t know what actually created impact—whether positive or negative.
As such, below are some of our best practice recommendations and principles for developing a communications KPI framework:
1. Start by setting clear goals. Goals are the backbone of effective communications planning, measurement and evaluation. Having clear objectives from day one will help ensure that the rest of your strategy—including tactics—directly ladder up to achieving these goals. Even if your goal is long-term and its success will not be immediately evident, interim evaluation and consistent tracking will indicate if you are moving in the right direction or need to course correct.
2. Be outcome oriented. Focusing on changes in audience knowledge, attitudes and behaviors will help capture the influence of your work and should be directly linked to broader business or organizational goals. Creating this visible connection between communications work and the impact on broader objectives is an essential component of positioning the function as a strategic business unit that delivers concrete value to the business.
3. Apply the “So What” test. Every metric you identify and track should answer “Will this lead to the outcome we want?” (Hence the clear goals you have already set in #1!). If a metric doesn’t connect to the objectives, it is measuring the wrong activity and should be adjusted to reflect the work being done.
4. Learn and adapt. Effective measurement enables continuous improvement. Regular analysis should reveal what’s working, what needs to be refined and how resources are best allocated. Whether daily, weekly or monthly, this approach helps avoid unpleasant surprises, which most communications teams already see enough of.
5. Clarify, don’t complicate. Measurement and tracking should simplify insights, not overwhelm in data. Identify strategic metrics that truly matter and capture the value of the work without getting bogged down in granular metrics that don’t tell the full story of the impact created. For example, tracking impressions and clicks will tell you if you got your content in front of the right audience and how that group engaged with it. Measuring share rates will create insights on third-party validation.
Given the creative nature of communications work, creating the right KPIs framework for you and your team will be an art, not a science, that should ultimately reflect the strategic value the communications function serves to achieving broader organizational goals. With that in mind, measuring your success should never be an afterthought. And when it’s not an afterthought, you and your team will be valued, not just tolerated.
