Generative AI is completely reshaping PR measurement and many of us aren’t ready for it. Truth be told, many of us weren’t prepared for the shift from media impressions and advertising equivalencies to outcome-based business results. So, going from the number of media placements, impressions, and views to how search generative experience is changing it will be a giant leap.
We now operate in a world where getting that dream placement in The Wall Street Journal might not translate to website traffic, direct engagement, or even visibility in the traditional sense. If users get their information from AI intermediaries rather than source material, how do we track the journey of our work?
This fundamental shift isn’t just forcing us to reconsider how we measure PR success—it’s challenging us to redefine what success looks like in an era where AI stands between our carefully crafted messages and our audiences.
The other day, I watched an Instagram video of a girlfriend on an incredible health journey. She was in the gym and had two aerobic steps about five feet apart. Her task that day was to jump over them.
The video shows how apprehensive she was about it. She would crouch down to jump—and then stand back up and shake her legs. Over and over again, she did that until she decided to make the jumps smaller. She replaced the steps with yoga blocks, ironically unblocking her mental struggle with jumping over them.
That’s how I want you to think about the shift in how you’ll measure your work. You may not be able to clear the aerobic steps completely—and that’s OK! We’ll start with yoga blocks and eventually get you where you need to be.
How AI Search is Changing Measurement
Search Generative Experience from Google, or SGE, is completely transforming how we think about PR measurement. Instead of presenting a list of blue links for users to click through, SGE generates AI-powered answers summarizing content from multiple sources.
I’m sure you’ve seen this when you Google something. You get an answer right at the top of the page, which often provides enough information that you don’t have to visit the original articles.
It’s super easy for Google users, but it creates a dilemma for those of us who have relied on getting people to our website so we can measure their journey. Your brand might be mentioned prominently in AI-generated responses (a win!), but without generating any of the traditional metrics we’ve used to demonstrate success—like website traffic, time on page, or conversion opportunities.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that AI search doesn’t treat all sources equally. The algorithms powering SGE prioritize sources with high authority and credibility—making the reputation-building aspect of PR more critical than ever.
We’ve talked a ton about the E-E-A-T guidelines from Google (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust), which have become fundamental to whether or not your content gets surfaced in AI-generated responses.
I talked with a frustrated client last week because their competitor consistently appears in SGE summaries while theirs doesn’t. The difference is that their competitor has spent years building industry authority through original research, expert commentary, and consistent thought leadership. The AI recognized this pattern of expertise and deemed their content more worthy of inclusion.
(As an aside, we’ve been trying to get this client to do thought leadership for years. This may finally be the tipping point! Fingers crossed!)
Here is the yoga block you’ll jump over right now: shift your focus from quantity metrics (more placements! more impressions!) to quality indicators demonstrating credibility and expertise.
This means prioritizing expert-driven content, building genuine authority in your space, and creating valuable resources that AI systems want to reference.
If AI is becoming the new gatekeeper between your brand and your audience, your job is to become the source that AI can’t help but recommend.
That’s a significant shift from traditional PR measurement—but one that aligns more closely with what PR has always been about at its core: building credibility and trust.
The Death of Media Impressions
Media impressions have been on life support for a while now (and if you’re still using advertising equivalencies, we need to have a serious talk!). I’ve been saying for years that they’re a vanity metric—because it is not physically possible for 400 million people to see your article—but SGE is finally pulling the plug completely.
Here are some reasons this is happening:
First, those big impression numbers might look nice in reports, but they don’t guarantee anyone engaged with your content or took action. We’ve all been guilty of padding reports with potential eyeballs rather than actual results (I see you nodding!).
Second, with AI summaries providing answers directly in search results, users might get all the information they need without ever reading the full article where your brand is mentioned. They’re getting the gist without the click.
And third, traditional PR reporting tools don’t account for AI-driven brand exposure at all. Your brand might be featured prominently in AI summaries, but existing measurement tools won’t capture that.
So, what should we be tracking instead?
I’ll give you some more yoga blocks to add to your workout. You may not jump over all of them at once, but by year’s end, with some practice, you’ll get them all.
They include:
- AI-surfaced mentions – Does your brand appear in AI-generated search results? It will require manual checking, but tracking how often your brand gets included in these summaries is worth monitoring.
- Visibility in generative search panels – When someone searches for topics relevant to your industry, does your content appear in AI summaries? This is a sign that the AI considers your brand an authority worth citing.
- Branded query volume – If people are encountering your brand in AI-generated content, they might search specifically for you later. Increased branded search traffic can indicate that AI exposure is creating brand awareness.
- Authority and trust scores – Those E-E-A-T signals I mentioned earlier? They’re more important than ever. Domain authority growth, expert contributor profiles, and third-party validation all contribute to whether AI will reference your content.
- Audience retention and engagement – When people click through to your content, are they staying longer? Engaging more deeply? This indicates that what they’re finding is worth their time—something both humans and AI value.
The big shift moves from “How many people might have seen our brand?” to “Is our brand viewed as a credible authority that AI systems choose to reference?”
It’s about quality over quantity, which is how it always should have been.
Take a hard look at your PR reporting. If it’s still centered around impression numbers (or, gasp!, AVEs), it’s time for a refresh. Start tracking these new metrics, even if it means doing manual work until the measurement tools catch up.
PESO Model© Measurement
Let’s start with the PESO Model and discuss how to adapt your measurement approach for our new AI-search reality.
Paid Media Tips
Traditionally, we’ve measured paid media with metrics like impressions, click-through rates, and cost per acquisition. But in an AI-search world, the role of paid media shifts to strategic amplification rather than just eyeballs.
New measurement approaches include:
- Tracking which owned content pieces, when amplified through paid channels, generate the most visibility in AI generative search results. Instead of just measuring CTR, measure whether paid amplification increases your content’s chances of being included in AI-generated summaries.
- Measuring the relevance and engagement level of audiences reached through paid channels. Are you reaching audiences that engage deeply rather than just broadly?
- How effectively does your paid media drive people to your owned content that builds authority? Track multi-touch attribution to understand the full journey.
One thing you can do right now is set up Google Analytics to track which paid campaigns drive traffic to your content. This shows which paid strategies best support your AI visibility efforts.
Earned Media Tips
Earned media has always been about credibility, which aligns perfectly with AI values. But instead of just counting placements, we need to measure earned media’s contribution to authority building.
New measurement approaches include:
- Tracking not just the number of mentions but whether your experts are quoted as authoritative sources on key topics. These are the quotes AI is more likely to surface.
- Monitoring whether earned media placements come from sources that boost your overall authority metrics. A mention in a high domain authority publication is worth far more than multiple mentions in low-authority sources.
- Tracking how your earned media contributes to topical authority. Are you gaining credibility in specific areas that matter to your business?
One thing you can do right now is create a weighted scoring system for media placements based on domain authority, relevance to your key topics, whether they position your brand as an expert source rather than just mentioning you, and whether they show up in generative search answers.
Shared Media Tips
Social media metrics typically focus on engagement rates and follower growth. In an AI-search world, shared media becomes more about community-building and demonstrating expertise.
New measurement approaches include:
- Tracking engagement and whether your content sparks meaningful discussions that demonstrate expertise. AI is getting better at understanding the quality of social engagement.
- Monitoring how often recognized authorities in your field engage with, share, or endorse your content. This social proof contributes to your E-E-A-T signals.
- Measuring how effectively your shared media channels distribute your highest-value owned content that builds authority that AI recognizes.
One thing you can do right now is identify and track engagement from high E-E-A-T individuals in your industry (recognized experts, academics, etc.). Their interactions with your content carry more weight both for audiences and AI systems.
Owned Media Tips
Owned media is where you have the most control and where you can build the strongest E-E-A-T signals that AI recognizes.
New measurement approaches include:
- Manually checking how often your content appears in AI-generated summaries for key search terms. Track this over time to measure improvement.
- Measuring how well your content addresses your audience’s specific questions and search intents. AI systems prioritize content that best matches user intent.
- Tracking how comprehensively you cover key topics relevant to your audience. AI rewards content that demonstrates deep expertise across related topics.
- Monitoring the presence and growth of expertise signals on your owned properties (author credentials, citations, research elements, etc.).
One thing you can do right now is check your top 10 strategic keywords in SGE to see if your content appears in AI summaries. Keep a simple spreadsheet to track improvement over time and update it monthly.
Putting It All Together
We know the real power of the PESO Model is in its integration—how the different media types work together. This becomes even more important in an AI-search world.
As you think about how to measure not just the media types in silos, but a fully integrated program, consider the following:
- Track how content moves across paid, earned, shared, and owned to build cumulative authority signals that AI recognizes.
- Measure how different touchpoints across the PESO Model spectrum contribute to building the authority signals that AI values.
- Create a dashboard that tracks your brand’s visibility in both traditional and AI-generated search results across key topics.
Your AI-Ready Measurement Action Plan
Here’s your step-by-step plan to evolve your PESO Model measurement for an AI-search world:
- Review your existing measurement approach and identify which metrics are becoming less relevant in an AI-search world.
- Identify five to 10 core topics where you want to build expertise and authority that AI will recognize.
- Develop a scoring system that values quality over quantity across all PESO Model channels, with extra weight given to indicators of expertise and authority.
- Until measurement tools catch up, implement manual processes to track AI-generated search visibility.
- Add specific metrics that track the growth of expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness signals across your content.
- Every quarter, assess how your authority position has changed for key topics and adjust your PESO Model strategy accordingly.
Remember those yoga blocks I mentioned earlier? Start with just one or two of these measurement approaches and gradually add more as you get comfortable.
By this time next year, you’ll be easily jumping over those aerobic steps!
