Why success guarantees in PR don’t work
By Michaela Krause
Perhaps I’m breaking a taboo in our glossy agency world when I say this: we’re currently “losing” more new client pitches than ever before. Or, we’re even pulling out of the RFP process early. At the same time, I’m more satisfied with our team’s work than I’ve ever been. How do these two things reconcile?
“Success guarantees” everywhere you look
The phenomenon is easy to explain: more and more clients, shaped by years of performance marketing, are looking for PR partners who can give them concrete success guarantees. They want to specify exactly when and in which media they will appear, how much reach they will achieve by a certain date, and they often tie their payment to these unrealistic expectations. These demands are based on short-term goals rather than realistic, long-term objectives. The insistence on forcing coverage instead of achieving it organically leads to a distorted view of PR work. However, the crux of PR lies in the word “guarantee” – and despite achieving fantastic results for our clients, we simply cannot, in good conscience, provide such guarantees.
We find ourselves swimming against the current, as the market has long adapted to these demands. Especially in economically strained times like these, we’re increasingly seeing dubious promises of success used as bait. Clients are tempted with the notion that their announcements will be “guaranteed” to appear, which is ultimately unrealistic and harms both the partnership and the company in the long run. Just recently, I was contacted by an agency that wanted to join our partner network. Their business model? “Payment only upon satisfaction.” (without defining what that satisfaction would entail). For us, that’s a no-go – it contradicts not only our code but also the fundamental principles of our work. What happens when the promised media can’t “deliver” within the required timeframe because, for example, the news cycle has taken a different turn?
Another example: just today, we finally received feedback on a lost pitch – conclusion: top marks in strategy and creativity, budget was also aligned – yet the contract went to the agency that made lofty promises. We sincerely wish them the best of luck, but we’re also skeptical about whether the client has truly done themselves a favor with this decision based purely on a numbers game. Because these numbers are often just smoke and mirrors, as I’ll demonstrate shortly.
The trickery behind supposed successes
So, how do these agencies fulfill their guarantees? In the best-case scenario, through hard work and a bit of luck. But all too often, they resort to tricks that may impress numerically but do nothing for the brand or long-term strategy. One of the most common methods is advertorials – paid ads that look like editorial articles but must be labeled as advertising. Unfortunately, there are also bad apples that “forget” this labeling.
Or they place announcements on PR portals that appear to laypeople like real online magazines but have little actual reach. Publications on these platforms are therefore less valuable, even if they deliver impressive numbers at first glance. It’s easy to guarantee ten placements when they’re on such portals.
Just recently, we were in a new client process where the client from the consumer goods sector presented us with a list of clippings from their previous agency and wanted at least the same level of “success.” Unfortunately, we were left with the unenviable task of demonstrating that their supposed success was mainly based on PR portals. Eighty percent of the “coverage” came from portal-generated subpages of Niedersachsen-Aktuell, Kreiszeitung, and others – without any real benefit for the client. Please don’t get me wrong – the media themselves aren’t the problem; they’re respectable local outlets. However, they lack relevance for the client’s interests. Recognizing, creating, and positioning relevance has always been the essence of PR.
It’s never easy to critique another PR specialist’s work. I’m one of the first to get annoyed by how often we kick each other in the industry. Yet we must remain consistent and make it clear to players – especially those operating internationally and coming from completely different markets (in this case, the potential client was from China) – what truly benefits their company and what doesn’t.
Clients pay for short-term false successes instead of long-term impact
Because those who pay for such “successes” end up paying double: once for the publication itself and then again when the desired effect doesn’t materialize. Numbers alone don’t bring brand awareness or trust. Instead of genuinely generating brand awareness, one simply buys an expensive SEO boost under the guise of PR, which could have been obtained much more cheaply and transparently. And that boost disappears: many media outlets no longer sell advertorials indefinitely. In the past, you could publish an article that you could refer back to years later, which would be temporarily displayed on the homepage or in readers’ recommendations. Today, the cheapest options for advertorials come with an expiration date: they’re only visible for a limited time and are taken offline afterward or become unfindable for readers and search engine bots.
Investing in apparent successes means that resources flow into short-term measures that have no sustainable impact. This is neither in the client’s interest nor good for the company in the long run. In the end, the client is left with impressive numbers but no substance. The problem with these success guarantees lies in their short-term nature. They’re designed to deliver quick “results” but ignore the holistic approach that successful PR requires. Important aspects like crisis prevention and long-term brand development are sidelined. What happens when a crisis strikes, and no one in the company is prepared? Such models leave the client out in the rain and disregard the fact that PR is a long-term investment in trust and reputation.
PR guarantees: An unreliable myth
Our clients come to us for sound advice – not to be lured in by false promises. Moreover, success guarantees in PR are prohibited under the European “Code de Lisbonne.” It states that public relations professionals may not enter into contractual agreements that provide measurable success guarantees. The German Council for Public Relations theoretically has the right to initiate proceedings for unlawful success guarantees, although I’m not aware of any such cases.
What can we guarantee in PR, and what can’t we? A checklist
What we can guarantee:
Realistic goal definition
Strategic consulting
Targeted media outreach
Transparent success analysis
Long-term brand building
Crisis prevention and management
What we cannot guarantee:
Exact media placements
Specific reach numbers
Forcing coverage
Short-term successes
The return on brand investment
The good news: recent studies show that after a phase of pure performance focus, companies are increasingly investing in brand building again because they’ve understood that long-term success doesn’t come from short-term false successes. Success in PR and long-term brand building cannot be forced overnight – it grows through trust, consistency, and strategic guidance. If this shift in thinking takes hold, we’ll find ourselves more often back in the pitch arena.