Why budget is important when appointing a PR agency

Nothing comes for free and having a budget in mind when you’re appointing a PR agency is essential.

PR is one of those services which doesn’t have a set price - it’s very dependent on what a brand is looking for from an agency, the type of campaign they’re after, who and where they’re hoping to target.

And agencies will differ on how they price up their services - some will sell time, others will be more results focussed, others will look at the costing per campaign.

That doesn’t make it easy if a brand is new to PR, but for those more accustomed to working with agencies, they’ll know how vital having a clear budget in mind is.

What a good PR agency will then do is work within a client's budgets to create a PR campaign that will work for them.

For a brand new to PR, there are a number of factors to take into account when deciding on your PR budget:

Who’s your audience and how do you reach them? 

If you can hone your audience down, it’s a bonus but unless you’re running a trade campaign or have a niche product or service this can be tricky to do. If you’re an e-commerce business then just about anyone can visit your site and buy from you - so your potential audience is massive.

Are you operating regionally, nationally or further afield?

‍A local campaign is going to have fewer targets and opportunities than one that runs UK wide or even internationally. A national campaign will require considerably more investment than one that runs at a very local level.

Do you want to bring influencers into the mix?

‍If you do, then you need to factor this into any budgeting. Influencers do not and should not be expected to work for free. If you want them to be part of a social media or PR campaign, sample your new product then have the necessary budget to support this.

What internal plans do you have?

‍If you have a product or products, is there a key time of year when you need to be focussing on them? If your business is seasonal, when does PR need to be at its most active? This will help you identify when budget needs to be weighted or if you’re working to a tight budget, when a brand really needs to invest in PR.

Are you going for short bursts or looking long term?

‍Long term is always preferable for PR - keeping a brand in the public eye is important to help grow it but for some, short bursts of PR activity is right for them. A long term approach will require more investment but it will pay off.

How will you justify the budget

‍PR is a big investment for a business so having measurables in place to justify that spend is something we always encourage and do. Take a look at our blog on how to measure PR. 
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