This document summarizes a PR agency's approach to link building through earned media coverage. The agency analyzed over a year of results and found they averaged 76 pieces of coverage and 62 links per month for clients. On average, 81% of coverage included links, with 72% being follow links. The agency also found that buying links would cost over £10,000 per month to match their results. The document provides examples of campaigns that achieved hundreds of pieces of high DA coverage, resulting in thousands of visitors and new customers or members for clients. In conclusion, the agency argues that PR is well-positioned for link building by understanding what gets media coverage and having media relationships to earn editorial links.

1. WhyPRshouldownlinkbuilding

2. Weareasmallbut
perfectlyformed
teambasedin
GLOUUUUUUCESTE
RRRRR*
*The unofficial capital of PR,obviously

3. At Radioactive PR,
we sell on two
main things –
great results and
measurement
Whether it’s:
❑ a strategic launch
campaign
❑ retained ongoing PR
❑ stunts
❑ social media
management
❑ crisis management
❑ or any other issue a client
might come to us to help
with,across any sector
it’s all about those two things.
One area we particularly
specialise in is PR for SEO
– or link building.We’ve
been doing it for 5 years –
and founder Rich for 10+
We’re working across ~15
projects and retained clients at
any given time,sometimes
more,sometimes less!

5. WhyarePRs
perfectlyplaced
tohelpwiththat
thirdpillarin
particular?
▪ News sites and publishers are typically high DA
(Domain Authority)
▪ We know what gets coverage
▪ We have the relationships and ability to earn coverage
All that we needed to think about is how to combine
these thing to get client links...

6. We always ask: 'how do we force the link'?

7. It'snotasviolent as
itsounds
▪ Journalists need a reason to link – a survey story just
won't cut it anymore.Here's how we do it
Our story
Coverage
with link
Related
content on
client site
(Lists, guides, opt-in/data collection
stories, tools, calculators and more)

8. Wecan sell on it, but
clients kept asking what
they couldexpect and
really... we hadlittle in the
way of a benchmark

9. So,wedecidedto
lookatourlink
buildingresults
overthe lastyear
tofind:
▪ The number of pieces of coverage per
month, quarter and per client
▪ The number of links per month, quarter
and per client and
▪ The link to coverage percentage we
operate at as an agency and per client
▪ How many follow links clients can expect
on average
▪ The average Domain Authority of earned
links

10. We’ve used Coverage
Book totrack every
piece of online
coverage for the last
few years

11. We wenttoits
Insightssectionto
breakthedata
downbymonth

12. Andended upwith12
spreadsheets packed fullof
data like this. Thousands
and thousands ofrowsto
sort!

13. Wewentthrough
eachspreadsheet
tototthemonthly
dataup…
▪ Total estimated coverage views (not a metric we/clients
care much about,much like estimated monthly visits)
▪ Average domain authority of the sites we achieved
coverage on
▪ Total social shares of coverage for that month

14. Andadded them allto
one main spreadsheet.
PRisglam,whatcanI
say?

15. Whichwethen totalledand averaged, per quarter
(Damn you summer holidays )

16. Importantly –welooked
atthe number oflinks
wegotfor clients
through PReach month

17. Andusingthetotal numberoflinks,weworkedoutthe
averagelinktocoveragepercentagesperquarter

18. Whichlookslikethis
whengraphed–the
darkgreen baris
linksasa%of
coverage
1714
1555
2756
1293
66.6%
96%
81.1%
81.6%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Q1 (Sep-Nov 18) Q2 (Dec 18-Feb 19) Q3 (Mar-May 19) Q4 (Jun-Aug 19)
Number of pieces of coverage vs links in last 4
quarters
Number of pieces of coverage Total links
March to May in 2019 was
big coverage and link-
wise…! Otherwise,happy
with that consistency

19. And here’s anaverage quarterfor ususing that data

20. Averagingall out across
clients we’ve workedon link
building through PR for,
we’ve been able to show
averageclient performance.
As an average:
❑ 76 pieces of coverage
per month
❑ 62 links per month
❑ DA 57 links
❑ ~5,400 social media
shares of those stories
per month
❑ 81% of coverage has a
link
There are obviously plenty
of caveats here – clients pay
differing amounts, for one,
which will affect results

21. Iknowwhat you’re thinking. Whatabout follow–nofollow ratio?

22. Well, 6,000 links is a lot to
manually go through and
we’ve got work to do! So we
took a sample size of 200,
checked each and found…

23. 72%were
followlinks

24. Surelymarketers could
justpaypublishersfor
links,no?

25. 1.Buying links that pass PageRank (link equity) are aviolation ofGoogle’s Guidelines –
butitis stillcommon practice; many companies do budget and pay forlinks
2.Editorial links– likethose weachieve through PR–are welcomed
1.
2.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

26. Ouraverage link forthe yearisDA57
(though we’re getting multiple DA90+for
clients every single month)
This to the right is publicly visible pricing for an SEO
service that guarantees follow links. It offers DA40+ links
starting from £130
https://nobs.link/pricing/

27. Continuing with linkbuying research –a
tactic widely used by SEO-conscious
marketers…
Here’s somebody’s review of a year’s worth of link buying,
highlighting that the average cost for a link (average DA not
mentioned) was $151.45, or £121.64
https://www.skipblast.com/authority-builders-review/

28. Andthis, from athird public guide tolink
buying using multiple platforms
I’ve not seen many DA69 links up for sale in my research for
this report, but averaging these seven ordered links you can
see that:
- Average DA is 56 (so, as close to our average as I could
find prices aligned to)
- Average price is $279 – or £224.07 at the time of writing
https://hookagency.com/guest-post-outreach/

29. Wegetclientsanaverageof62linkspermonth.45ofthesearefollowlinks.
45linksx£224.07(approx. costofDA56link)wouldcost£10,083.15

30. Sonot only does Google say ‘buying links
goes against our guidelines andwe’ll
penalise youifwefind out’ (and encourage
editorial links–would youbelieve it,THAT’S
WHAT WEDO), you’d have tospend £10k+
PCM onthose linkstogetanywhere near
our AVERAGE. It’snot uncommon toget
100+linksfor individual clientssome
months (sometimes well intothe
hundreds)
And that’s before you even
consider:
❑ The brand awareness and
reputational benefits of
PR
❑ The traffic and customers
good editorially-earned
links can send
❑ The fact you can retarget
visitors we’ve got to your
site through paid social
❑ That our work isn’t just
about links – great PR
reaches your target
audience and encourages
them to act and/or think
to achieve your marketing
goals

31. Ohhey,it’syouagain.Sure,thishasallaboutoutputs –notoutcomes.Solet’slookatafew
examples ofourapproach toPRforSEOandthemeasurable benefits –(wepostplentyofcase
studiesonouragencyblog)

32. The
Instagram
Rich List 2019
for Hopper
HQ
https://www.radioactivepr.com/pr-results-
instagram-rich-list-2019/

33. Wedevisedandhavepublished areport intohowmuchhigh-profile Instagram
influencers chargeforInstagramscheduling toolHopperHQeachyearsince 2017.
Outcomes in 2019:
250+ pieces of coverage, includingThe Daily Mail,The Mirror,Metro UK and CNBC. 60%
linked to Hopper HQ’s onsite content and/or homepage
Average DA of websites linking to the site from said coverage: 71
Within 2 days of the story launching,the Rich List on Hopper HQ’s site had 32,000+ views,
compared to 20k views in the first 2 days of the Rich List 2018, gaining new service users in the
process

34. Game of ThronesFinale Counselling
Service forBark.com

35. Deliveringresults
fit fora King(in
theNorthor
otherwise)
▪ The story achieved 350+ pieces of UK and international
coverage with the majority linking,includingThe Metro,
Yahoo and the Mail Online
▪ 18,000+ visitors – with 371 going on to become customers!
▪ Average DA of websites linking to the site from said
coverage: 75

36. Childcare.co.uk’s
Anti-BullyingSelf-
DefenceClasses
For Kids
https://www.radioactivepr.com/pr-campaign-
results-bullying-self-defence-kids/

37. AresearchstorywedidfortheUK’smostpopularchildcarewebsitefoundthatmorethanhalfofparents
(52%)areworried abouttheirchildbeing bullied. Using thatasastoryhook,wearrangedapartnership
betweenChildcare.co.ukandTheJiuJitsuFoundationtoofferfreeself-defence classes tochildren,
scheduled togoliveintimeforAnti-Bullying Week
With an opt-in mechanic, we targeted parents of young children.The first 500
Childcare.co.uk membersto register interest would receive a free month’s worth of classes for
their child
100+ pieces of coverage across national and high DA regional titles,with 95% linking
Average DA of websites linking to the site from said coverage: 72
6,000 parents opted in for more information,with a boost of thousands of new members to
Childcare.co.uk

38. Here’sthesitevisibilityofa clientofours.Canyou
seewherewestartedworkingwiththem?
https://www.radioactivepr.com/lets-kill-the-idea-that-were-only-as-good-as-our-last-pr-results/
Read a wordy blog we wrote about measurement that includes this graph and more here:

39. Searchengineperformance
canbehugelyimpactedtoo
Using tools such as SEMrush and
SanityCheck.io we can see which
keywords competitors rank for and
even come up with story ideas as a
result.Good PR teamed up with
smart SEO analytics (sometimes we
work directly with technical SEO
team members and agencies) is
unquestionablypowerful

40. So,tosummarise
whyPRisperfectly
placed toownlink
building (andalways
hasbeen)
▪ We know what gets coverage
▪ We know how to get coverage (and therefore,how to
earn links)
▪ Buying links is not only a violation,it doesn't make
financial sense

41. Plenty more case studies on our
homepage and blog - some weird
and wonderful, some with a
serious messageand some simply
using client data to create useful
and sticky tools that rank well and
drive regular traffic

42. Wealsorecentlystarted
Radioactive Talent–a
performance-led armofthe
Radioactive Group,partnering
brandswithcontentcreators,
influencers andstreamers,
workingoncostperlead,quote
andacquisition marketing

43. Right, that’s all, folks
rich@radioactivepr.com@RichLeighPR