Marketing and comms leaders are under pressure to prove ROI more than ever. Budgets must work harder, media channels are more crowded, and audiences are increasingly sceptical of paid messaging.
So when other teams and stakeholders ask, “Why not just put more money into ads?” the answer isn’t emotional, it’s strategic.
Paid advertising drives reach, yes. But PR builds trust.
And in many sectors, especially healthcare, retail and leisure, travel and transport, and purpose-led industries, trust is the deciding factor.
In the right conditions, PR doesn’t just complement paid activity, it outperforms it. Here’s why.
PR builds credibility that advertising can’t replicate
Paid advertising benchmarks measured as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – often look for around £5 in revenue for every £1 spent on digital ads, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of long-term brand impact, reputational trust, or cost of acquisition.
But here’s what makes PR more powerful for your brand:
Credibility that compounds: An ad stops working the moment you stop paying for it. PR coverage, expert positioning, and thought leadership continues building credibility long after publication.
Trust at scale: Potential customers trust third-party sources more than your own marketing. When credible publications validate your innovation, it carries weight that paid placement never could.
Reach without rejection: People actively avoid ads. They seek out valuable content, expert insights, and trusted information – exactly what strategic PR provides.
Multi-stakeholder impact: One piece of earned media can influence multiple stakeholders in a buying decision, while ads typically target one audience segment at a time.
AI search advantage: As we’ve explored in our analysis of AI search and earned media, earned media is becoming increasingly important for digital visibility as AI-powered search tools prioritise credible, third-party content over paid advertising.
What makes PR work for sales (and what kills its effectiveness)
Advertising can tell people you’re good. PR shows people why they should believe it.
When your brand appears in credible media, is referenced by respected journalists, or is consistently visible in sector discussions, you gain a form of validation that advertising simply cannot buy.
This type of credibility directly influences:
- Procurement decisions
- Long-list and short-list stages
- B2B partner selection
- Stakeholder confidence
- Investor evaluations
- Leadership reputation
For marketing directors, this credibility becomes a commercial asset. It reduces scepticism, accelerates conversion and positions your brand as the safer, more trusted choice.
Having worked with healthcare, retail, tech and travel brands at every stage of growth, we’ve seen what separates PR that drives sales from PR that just generates vanity metrics.
What works:
Focus on genuine value
The brands seeing the biggest sales impact from PR are those sharing genuinely useful insights, not thinly-disguised product pitches. When your expert commentary helps your target audience solve real problems, they remember you when they need solutions.
Play the long game
PR builds momentum over time. Brands that commit to consistent thought leadership and media presence over 6 to 12 months see dramatically better results than those expecting immediate spikes from individual press mentions.
Integrate PR with sales
Your sales team should be your biggest PR advocates. They hear directly from prospects about what influences decisions. Use that insight to shape your PR strategy, and train your team to leverage coverage in their conversations.
Measure what matters
Focus on metrics that correlate with business outcomes – search traffic, inbound inquiry quality, sales cycle velocity, competitive win rates – not column inches or advertising value equivalents.
What doesn’t work:
Treating PR like advertising (controlling messages rather than earning credibility), expecting immediate results from single placements, creating PR content disconnected from what your sales team hears from prospects, or measuring success purely on media mentions rather than business impact.
PR influences buying decisions long before audiences enter the funnel
Paid ads typically target people already close to intent.
PR shapes perception long before that, at the awareness and consideration stages where reputational trust forms.
This matters because many major decisions are made before your audience ever reaches your website.
If a potential buyer has:
- Read your commentary in trade media
- Seen your leadership quoted on industry issues
- Heard your brand mentioned in professional networks
- Consumed thought leadership with meaningful insight
They arrive at your funnel already convinced of your authority.
This dramatically reduces the weight your paid ads need to carry and improves the efficiency of every pound you spend elsewhere.
So how do you build a PR program that actually drives sales? It starts with alignment:
Sales and marketing alignment
- Regular sales team feedback sessions about prospect concerns and questions
- Joint sales/PR planning sessions for key account targeting
- Shared metrics and reporting between PR and sales teams
- Sales team training on how to leverage PR coverage in their conversations
Strategic content planning
- Editorial calendars that align with sales cycles and seasonal industry patterns
- Thought leadership content that addresses real buyer concerns at each stage of the decision process
- Case studies and success stories that provide social proof for different stakeholder groups
- Expert commentary that positions your team as trusted advisors rather than vendors
Measurement and optimisation
- CRM integration that tracks PR influence on pipeline progression
- Regular analysis of correlation between PR activity and sales outcomes
- Customer journey mapping that identifies PR touchpoints
- Ongoing testing and refinement of PR approaches based on sales feedback
PR drives the conversations that advertising cannot spark
Advertising delivers impressions. PR delivers influence.
A strong PR story can create debate, spark industry reflection, or even shift policy conversations. It can elevate previously overlooked issues into national relevance – and at Tonic we’ve demonstrated this with our Eye Tests Saves Lives campaign.
Advertising rarely has this impact because it isn’t perceived as neutral. PR earns the right to shape conversations rather than simply promote them.
For senior leaders who want their brand to be recognised as a thought leader, this distinction is fundamental.
So, can PR increase sales more effectively than paid advertising? Yes – but it does so by building the foundation that makes everything else work better.
For healthcare brands where trust is everything and buying cycles are long, PR isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s essential for sustainable growth.
The question isn’t whether you should invest in PR. The question is whether you’re going to approach it strategically as a genuine sales driver, or continue treating it as an afterthought that’s disconnected from your revenue goals.
At The Tonic, we help brands build the kind of credible, authoritative presence that turns into genuine business growth. Let’s talk about how strategic PR can accelerate your sales goals.
