CPRS Research and Analytics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A PR analyst wants to determine if a recent media campaign caused an increase in website traffic. Which approach provides the strongest causal evidence?
- Comparing traffic before and after the campaign launch
- Using a control group market that received no campaign activity alongside a test market (Correct answer)
- Reviewing social media engagement metrics during the campaign
- Counting total press placements secured during the campaign
Correct answer: Using a control group market that received no campaign activity alongside a test market
A test-versus-control market design isolates the campaign's effect by comparing outcomes in exposed and unexposed groups, providing stronger causal inference than a simple before-after comparison.
Question 2: In social listening, what does 'reach' measure?
- The number of times content was actively clicked or engaged with
- The potential unique audience exposed to a piece of content (Correct answer)
- The total count of brand mentions across all platforms
- The average sentiment score of all social posts
Correct answer: The potential unique audience exposed to a piece of content
Reach refers to the estimated number of unique individuals who could have been exposed to a piece of content, distinguishing it from impressions (total views including repeats).
Question 3: When a PR researcher finds that two variables move together statistically but does not claim one causes the other, they are describing:
- A causal relationship
- A spurious association
- A correlation (Correct answer)
- A regression coefficient
Correct answer: A correlation
Correlation describes a statistical relationship between two variables without implying that one causes the other, a critical distinction in PR research interpretation.
Question 4: Which type of primary research involves asking the same panel of respondents questions at regular intervals to track attitude changes?
- Focus group research
- Intercept survey
- Panel study (Correct answer)
- Omnibus survey
Correct answer: Panel study
A panel study follows the same respondents over time, allowing researchers to track individual-level changes in attitudes or behaviors rather than relying on aggregate snapshots.
Question 5: A media monitoring report shows high impressions but very low engagement rate for a campaign. What does this most likely indicate?
- The content reached many people but did not compel them to interact (Correct answer)
- The campaign was unsuccessful and should be canceled immediately
- Engagement data was not captured correctly by the monitoring tool
- The campaign's earned media outperformed paid media
Correct answer: The content reached many people but did not compel them to interact
High impressions with low engagement suggest broad distribution but weak resonance, pointing to a possible mismatch between the content and audience interests or a need for stronger calls to action.
Question 6: The Barcelona Principles 3.0 (updated 2020) stress which of the following about AVEs?
- AVEs should be recalculated using digital multipliers for accuracy
- AVEs are a valid secondary metric when combined with reach data
- AVEs are not a valid measure of PR value and should not be used (Correct answer)
- AVEs should replace impressions as the primary output metric
Correct answer: AVEs are not a valid measure of PR value and should not be used
The Barcelona Principles explicitly state that advertising value equivalencies (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and are not meaningful metrics, urging practitioners to abandon their use.
Question 7: A PR analyst groups media outlets into tiers (Tier 1: national TV/print, Tier 2: regional media, Tier 3: trade publications) before conducting a content analysis. This is an example of:
- Probability sampling
- Purposive stratification for media analysis (Correct answer)
- Quota sampling
- Simple random sampling
Correct answer: Purposive stratification for media analysis
Organizing media outlets into tiers based on reach or prestige before analysis is a form of purposive stratification, ensuring each outlet category is analyzed appropriately in the context of PR outcomes.
CPRS Research and Analytics 3
A PR analyst wants to determine if a recent media campaign caused an increase in website traffic.
Which approach provides the strongest causal evidence?