Survey Results 2026

The State of
PR Reporting

Conversations with 288 European PR leaders outside the aclipp customer base. Tools, time, automation, KPIs.

At a Glance

3h
Median hours / month / project
43%
Use no dedicated tools
29%
Use Excel or PowerPoint

Who Responded

Mostly decision-makers who own reporting. Few junior roles.

By Role

Management58%
C-level17%
Specialist / Mid-level14%
Other11%

By Country

Germany27
United Kingdom22
Netherlands8
Austria5
Italy5
Portugal4
Poland4
Spain4
France4
Czechia3
Other14

Time Spent on Reporting

Per project / client. Based on 37 respondents.

3h
median per month, per project
Ranges from 0.05h to 10h across respondents

Where the time goes

Median hours per month

Prep & assembly
4h
Analysis
1h
Insight
Prep takes 4x longer than analysis. The pain is assembly, not reading results.

The Tool Landscape

119 tool mentions. 57 respondents named at least one tool.

Most mentioned tools

Excel24 mentions
PowerPoint10 mentions
Meltwater9 mentions
CoverageBook6 mentions
Google Sheets6 mentions
Cision4 mentions
Google Alerts3 mentions
Canva3 mentions
Clipit3 mentions
Muck Rack3 mentions

Tools per respondent

No tools43%
1 tool25%
2 tools17%
3 tools8%
4+ tools7%

Hours per tool

Median monthly hours among users who reported time

Excel (n=19)2.5h
PowerPoint (n=8)2.25h
Meltwater (n=4)3h
Google Sheets (n=4)3h
Cision (n=4)2h
CoverageBook (n=3)4h
Insight
Spreadsheet plus deck still wins. Dedicated PR tools are a minority. Nothing beats Excel and PowerPoint in mentions.
Automation & KPIs

Automation, KPIs, and proving impact

Automation skepticism, blockers, and what leadership expects from KPIs.

At a glance

65%
Say full automation is not realistic today
62%
Name data quality as the top blocker
60%
Want more than standard PR KPIs

Is zero-hour reporting via automation realistic?

Yes35%
No65%

Where most reporting time goes (perception)

Prep & formatting30%
Strategic analysis48%
Both equally22%

What blocks 100% automated reporting?

Data quality62%
Missing context19%
Tool silos19%

KPI depth leadership expects

Standard PR KPIs40%
Client-specific metrics25%
Business outcomes35%

Do reports drive strategy or budget decisions?

Yes, measurable impact52%
Seldom / hard to prove48%
Insight
  • Data quality blocks automation more than tool silos. Reliable data first, tool orchestration second—not the other way around.
  • 60% want client-specific or business-outcome KPIs. Not AVE and reach alone.
  • Heavy time still sits in prep. Leaders say analysis matters too.
Coming soon

AI visibility and PR reporting

We are asking European PR teams about GEO and AI search visibility. Results will land here.

  • 1.How present is AI visibility (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews) on your radar?
  • 2.Who should own brand visibility in AI answers? PR, marketing/SEO, or both?
  • 3.Do you link press coverage to what LLMs cite about your brand?
  • 4.Where should AI visibility sit in leadership reporting? Same PR report, SEO tool only, or not a PR metric yet?

Relevant when leadership asks: Do we show up in ChatGPT? PR is measurable, including in AI answers.

Key Takeaways

Tools

The default stack is still Excel + PowerPoint

Specialized tools exist. Most teams still use spreadsheets and slide decks.

Time spent

Assembly takes 4x longer than analysis

Gathering data and building decks eats the calendar. Interpretation comes second.

Workload

36+ hours a year on reporting alone

At 3 hours per month median, reporting costs a full work week per year per project.

Adoption

Nearly half use no dedicated tool

43% use only general-purpose software. Room for purpose-built reporting is large.

Built to fix exactly this

Manual stacks and messy data slow teams down. aclipp turns coverage into leadership KPIs in one quarterly report.

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Collect clippings from media monitors, RSS, social, and manual uploads in one place.

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AI fills in the rest

Tags, metrics, sentiment, and summaries filled in automatically and consistently.

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