The difference between brand tracking and media monitoring

17 Jan 2020

Industry Insights
Brand tracking and media monitoring are two terms that many brands often confuse with one another. Understanding that these terms are not the same will allow you to see the benefits that each of these services hold for your brand.

What is brand tracking?

Brand tracking keeps track of all of your media coverage, offering a holistic view of how it is represented in traditional media, on social platforms and in your placed adverts.
This shows the brand how the public receives the message that they put out there. And once you understand how the public receives your message, you can either change or improve on it.

Many services make up brand tracking. These include:
  • media monitoring
  • social media monitoring
  • social listening
  • advert monitoring, and
  • media coverage reporting.
When a company makes use of brand tracking, it doesn’t have to make use of all of the services that are provided. Instead, it can choose the services that it feels will work best for the brand.

What is media monitoring?

Media monitoring is all about giving a brand hard data on brand mentions from listening, watching and scanning its editorial content in the media.

The data that brands receive will include:
  • when and where the editorial content has been broadcast or published
  • how many times the brand has been mentioned
  • how many times the brand has been placed in an advertisement in the media
Media monitoring gives a brand all the data that it needs to understand how its content is performing in the media. Having these numbers can allow a brand to then change its strategy and make sure that it creates better content for future strategies.


So which one is right for my business?

If you need the answer to these questions, you should choose brand tracking:
  • Was my brand’s advert placed according to spec?
  • What are people saying about my brand on social media?
  • When was my brand mentioned on the radio?
If you are looking for the answers to the following questions, you need to make use of media monitoring:
  • How many times were your brand mentioned on social media?
  • When and where was my brand’s editorial content been broadcast or published?
Understanding the difference between brand tracking and media monitoring will give any brand a jump start in their content strategy. Be sure to read How to create a winning content strategy to allow your brand to create great content.