I’ve helped many organizations develop requests for proposals (RFPs) over the years. The most important lesson I can share is this: don’t simply recycle an old RFP with generic requirements.

The media monitoring and measurement industry has transformed in recent years. With AI-driven monitoring, predictive analytics, the rise of trust and reputation metrics, and continued consolidation of vendors, your RFP must reflect current realities. Otherwise, you risk attracting the wrong suppliers, wasting budget, and facing disruption when you inevitably have to replace a poorly matched vendor.

By making a few key adjustments to your RFP process, you can ensure you attract partners who truly meet your needs — and avoid the high costs of trial-and-error.

Before issuing an RFP, it’s essential to:

• Define your requirements clearly (human vs. automated curation, frequency and format of briefs, social coverage, and geographic scope).

• Understand the vendor landscape, which continues to evolve through mergers, acquisitions, and new AI entrants.

• Identify solutions in the marketplace that align best with your goals.

With those foundations in place, here are seven rules to guide your next media monitoring RFP.

1. Don’t Leave Media Monitoring RFP Creation Solely to Procurement

Procurement is an important partner in vendor selection, but when RFPs are written without communications input, they often focus too heavily on price and compliance. That may attract responses, but not necessarily from vendors who understand the complexity of your communications needs.

When communications leaders are not involved, organizations risk:

• Attracting vendors who optimize for cost over quality.

• Receiving RFPs filled with irrelevant requirements.

• Wasting time and resources on proposals that don’t solve your pain points.

The fix is simple: communications teams must define the non-negotiables — accuracy in curation, delivery times that match executive expectations, integration with workflows, and analyst support where needed. Procurement should manage negotiations and compliance, but the business-critical requirements belong to communications.

2. Highlight the need for Highly Accurate Content Curation (Not Just Automation)

It goes without saying that content curation should be accurate but with many vendors relying heavily on automation, that isn’t always guaranteed.

• Fully automated monitoring can be useful for real-time alerts or small organizations.

• But for enterprises with complex footprints, automation often brings irrelevant articles, duplicates, or blind spots — especially when sources opt out of aggregators or when trade and paywalled outlets are involved.

The strongest solutions combine AI-driven speed with human analyst review to ensure accuracy, context, and adaptability as your keywords and topics evolve. For example, if your brand launches in new markets or faces emerging issues on platforms like TikTok or Reddit, human oversight ensures search criteria are adjusted immediately.

When drafting your RFP, specify whether you require hybrid curation — not just automation — to prevent wasted time filtering irrelevant clips.

3. Know Your Organization’s Media Volumes

Volume matters because it directly impacts cost. Tagging every piece of content for sentiment, categorization, or geographies can quickly become expensive if not scoped carefully.

Best practices include:

• Estimate your monthly media volume across print, online, broadcast, and social.

• Provide keywords for your brand, executives, and competitors to give vendors an accurate sense of expected coverage.

• Set expectations around tagging and categorization to avoid unnecessary costs.

• Use representative source lists to balance thoroughness with efficiency.

Importantly, source lists and keyword lists should evolve as your requirements change. Make sure your vendor is flexible enough to add or remove sources quickly — particularly when you expand into new regions or industries.

4. Be Super Specific About Your Requirements

Generic RFPs waste everyone’s time. Instead, detail exactly what you need. Consider asking:

• Should analysis include human input to determine media impact?

• Do you require a customized media impact scorecard tied to your goals?

• Should daily briefs arrive by a specific time each morning?

• Do executives require analyst-written summaries in those briefs?

• Do you need access to paywalled articles, trade publications, or niche sources?

• Should monitoring cover platforms beyond mainstream aggregators, such as TikTok, Threads, Reddit, or Weibo?

The more descriptive your RFP, the more likely you’ll attract the right vendor — and avoid mismatches that lead to frustration and budget overruns.

5. Interview a Shortlist of Vendors Before Sending Out Your RFP

Don’t cold-send your RFP to dozens of providers. Instead:

1. Research the market and identify providers who could realistically meet your needs.

2. Conduct discovery calls and platform demos to understand their approach, strengths, and limitations.

3. Engage only the best fits to formally respond to your RFP.

This ensures you only receive proposals from vendors aligned to your use case. Many providers won’t even bother with RFPs if there hasn’t been prior engagement, so this step is essential.

6. Ensure Your Media Measurement Provider is AMEC Certified

Most business verticals have a set of best practices and industry standards set forth by an industry body. For the media monitoring and measurement industry, those standards are driven by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, otherwise known as AMEC.

In 2025, AMEC introduced the Barcelona Principles 4.0, which expanded best practices to reflect today’s landscape. These principles emphasize:

• Integrating AI with human analysis for accuracy and context.

• Measuring trust and reputation, not just volume and reach.

• Aligning measurement with organizational outcomes, not vanity metrics like Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs).

• Transparency and consistency across all reporting.

When evaluating vendors, ensure they:

• Employ AMEC-certified analysts.

• Apply Barcelona Principles 4.0 in measurement frameworks.

• Provide metrics that connect to business outcomes, reputation, and trust.

This keeps your reporting globally recognized, credible, and relevant.

7. Save Hours of Wasted Effort

These steps may take extra time upfront, but they save weeks of wasted effort later. By clarifying requirements, insisting on accuracy, and aligning with global standards, you’ll avoid costly vendor mismatches and ensure your RFP attracts the right partner.

The vendor landscape continues to consolidate, but the differences in methodology and quality are wider than ever. Choosing carefully means better insights, stronger ROI, and fewer crises of confidence down the road.

As co-founder of DNA13 (acquired by PR Newswire), President of Fullintel, and founder of Fuel Strategic, I’ve seen firsthand how the right RFP process leads to long-term success. A carefully written RFP not only saves time but also ensures your organization benefits from accurate insights and credible reporting.

When preparing your next media monitoring RFP, follow these seven rules to make the process smoother, more effective, and better aligned to your organization’s goals.