Earned Media Value (EMV)
Estimated monetary value of unpaid media coverage, influencer posts, and organic social mentions, based on equivalent paid media rates
What is Earned Media Value (EMV)?
Earned media value (EMV) is an estimate of what it would have cost to buy the attention that unpaid coverage generated. It converts organic mentions into an advertising-equivalent monetary figure.
It is widely used to express the value of PR and influencer activity in money, but it is a rough estimate and is criticised as a measure of real impact.
How this KPI is measured
- Function
- Marketing
- Sub-function
- Influencer & Creator
- Industry
- All Industries
- Type
- Lagging
- Impact
- Financial control
- Unit
- $
- Measurement frequency
- Monthly / Quarterly
- Formula
- Sum of (Impressions from each organic placement × Equivalent CPM rate)
How to calculate it
For each organic placement, multiply its impressions by an equivalent cost per thousand impressions (CPM), then add the results together.
For example, if a placement received 200,000 impressions and the equivalent CPM is 10, its value is (200,000 / 1,000) x 10 = 2,000. Sum across all placements.
Choose the equivalent rate carefully and document it, since the total depends on it entirely.
Where it is used
Reporting the worth of PR
Give leadership a money figure for coverage.
Comparing campaigns
Rank campaigns by organic value created.
Benchmarking against paid
Compare with what the same reach would cost to buy.
How to improve it
Tips and common mistakes
- Treat EMV as an estimate, not revenue.
- It ignores whether coverage was positive or relevant, so add quality measures.
- Many experts recommend outcomes such as leads and awareness over EMV.
More Marketing kpi library
Build better plans, faster
Join the waitlist for early access to curated insights, flexible templates, and rapid iteration across strategy, planning, and project management.