EMV calculator

Earned media value, or EMV, puts a money figure on the attention a post earned. It answers one question: what would these views and engagements have cost if you had bought them as paid media? It is used to compare creators and campaigns, and to report results to people who think in budgets.

Divide the views by 1,000 and multiply by a CPM. Then multiply each kind of engagement by the value you give it, and add everything up. With 250,000 views at a $10 CPM and 12,000 likes at 10 cents each, the EMV is $2,500 plus $1,200, which is $3,700.

No. Every tool and agency uses its own rates, which is why two EMV figures for the same post can differ widely. An EMV number means something only when the rates behind it are stated and stay the same from one report to the next.

Your own. Open your ad account and take the CPM and the cost per engagement you pay for paid social in the same market. That makes EMV a fair comparison with money you spend. The rates the calculator opens with are examples and not a benchmark.

Compare it with what the campaign cost. If a campaign cost $5,000 and earned $15,000 of media value at your own paid rates, it reached people for about a third of what ads would have cost you. The calculator shows this as EMV for every $1 spent.

No. EMV measures attention and ROI measures money returned. A post can have a high EMV and sell nothing. Use EMV to compare reach and engagement, and use tracked links and promo codes to measure sales.

Use whichever you can get for every post you are comparing, and do not mix them. For creator videos the public number is views, so most reports use views. If the creator shares their insights, reach and impressions are better.