Half (50%) of brands still struggle to measure the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns.
EMV can help. It reframes likes, shares, and mentions as a monetary value for comparison with other marketing efforts.
But with new metrics emerging, is EMV still relevant?
We'll explore whether EMV is worth tracking, how to measure it, and how to use it to start getting a better picture of your campaigns.
In the early days of social media, earned media value (EMV) was the go-to KPI for measuring the success of influencer campaigns. But as social media and influencer marketing mature, new, more concrete metrics emerge that measure campaign impact.
E-commerce and social commerce directly link influencers and conversions through promo codes and tracking links. More than two-thirds (70%) of brands running influencer campaigns track sales, according to the Kolsquare State of Influencer Marketing Report.
Plus, marketers now have a range of engagement metrics such as shares, saves, plays, and views that measure impact. Social listening tools can even evaluate the sentiment behind social media conversations to chart the feelings campaigns inspire.
Marketing strategies that involve fixed payment, per post or a series of posts, and measure engagement still dominate the industry. But as influencer fees rise and new platforms and formats force marketers to stretch budgets, the pressure to link influencer marketing to a tangible ROI is more intense than ever.
Earned media estimates the value of the visibility or exposure that a brand gains from a campaign. It tracks organic mentions by people outside of the brand. This includes word-of-mouth recommendations, online reviews, social media posts, media coverage, or blog mentions.
Earned media value aims to assign a monetary value to the reach and engagement generated by sponsoring influencers to create social media posts. It estimates the equivalent amount of money that would need to be spent on traditional media to achieve the same impact.
For example, on the Kolsquare platform, we provide detailed EMV data for individual influencer posts and combine it to estimate the total EMV for a campaign. This helps brands quantify the value of their influencer marketing efforts.
EMV was popular during the early days of social media and influencer marketing when the primary objective was building brand awareness. But is EMV still a relevant indicator for calculating the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns?
Earned media value allows businesses to compare earned media and paid media activities. It assesses the worth of the reach and engagement an influencer provides. This comprehensive approach offers a more detailed understanding of the influencer's impact, enabling businesses to better gauge ROI.
Earned media value is often compared to cost per mille or cost per thousand (CPM), but they serve different purposes.
Here are the two definitions side by side:
For example, if a beauty influencer creates a video that receives 500,000 impressions and generates £50,000 in EMV, that means the brand would’ve had to spend £50,000 on traditional advertising for a similar impact.
If that same post cost £1,000 to sponsor, the CPM would be £2.
So, to calculate EMV, you need to place monetary value on indicators marketers are already tracking, such as likes, comments, shares, and impressions. But how much is each interaction really worth?
It's undeniably confusing. Brands and influencer marketing bodies debate how it is calculated and what it then tells us about campaign impact.
And the confusion only worsens. After all, there is no standard for the value of each interaction. Being realistic, values vary according to individual market conditions.
In addition, social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube do not set or validate values for engagement metrics on their platforms.
This leads to confusion and misunderstandings about what EMV represents and how to estimate it, especially when marketers attempt to compare marketing efforts without a uniform baseline.
Yet, there are some predefined frameworks to follow. The US marketing firm Ayzenberg Group’s Earned Media Value Index is recognised as the first index on the market and widely accepted as a global industry standard.
Kolsquare uses the Ayzenberg Index algorithm to calculate EMV on its platform. The algorithm incorporates media buying data, reporting analytics of Fortune 500 companies, and third-party research to arrive at values for individual metrics that are updated regularly in line with market fluctuations.
Taking these complications into account, we have defined our own technique at Kolsquare. We calculate EMV for influencers and campaigns using the Ayzenberg Index as the base value. Here is the formula:
EMV = The number of likes × the value of a like + the number of comments × the value of a comment + the estimated impressions of a post / 1,000 × value of 1,000 impressions
Let's walk through an example calculation for EMV.
As an example, we'll use the following values:
Now, let's plug these values into the formula:
The final part of the earned media value formula is totalling each element. As a result, in this example, the EMV would be £2,000.
This value means that this piece of content is likely to gain around £2,000 worth of attention and interest. This is not the exact ROI of the campaign; this dollar value is simply a guide to the benefits from the increased viewership and share of voice from the marketing strategy.
Determining an average earned media value is inherently challenging due to significant variability across industries, individual campaigns, and calculation methods. There isn't a standardised average because each campaign's impact and engagement metrics differ widely.
Determining a good EMV is near-impossible, especially with little access to an average. It's highly dependent on the context of your campaign and the expected return on investment. However, there are some guidelines.
Like on any other digital channel, the EMV of your marketing strategy should exceed the cost of your campaign. For example, if you invest £10,000 and achieve an EMV of £50,000, your marketing efforts were worthwhile.
Comparing the EMV score for your current campaign with past campaigns can also provide a benchmark for success.
It's also important to consider that you will have other gains from your campaign, namely, increased sales or followers.
EMV assigns an aggregate value to the KPIs you’re already tracking—likes, comments, shares, etc. In doing so, it attempts to measure the nebulous concept of ‘brand awareness’ generated by an influencer's social media posts or influencer marketing campaigns.
Being able to assign a monetary result to brand awareness generated by a social media campaign enables marketers to justify investments and activities. For C-level managers who are less likely to be involved in the day-to-day workings of an influencer marketing campaign, an analysis of EMV from one campaign compared to another helps to inform decision-making.
“Often people who’ve worked in American companies love this KPI because it speaks the same language as advertising; you’ve got €50,000 – €100,000 a year for influencer marketing, and EMV is great because opposite that, it shows you’ve earned X-amount with your campaign. Where it is useful is not to use it as a one-shot metric but to compare how well different campaigns have worked,” Omnicom PR Group Head of Digital and Influence Anne-Laure Barieraud
Omnicom PR Group Head of Digital and Influence Anne-Laure Barieraud told influencer marketing professionals at the Influencer Marketing Klub in Paris.
“[But] in the last 10 years, we’ve done a better job at proving that influencer marketing works. More qualitative KPIs can tell us if we’ve had an impact on purchasing behaviour, on the audience and perception of the product. It goes further than EMV.”
Those who dispute the value of EMV as an indicator argue it is popular because it provides a simple answer to a complex question, allowing marketers to draw concrete conclusions when there may not actually be any.
Detractors also argue that EMV does not measure the variety and tonality of interactions and whether they are bringing meaningful connections or consider the difference between a spontaneous message and an advertisement.
“Moreover,” warns the French Union of Public Relations Specialists, “this method consists of artificially attributing a market value to the spontaneous reactions of an audience. It’s the digital equivalent of the Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), which tries to assign a market value to an item by comparing it to the value of advertising space.”
However, EMV is just one indicator in a range of many that can be used to draw conclusions about the performance of an influencer or influencer marketing campaign. Its value as an indicator resides in how it is applied to the reporting and analysis process.
As with any influencer marketing campaign, the first and most crucial step is to establish your specific goals; if sales or conversions are the goal, EMV is perhaps not the most important indicator for measuring performance.
But if the goal is generating awareness and reach or competitor benchmarking and analysis, EMV can be a useful aggregator and one of the better ways to judge whether you've impacted your target audience. You can also use an adjustment factor to ensure it fits your goals.
Secondly, and equally importantly, transparency around the baseline calculation of EMV is paramount. So is ensuring all team members—internal and external—are working off the same baseline values and calculations. Anything less will render comparable analyses unreliable.
There are plenty of agencies that can help you measure EMV, including:
Agencies handling EMV in NYC:
Agencies handling EMV in London:
Agencies handling EMV in London:
While agencies are helpful for gauging EMV, they're costly. Consider an influencer marketing platform like Kolsquare. You can automatically track the EMV of individual influencers, posts, and your overall campaign.
This is a completely different type of EMV from earned media value.
The EMV Headline Analyzer is a free tool that scores headlines based on emotional appeal. It calculates your emotional marketing value (the EMV in this case), which is a percentage that reflects how likely your headline is to resonate with readers on an intellectual, empathetic, or spiritual level.
So, to EMV or not to EMV? That is the question. While this metric isn't ultra-reliable, it's a useful benchmark. And while new ways to measure ROI emerge, there's still value in analysing the connections and awareness generated by your influencer marketing strategy.
Let’s give the last word from Kolsquare Founder and CEO Quentin Bordage.
“In an ideal world, one day the industry will have a standardized method for calculating EMV that is validated by the platforms,” he says. “EMV is not perfect, but it’s the only relevant aggregated indicator. Valuation of engagement can be challenged and personalized, and calculation should be more transparent in the market to allow comparison."
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
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