Earned Media Value's Impact on 2024 Influencer Campaigns

How to estimate EMV?

This leads to confusion and misunderstandings about what EMV represents and how to estimate it, especially when marketers attempt to compare campaigns 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.

Earned media value calculator with Kolsquare's formula

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

Earned media value example equation with likes, comments, and impressions

Let's walk through an example calculation for EMV using the provided formula. We'll use the following values:

• Number of likes: 10,000
• Value of a like: $0.10
• Number of comments: 500
• Value of a comment: $1.00
• Number of impressions: 100,000
• Value of 1,000 impressions: $5.00

Now, let's plug these values into the formula:

1. Likes component: Number of likes × value of a like = $1,000
2. Comments component: Number of comments × value of a comment = $500.00
3. Impressions component: Number of impressions × value of impressions = $500.00

The final part of the earned media value calculation is to total the components. As a result, in this example, the EMV would be $2,000.

This value means that a brand creating a piece of content with an influencer 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 viewers and share of voice from the content produced.

What is the average earned media value?

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 EMV because each campaign's impact and engagement metrics differ widely.

What is a good earned media value?

Determining a good EMV is near-impossible, especially with little access to an average value. 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, your EMV should exceed the cost of your campaign. For example, if you invest $10,000 in a campaign and achieve an EMV of $50,000, the ROI would be considered positive.

Comparing your EMV to 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.

What EMV can and cannot tell us about the impact of a social media marketing campaign

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 told influencer marketing professionals at the Influencer Marketing Klub in Paris recently.

“[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.”

Earned Media Value: one metric for measuring success among many. Use it wisely.

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.

The final word: How to calculate EMV for influencer marketing?

So, to EMV or not to EMV? 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.”