What is earned media value and how to measure it?

Hello, brand growth managers and brand marketers,

Have you ever noticed a brand that is buzzing a lot on social media, new websites, blogs, and gaining a lot of momentum everywhere digitally?

Did you know, you can implement that too without putting fancy budgets?

Feels incredible, isn’t it?

Yes, that’s the magic of ‘Earned Media’. If you want to know how much all that worth in dollars, we should understand what is ‘Earn Media Value (EMV)’.

If you are interested in what exactly this metric means for your brand and how this earned media can help your brand growth, you’re in the right place.

Let’s dive in deeply to understand in detail.

What is earned media?

Before you get into the EMV, it is important to understand what earned media is and what it means for a brand. In simple terms, earned media is a kind of publicity that you get genuinely from your brand followers and users or loyal customers.

It’s all about people talking about your brand, their positive recommendations, and featuring and sharing your brand content without getting sponsored by your brand.

Some examples include:

• A customer sharing their love for your branded product
• A blogger writing a positive note
• Brand mentioning in an article
• Some viral TikTok mention about your service

Earned media has the power to showcase the authenticity of a brand. It is not a sales pitch; it is a genuine word of mouth that is gained from people’s trust in your brand.

What is Earned Media Value (EMV)?

Earned Media Value is the money earned from receiving positive mentions across digital and offline media. It is an important metric to any brand as it helps them how much they can expect from their marketing efforts. If you are thinking about how your brand can get this kind of visibility and mentions through advertising. The EMV can give you the right answer to your question.

The earned media is not ‘free’, your brand might not pay directly for all the mentions, or conversations that are driving online and offline, but it is often a result of your marketing campaigns, PR efforts, brand-building strategies, and how well your brand has delivered the overall customer experience.

 Why brands should focus on EMV?

The marketing budgets are not infinite, when brands are investing their time and money into campaigns; they just want to see results. That’s where EMV can help them. It’s an interesting area to focus on.

EMV helps brands:

• To understand the ROI received from non-paid activities
• To justify spending on PR, events, and campaigns
• Measuring success over time or against their competitors
• Understanding what channels work for their brand

Think, it’s clear when you say your brand got returns in numbers, which can make a bigger impact in the boardroom rather than a statement.

How to measure EMV?

There is no hard and fast rule to measure EMV. However, certain frameworks are experimented with based on the specific goals and type of media that brands are earning from. Here are some frameworks or methods you can approach to measure EMV for your brand.

#1 The classic paid media equivalent method

 This is a kind of direct way to calculate the EMV. Just simply check the total cost that is required to gain the same number of impressions, engagements, and clicks through paid advertising.

Say, if you get 50k impressions Meta ads may cost around $500. You may earn some 50k impressions organically through a viral tweet. Then your EMV will be equal to $500.

Key metrics involved:

• Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• Cost Per Click (CPC)

All your brand has to do is match the organic performance to the paid ones.

#2 Measuring based on Engagement

It is always clear that not all engagements are created equally and a comment is not equal to share or impressions and vice versa. This engagement-based model helps brands to assign a value to different interactions.

For example, say getting likes possesses a small value, comments a higher one, and shares a bit higher than those two. You have to multiply the number of each engagement type with the respective value you estimated and then sum them all to get the EMV.

#3 The Weighted EMV model

If your brand is looking for deeper insights about the EMV they received from earned media. This model doesn’t just focus on the impressions or engagements. It also considers the following.

• Quality of audience: Are the people who are engaged seeing your content or not?
• Credibility: Whether it came from a credible source or just a random one
• Analyzing sentiment: is the coverage a neutral or negative or a positive one?

The weighted model always gives an accurate analysis of your EMV which is created truly but requires more data and analysis.

What are the common mistakes to avoid while measuring EMV?

Generally, brands fall into the trap of overinflating or underestimating the EMV. Here is what brands should avoid:

Don’t just focus on vanity metrics: Getting high impressions always means the impact is higher. Always focus on meaningful engagements.

Do not ignore negative comments: remember that not all the publicity you receive is positive. Always be accountable for sentiment in EMV analysis.

Do not use inconsistent benchmarks: The EMV calculations must reflect the changes while calculating the CPM of a few months.

Do not assume that your EMV is revenue: You may earn $100K in media value but that doesn’t mean you received that amount in sales. Always remember, that EMV is all about the exposure value, not the direct profit.

Final Thoughts on EMV for Brands

Brands have to realize that paid advertising alone is not enough in their hyper-connected world. People trust real voices and authentic brands. Brands have to strive to get that genuine excitement from users. Earned Media Value provides a clear and tangible way to measure the overall impact of that excitement and trust. It may not be perfect or the only metric that matters. Brands should use this metric wisely as it helps them understand the overall brand reputation in the chaotic market. So, next time, when someone shares your brand story or a product, just measure, value, and learn from it because earned media is the real influence.