Most manufacturers chase publicity. They pour cash into adverts and PR, hoping to purchase consideration. And, it really works when you have deep pockets. However in case you don’t?
Then, you’ve acquired a bunch of ways to achieve earned media worth with out paying for each point out. Right here’s the place your entire crew will make it easier to achieve EMV.
On this article, I’ll break down what EMV is, why EMV isn’t simply your advertising crew’s concern, tips on how to calculate EMV to show its influence, and real-world examples of manufacturers doing it proper.
Desk of Contents
What’s earned media worth?
Earned media worth (EMV) is the estimated greenback value of all of the publicity your model will get — with out paying for adverts. It’s free exposure from media coverage, social media mentions, shares, and good old style word-of-mouth.
EMV is often calculated by evaluating it to the price of working adverts with the identical attain and influence. In different phrases, how a lot would you must spend on promoting to get the identical degree of consideration?
Channels That Drive Earned Media Worth
- Public relations (PR): Getting your model featured in information articles, magazines, TV, or radio by strategic outreach — at no cost.
- Social media mentions and shares: When folks speak about your model on platforms like Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Reddit, or Fb.
- Influencer advertising: When influencers, bloggers, or vloggers organically hype up your product/service to their viewers.
- Phrase-of-mouth: The strongest advertising software — folks recommending your model to buddies, household, enterprise companions, teammates, and many others.
- UGC: Buyer opinions, unboxing movies, testimonials, and any content material created by actual customers.
- Visitor running a blog and podcasts: Being invited to share your experience on exterior platforms to faucet into new audiences.
- Awards and recognitions: Business accolades that enhance your model’s credibility and authority.
In brief, EMV occurs when folks speak about your model as a result of they wish to — not since you paid them. It’s actual affect, not rented area.
Why ought to your crew know your earned media worth?
Earned media isn’t only a self-importance metric. It’s an indicator of brand name belief, buyer engagement, and advertising effectiveness.
Right here’s why your crew wants to trace and perceive it.
Builds model authority and belief.
Earned media builds the strongest belief between a model and its viewers. When a model’s message comes from a 3rd celebration, it immediately feels extra credible.
Costco is a great example of an organization that makes essentially the most of earned media. Its high-quality Signature Choose merchandise and dedication to its $1.50 hot dog combo have bred model loyalty. You might have heard of the Costco guys, a father-and-son duo that opinions the corporate’s merchandise. My private favourite is the band The By no means Ending Fall’s sequence, “Can It Kirkland?” In every video, they evaluate name-brand and Coscto-brand alcohol.
@neverendingfall Can it Kirkland? ONE LAST TIME 🥺 LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. Thanks for all the laughs 🥹 (come find us on the gram) ❤️#costco #kirkland #fyp #xyzbca #canitkirkland
Really, Costco doesn’t spend on promoting. As an alternative, the corporate depends closely on earned media and phrase of mouth, resulting in a model worth of $48.3 billion in 2024.
Boosts visibility and referrals.
Because of EMV, your model spreads naturally by shares, natural mentions, and referrals. As an illustration, 14.28% of Coca-Cola’s traffic comes from referrals only.
In reality, Fb alone accounts for 51.23% of Coca-Cola’s complete social media referrals, highlighting the influence of natural attain on model visibility.
However how does it work for smaller manufacturers?
I talked to Mia Jozipović, content material and advertising strategist for Siterice.hr. She not too long ago pulled off an excellent PR marketing campaign and shares her suggestions:
“We ran a examine utilizing knowledge from our platform on the typical prices of childcare, pet care, and cleansing providers in Croatia for 2025. I despatched the information to media retailers I believed would discover it fascinating, and it led to tons of PR articles — fully free,” she mentioned.
“For instance, Net.hr and Lider Media — a few of Croatia’s largest websites gave us free media protection. Did we deserve it? Completely! I gave them one thing juicy they merely couldn’t resist.”
This case means your analysts or coders need to roll up their sleeves and help advertising of us in getting ready analysis. Most significantly, they’ve to know the “why” and its enterprise influence.
Improves technique and funds allocation.
Monitoring EMV knowledge means understanding what’s working and the place to regulate. The best platforms, content material varieties, and influencers can drive critical worth, however with no clear measurement technique, it’s straightforward to misallocate assets.
Olivia Tian, advertising and innovation supervisor at Raise 3D, an industrial 3D printing firm, shared an excellent instance of this in motion.
She informed me a couple of product launch the place they closely relied on PR and assumed media protection alone would generate conversions. Whereas they secured stable placements, engagement stalled.
Subsequent, she amplified it by LinkedIn thought management posts, nurtured it through e mail advertising and built-in it into gross sales enablement supplies.
This one adjustment — embedding media mentions into outbound gross sales efforts — led to a 30% enhance in e mail response charges.
Tian wraps it up by saying:
“Do not simply chase PR wins — guarantee earned media is woven into your broader advertising and gross sales funnel for long-term influence.”
The lesson: EMV campaigns embrace salespeople, too, to unfold the phrase.
The Earned Media Worth Method
EMV helps manufacturers put a greenback quantity on unpaid publicity. Whereas there’s no single commonplace method, entrepreneurs typically calculate it by estimating how a lot they might have spent on adverts to get the identical attain and engagement.
The essential EMV method is:
- Complete Impressions — Contains views from social media, press protection, influencer mentions, and user-generated content material.
- CPM for Paid Advertisements — Take a look at business benchmarks or your previous campaigns to see how a lot manufacturers sometimes pay per 1,000 impressions in your area.
- Multiply Impressions by CPM — Provides you an estimated greenback worth of what your earned media publicity would price if it have been paid promoting.
Various Methods to Measure EMV
Typically, you may tweak the method to make it extra correct relying on the channel and engagement metrics. Listed below are a couple of different approaches:
1. Engagement-Primarily based EMV Method
Since impressions alone don’t present true influence, some entrepreneurs think about engagement (likes, shares, feedback) to get a extra correct worth:
- CPE (Value per Engagement) represents the typical price of a like, share, or remark in paid media campaigns.
2. PR Worth Method
For press protection, PR groups typically use an Promoting Worth Equivalency (AVE) mannequin:
- This works nicely for conventional media (newspapers, magazines) by estimating what it could price to purchase that very same quantity of area in advert kind.
- Multiply it by a credibility issue (sometimes 2-5x).
3. Influencer EMV Method
For influencer partnerships, manufacturers often calculate EMV utilizing engagement charges and influencer pricing fashions:
- CPE (Value per Engagement) and CPV (Value per View) range by business and influencer tier.
“Our most profitable EMV marketing campaign concerned partnering with micro-influencers in our area of interest who created genuine content material showcasing our product. We calculated influence utilizing: (Estimated Promoting Worth) x (High quality Multiplier) x (Engagement Fee),” says Lisa Benson, advertising strategist at DeBella DeBall Designs.
“For instance, a put up reaching 10,000 folks in our target market with excessive engagement can be calculated as: (Value for equal paid attain) x (1.5 for constructive sentiment) x (engagement fee of 6%). This method helped us display that earned protection was delivering 3x the worth of our paid channels,” Benson mentioned.
4. UGC EMV Method
For user-generated content material, you may calculate EMV based mostly on engagement and attain:
Natalia Lavrenenko, UGC supervisor at Rathly, provides her approach to calculate UGC influence and shares suggestions for result-driven campaigns.
“Excessive engagement beats excessive follower rely each time. Earlier than launching, check completely different creators with small-budget activations to see who truly converts. One marketing campaign stood out by turning UGC into model momentum,” she mentioned.
“A giveaway inspired prospects to share their experiences, resulting in 1000’s of natural posts. EMV was calculated utilizing: (Complete Mentions x Common CPM) + (Engagements x Worth per Interplay) = Earned Media Worth.”
Which EMV method do you have to use?
It is dependent upon your model’s targets:
For social media: Engagement-based EMV works greatest.
For PR and press protection: AVE provides a stable estimate.
For influencer advertising: Use engagement + view-based EMV.
Whereas EMV isn’t an ideal science, monitoring it helps manufacturers perceive the actual influence of natural buzz. Select a method that aligns together with your technique and tweak it as you collect extra knowledge.
Professional tip: HubSpot’s free Paid Media Template helps you observe and set up media placements throughout channels like paid search, social media, TV, and extra. Simply calculate metrics like CPC, CPM, CPA, and ROAS, whereas analyzing efficiency to see which channels ship the perfect outcomes for your enterprise.
Earned Media Worth in Motion
Let’s get sensible and stroll you thru a made-up instance of an EMV marketing campaign from the very starting.
Situation: A advertising supervisor tasked to draw new gymnasium guests for an indoor mountain climbing gymnasium. They should create a viral marketing campaign that can be lifted by professionals and newbies and native sports activities information at no cost.
Implementation: The gymnasium hosts a particular occasion the place a 10-year-old climber completes a difficult route meant for professionals. A spectator information the second and posts it on Instagram and TikTok, tagging the climbing gymnasium. The video positive factors:
- 1.5 million views.
- 75K likes.
- 4K shares.
- 800 feedback.
The advertising supervisor takes it to native information and a nationwide sports activities journal. They comply with put up the story at no cost, which triggers an avalanche of health bloggers choosing up the story — all with out the gymnasium spending a dime on adverts.
EMV Calculations
Right here, we use the method :
EMV = (Impressions × CPM) + (Engagements × CPE)
The place:
- CPM (Value per 1,000 impressions) = $8 (business common for health adverts)
- CPE (Value per engagement) = $0.40
Making use of the Method
1. Impressions Worth
(1,500,000÷1,000)×8=12,000
2. Engagement Worth
(75,000+4,000+800)×0.40=31,120
3. Complete Earned Media Worth
12,000+31,120=43,120
Because of this the ultimate EMV accounts for $43,120 value of publicity.
Why does this matter?
If the advertising supervisor selected paid adverts to draw new leads and achieve publicity, they might’ve wanted a major funds to succeed in the identical viewers.
And to be sincere, I can hardly think about the climbing gymnasium investing over $43K in paid adverts in a single month.
3 Examples of Earned Media Worth
Now that we all know what EMV is and tips on how to calculate it, let’s take a look at a couple of manufacturers that basically know tips on how to benefit from it.
1. How did the Barbie film spark natural buzz?
The advertising marketing campaign for the Barbie film, launched in 2023, grew to become a standout instance of earned media success.
Warner Bros created an immersive and catchy marketing campaign, together with the “Barbiecore” aesthetic that dominated social media platforms (TikTok and Instagram particularly).
The marketing campaign sparked natural conversations, with influencers and followers sharing their very own Barbie-inspired outfits, memes, and experiences. This led to an avalanche of free publicity throughout social media, information retailers, and popular culture discussions.
Why I prefer it: The marketing campaign blended nostalgia with fashionable traits, encouraging UGC content material that prolonged its attain far past paid adverts. It reveals how aligning your model with cultural moments can create an enormous earned media influence.
2. How does Duolingo flip traits into consideration?
To comply with up on the Barbie development, I can’t skip mentioning Duolingo’s excellent timing with their owl mascot, who reworked into Margot Robbie. Duolingo made a splash with a pre-film ad inspired by Barbie and a presence at a film premiere in LA:
It didn’t simply prove daring however resulted in tons of likes and feedback, with a few of the hottest media retailers and influencers making stitches of those movies, giving Duolingo much more publicity.
In reality, Duolingo’s TikTok has turn into a masterclass in viral content material, constantly producing earned media. Their owl mascot, featured in humorous and relatable movies, usually racks up tens of millions of views and shares.
Why I prefer it: Duolingo proves that even tech manufacturers can humanize themselves by humor and relatability. And by leaping on traits on the proper time, they get observed by influencers and media.
3. How does Semrush amplify its occasion attain organically?
Global Marketing Day, hosted by Semrush, is a 24-hour on-line advertising convention that brings collectively prime specialists from main manufacturers like Google, TikTok, Pinterest, and Vogue Enterprise.
The occasion streams reside from studios in New York, London, and Dubai, providing 48 periods on subjects like web optimization, branding, AI, and extra.
Semrush generated social media buzz and UGC content material all through the occasion, incomes media publicity throughout completely different platforms.
The outcomes from the 2023 convention communicate for themselves:
- Reached over 5 million folks throughout all posts.
- Generated 2,700 tweets with #globalmarketingday.
- Attracted 90,000 registrants.
- Secured 55,000+ leads.
Why I prefer it: Whenever you invite specialists from completely different corporations, you’re just about assured quite a lot of shares from their groups and connections. A snowball impact — extra shares, much less effort. Phrase of mouth takes over.
Additionally, by inviting SMEs, Semrush reveals they’re not simply throwing an occasion, they’re solidifying their spot as a frontrunner in digital advertising training.
Don’t Purchase Consideration — Earn It
Is it simpler to get a point out once you pay? Sure. However is it extra useful? No.
Paid mentions can convey fast outcomes or flop, however the actual worth lies in EMV. Each model ought to purpose for a long-term recreation — nice content material and good promotion on their very own finish to make the media or an influencer discover them.
Get these items proper, media consideration comes naturally.
Monitor the worth of natural mentions. Use AI to trace model mentions, and always remember to thank the media that featured you.
Construct these relationships. Earn that focus, nurture it, and watch it compound.
