What Is EMV in Influencer Marketing? And Why It Matters

Measuring the true impact of influencer marketing goes beyond likes, comments, and shares – Earned Media Value (EMV) is a widely used metric to track and evaluate campaign performance.

It helps brands put a dollar value on the attention their content earns across social media platforms, blogs, and beyond.

In this post, we’ll break down what EMV actually means, why it matters, how it’s measured, and how you can make sure you’re using it right. We’ll also talk about common challenges with EMV and how Companion makes it easy (even automatic) to track it. Let’s dive in.

What is EMV?

EMV – or Earned Media Value – is a metric that estimates the value of exposure a brand gains through unpaid (or "earned") media. In influencer marketing, that’s the visibility and engagement generated by influencers posting about your brand.

Instead of paying for an ad, you're gaining reach through someone else’s content. EMV assigns a dollar amount to this reach, based on what it would’ve cost if you had to pay for the same visibility through traditional advertising.

Say an influencer’s Instagram story about your product generates 50,000 views. EMV helps you understand what those 50,000 views would’ve cost if you bought them as ads.

Why EMV matters

Influencer campaigns can be tricky to evaluate. Vanity metrics (like views or likes) only scratch the surface. EMV goes deeper. It gives you a tangible way to compare influencer content to paid media, so you know what kind of return you’re actually getting.

If your EMV is higher than what you spent on the campaign, you’re in the green. If not, it’s a sign to reevaluate your strategy.

But there’s more:

• It’s a solid benchmark: EMV can be used across campaigns, so you can see what worked and what didn’t.

• It helps justify ROI: EMV gives you proof that an influencer campaign is working.

• It optimizes budget allocation: When you know which influencers or platforms are generating the most value, you can spend smarter next time.

How is EMV calculated?

The not-so-secret truth: There’s no single standard formula.
Different platforms and tools calculate EMV in different ways. But most use a variation of this formula:

EMV = (Engagement x Media Rate)

The engagement could be likes, comments, shares, or even impressions. The media rate is what a brand would typically pay to achieve that engagement through ads.

Let’s say a sponsored Instagram post gets 10,000 likes. If Instagram’s average cost-per-like is $0.25, your EMV is $2,500.

Some platforms go more granular, assigning different values to different types of engagement (for example, a comment might be worth more than a like). Others take reach, impressions, and content quality into account.

At Companion, you can:

• Let us do it automatically with standardized industry rates per impression.

• Customize your EMV by assigning estimated impressions when they are not available automatically.

• Either way, you get transparency and flexibility.

EMV in action: A quick example

Let’s say you launch a skincare brand and work with 5 influencers for your campaign. Here’s what you get:

• 3 Instagram Reels with 200,000 impressions each
• 2 YouTube videos with 100,000 impressions each
• 5 Instagram Stories

Combined engagement: 80,000 likes, 5,000 comments

Now imagine calculating the ad equivalents:

• $0.10 per Instagram impression
• $0.30 per YouTube view
• $0.25 per engagement

Using those rates, your EMV could be over $80,000. If your campaign budget was $25,000, that’s a pretty good return.

Common challenges with EMV (and how to solve them)

EMV isn’t perfect. Here’s where it can get tricky:

1. No standard calculation method
   Different tools – different results. That makes it hard to compare EMV across platforms.

2. Valuing engagement isn’t exact
   What’s a like or impression really worth? It depends on the brand, the audience, and the platform.

3. Quality vs. quantity
   A post that generates lots of engagement isn’t always valuable if it doesn’t align with your brand or drive conversions.

4. Bots and fake engagement
   Not all engagement is real. That can inflate EMV.

5. Focus on vanity
   EMV can be the only metric you track. You need to have a holistic report to get meaningful insights. With Companion, you can create such reports in one click.

So how can you make EMV work for you?

Think of EMV as part of a bigger picture. It’s a valuable indicator, but it works best when paired with other metrics like:

• Conversions
• Click-through rates
• Brand sentiment
• Customer acquisition cost

Here’s how to get the most out of EMV:

Use consistent formulas: Stick to one method for comparing campaigns.
Pair EMV with UTM tracking: See how influencer content drives traffic and sales.
Compare to paid media: If your EMV consistently beats your ad spend, that’s a green light.
Track over time: Long-term patterns tell you more than one-off wins.

How Companion helps you track EMV (without headaches)

Tracking EMV manually is a pain. That’s why we built Companion to do it for you.

With Companion, you can:

• Automatically calculate EMV for each influencer and post
• Customize estimated impressions to calculate EMV when the data is not available.
• See performance in one dashboard across campaigns, platforms, and creators
• Filter by creator, platform, or post type to find what drives the most value
• Create comprehensive campaign reports in one click.

Whether you’re a brand or an agency, you can finally connect the dots between content and ROI – without spreadsheets.

Final thoughts: Don’t just guess – measure

EMV is about getting a clearer, smarter view of how influencer marketing performs.

When used correctly, EMV helps you:

• Evaluate performance fairly
• Make better budget decisions
• Find your most valuable creators
• Track results over time

And with Companion, it’s all automatic.

Try Companion for free to measure EMV for your next campaign.