EMV or Earned Media Value is the accepted advertising industry standard for measuring PR activities and influencer marketing campaigns. HypeAuditor EMV is based on a proprietary methodology and shows what it would have cost to gain the same reach through paid social among an audience with similar demographics.
EMV assigns a monetary value to every interaction made with a post or account on social media and calculates the total value of their "earned" interactions. That means every like and comment is given a value and added together to create a single, easily discernible value. Not all social media interactions are equal, but they do all provide some level of value.
Which metrics affect the Earned Media Value?
Reach — the estimated number of impressions per influencer's post. All inauthentic activity is excluded from the calculation to clear this metric of fraud.
Engagements — the number of likes, views, and comments.
Number of followers
Overall account quality and authenticity
Audience age, gender, and location.
To establish a baseline EMV for each type of social media interaction, HypeAuditor adopted an integrated approach that included research from third-party reports, data science analysis through internal and external monitoring tools, and experience in pricing creative media placements across industry verticals and venues.
Why does EMV matter for influencer marketing?
EMV gives brands and marketers a single monetary benchmark to compare influencers and evaluate campaigns on equal footing. Because it translates earned interactions into an equivalent paid-media cost, it helps justify influencer marketing budgets, assess whether the reach and engagement delivered by an influencer were cost-efficient, and prioritize creators whose audiences generate the highest value relative to their fee.