Gain a complete picture of your brand reach and marketing ROI
Calculating Earned Media Value (EMV) moves your brand beyond simple text-based metrics, accounting for the actual impact of video, audio, text, and visual content across more platforms to create a cohesive brand picture.
Because traditional social listening tools miss up to 75% of these mentions, your EMV calculation must be fueled by social listening that includes multimedia data, including video transcripts, voice analysis, and image analysis, to ensure every organic impression is captured.
Use our Gemini Gem to calculate your EMV, or use our template here to build your own.
The Core EMV Formula
The standard 2026 approach for high-velocity multimedia platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels uses a weighted formula based on reach, engagement, and platform-specific benchmarks. This assigns value to both impressions and interactions.
The Formula
EMV = (Impressions/1,000 X CPM) + (Engagements X CPE) + Content modifier
1. Determine Your True Impressions
Legacy tools only count impressions from text-based tags. To find the true reach in 2026, you must include:
- Transcript-Derived Impressions: Reach from reels, shorts, videos, or podcasts where your brand was spoken but not tagged.
- Visual-Derived Impressions: Reach from images, audio, or video frames where your logo was detected via OCR or Computer Vision.
- Dark Social Estimations: Reach from communities (Bitchute, Telegram) where public mentions often originate.
2. Apply Platform-Specific CPM Benchmarks
Assign a monetary value per 1,000 impressions based on what that exposure would cost in a paid campaign.
Pro Tip: In 2026, many brands apply a 2x multiplier to influencer-generated impressions because organic recommendations are more trustworthy and credible than paid ads.
3. Value Engagement (CPE)
Not all actions are equal; now brands must assign higher monetary values to high-effort engagements that signal deep audience intent.
- Likes/Reactions: Lower value (e.g., $0.50).
- Comments: Medium value (e.g., $1.00 - $3.00).
- Shares/Saves: High value (e.g., $1.00 - $5.00) because they trigger algorithmic virality.
4. The 2026 Intelligence Modifier
Modern EMV is about quality, not volume. Adjust your final dollar value based on these AI-driven weights:
- Sentiment Weight: A negative mention may be weighted at 0.3x, while a positive endorsement is weighted at 1.0x.
- Audience Relevance: If the content reached your target demographic, apply a 1.0x multiplier; if it reached an irrelevant audience, use a 0.5x multiplier.
- Discovery Depth: Spoken mentions captured via ASR often represent higher-intent active conversations than a passive logo appearance.
Get more tips to build a successful brand in 2026 in this blog.
Why This Matters for Your 2026 Strategy
This formula moves you from vanity metrics to business outcomes. You can finally show proof that your brand is generating millions in auditable market value that your old social listening tools were simply unable to track.
Download our 2026 Trend Report to learn more about building better brand command in 2026.
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