Earned media value calculator: EMV, influencer ROI and CPM for a campaign
· Nolyn research team
How do you calculate earned media value?
There is no single standard formula. A common form is EMV = views ÷ 1,000 × CPM + likes, comments and shares × a value for each. A campaign with 250,000 views, 12,000 likes, 400 comments and 600 shares comes to $3,517.50, using the $4.07 median TikTok ad CPM Triple Whale reports for October 2025 to September 2026 and Brandwatch's illustrative $0.10 per like, $1.00 per comment and $1.50 per share. With $2,000 in creator fees that is $8.00 per 1,000 views and $0.15 per engagement, and $3,200 in revenue is a 60% ROI. Sources checked November 5, 2026.
Enter a campaign's views, likes, comments and shares, what you paid creators and, if you track it, the revenue it brought. You get the cost per 1,000 views, the cost per engagement, an earned media value and the ROI. EMV has no standard formula, so the values behind it are inputs: the defaults come from named public sources, and you can replace them with your own. Everything runs in your browser.
Calculate your campaign's EMV, ROI and CPM
Free · no sign-up · runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent or saved.
All posts in the campaign, organic only. The numbers already in the form are an example, not a benchmark.
Everything you paid creators. Add product, shipping and agency time if you want them in the cost.
Sales you can tie to it, for example through discount codes or tracked links. Enter gross profit instead for a profit-based ROI. Leave it empty if you don't track sales.
$4.07 is the median TikTok ad CPM in Triple Whale's data (Meta $15.48, Google $15.93). Your own ad account's CPM is better. Enter 0 to leave views out.
An illustration from Brandwatch, not a market price. So are the next two.
- Cost per 1,000 views (influencer CPM)
- $8.00
- Cost per engagement
- $0.15
- Engagements (likes, comments, shares)
- 13,000
- EMV from views
- $1,017.50
- EMV from engagement
- $2,500.00
- Earned media value (EMV)
- $3,517.50
- EMV per $1 of creator fees
- $1.76
- ROI on revenue
- 60%
EMV estimates what similar exposure might cost as ads, using the values you entered. It is not money earned, so it is not part of the ROI.
Have the post links? Get the real numbers for the whole list
Paste your campaign's TikTok, Reels and Shorts links and creator fees. Nolyn reads each post's public counts and returns a report per creator with cost per 1,000 views, plus a CSV. Put the totals in the calculator above. This step reads live data, so it needs a free account: new accounts get 100 credits, and a report on 16 posts took 41.
Only need the raw counts?
Paste your post links into the bulk TikTok views checker to get one table with each post's views, likes, comments and shares where the platform shows them, with Reels and Shorts in the same list. Sign-in required; new accounts get 100 credits.
Earned media value formula, and the ROI and CPM next to it
EMV asks what the attention a campaign got would have cost as advertising. Brandwatch gives two forms: views or impressions at a CPM, and the same plus a value per engagement. This calculator uses the second and shows the two parts on separate lines, so you can report either one. To get the views-only form that Upfluence uses, set the three engagement values to 0; for an engagement-only form like Sprout Social's, set the value of 1,000 views to 0.
In the example, 250,000 views at $4.07 are worth $1,017.50. The engagement adds $2,500.00: 12,000 likes at $0.10, 400 comments at $1.00 and 600 shares at $1.50. EMV is $3,517.50, or $1.76 for each $1 of the $2,000 in fees. No multiplier is applied, though some tools add one: SocialRails multiplies influencer campaigns by 1.5.
- EMV = views ÷ 1,000 × CPM + likes × value per like + comments × value per comment + shares × value per share
- Influencer CPM = creator fees ÷ views × 1,000
- Cost per engagement = creator fees ÷ (likes + comments + shares)
- ROI = (revenue − creator fees) ÷ creator fees
Value per like, comment and share: what public sources use
No published value per like, comment or share is a market price. Brandwatch calls its figures illustrative, Sprout Social calls its example simplified, and Sprout Social and Later both say there is no standard method or formula. The table below runs the same example campaign through the four sets we could find, all with views at $4.07.
- The same campaign comes to anywhere from $3,517.50 to $10,017.50, a factor of 2.8, from the choice of values alone.
- Sprout Social suggests starting from the cost per engagement of your own paid social campaigns. That is a better base than any table here, because it comes from prices you actually paid.
- EMV from different tools can't be compared. HypeAuditor's help page lists what goes into its figure without per-action numbers, and Later's reporting uses the Ayzenberg index, which is recalculated daily.
- Pick one set of values, write it in the report and keep it across campaigns. Then the trend means something, even though the dollar figure is an estimate.
| Source of the values | Like | Comment | Share | EMV from engagement | EMV with views |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brandwatch | $0.10 | $1.00 | $1.50 | $2,500.00 | $3,517.50 |
| SocialRails | $0.10 | $0.50 | $2.50 | $2,900.00 | $3,917.50 |
| Sprout Social | $0.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 | $7,300.00 | $8,317.50 |
| Later | $0.50 | Not given | $5.00 | $9,000.00 | $10,017.50 |
250,000 views, 12,000 likes, 400 comments, 600 shares. Sprout Social's values are its $0.50 cost per engagement × weights of 1, 2 and 3. Later's example gives no value for comments, so they count as $0 here. Checked November 5, 2026.
Which CPM to use for views
The best CPM is the one you pay in your own ad account on the same platform. Without one, public medians give an order of magnitude. The value of the same 250,000 views changes almost fourfold with the platform.
| CPM | Per 1,000 | 250,000 views |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok ads, median (Triple Whale) | $4.07 | $1,017.50 |
| Industry average listed by Upfluence | $6.50 | $1,625.00 |
| Meta ads, median (Triple Whale) | $15.48 | $3,870.00 |
| Google ads, median (Triple Whale) | $15.93 | $3,982.50 |
Triple Whale: its customers' ads, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, so e-commerce stores rather than all advertisers. Its TikTok medians by industry run from $3.58 to $6.70. Upfluence does not say where its figure comes from.
What EMV does not tell you
EMV is an estimate of ad cost. It says nothing about whether anyone bought, remembered or changed their mind, and it is disputed. AMEC, the international measurement association for communication, says in Barcelona Principles V4.0 that advertising value equivalents should not be used. It lists EMV among their other names, calling them "essentially variations of the same flawed metric". If you must still report one, it advises not describing it with the words value, impact or ROI, and stating its limits and how it was calculated, including any multipliers.
- It is why this calculator keeps ROI separate: ROI comes from revenue, and EMV never enters it.
- Clients who ask for EMV can have it, as one line next to views, engagement and sales, with the values written beside it.
- An ad CPM is priced on impressions, and platforms count a view differently. Using it for views is an approximation.
- Adding views and engagement counts the same person twice when they watch and like. That is how the expanded form works, and one reason to show the two parts separately.
- Paid-boosted views are bought, not earned, so leave them out.
Reading influencer ROI and CPM
ROI on revenue flatters a campaign, because revenue is not profit. In the example, $3,200 of revenue on $2,000 of fees is a 60% ROI. At a 50% margin the same sales leave $1,600 of gross profit, and the ROI on profit is −20%. For a decision about spending again, enter gross profit in the revenue field. To work out how much a creator should cost before the campaign, use the influencer rate calculator, and for a break-even target on sales, the break-even ROAS calculator.
Influencer CPM is the number that compares creators, because it needs no assumed values: $2,000 for 250,000 views is $8.00 per 1,000. Compare it across the creators in a campaign, and with your ad CPM as a reference, remembering that an ad buys targeting and a creator post brings content and an audience's trust. Totals also hide the spread between creators, so calculate it per creator. The influencer campaign report does that from the post links and fees.
How to use the earned media value calculator
Add up the campaign's numbers
Views, likes, comments and shares across all posts, read on the same day.
Enter fees and revenue
Fees are required for the costs. Revenue is optional and is the only input to ROI.
Replace the assumed values
Use the CPM and cost per engagement from your own ad account if you have them.
Report the assumptions with the result
Give EMV with the values used, next to the cost per 1,000 views, the cost per engagement and sales.
Questions
An estimate of what the attention from unpaid content would have cost as advertising. For an influencer campaign it is usually views at a CPM plus a dollar value per like, comment and share. In our example of 250,000 views, it comes to $3,517.50 with a $4.07 CPM and Brandwatch's illustrative values.
We found no benchmark we can stand behind, because EMV depends on the values chosen. Our example gives $1.76 per $1 of fees with one published set of values and $5.01 with another, for the same posts. Compare your own campaigns using one fixed set of values.
There is no market price. Public examples run from $0.10 to $0.50 per like, $0.50 to $1.00 per comment and $1.50 to $5.00 per share, and their authors present them as illustrations. The cost per engagement from your own paid campaigns is a better base.
(Revenue − creator fees) ÷ creator fees. $3,200 of revenue on $2,000 of fees is a 60% ROI. Revenue is not profit: at a 50% margin the same campaign leaves $1,600, an ROI of −20%.
No. ROI compares money in with money out. EMV is an estimate of ad cost, so a campaign can show a high EMV and sell nothing. AMEC advises against using the word ROI for this kind of figure, and this calculator never adds EMV to ROI.
Creator fees ÷ views × 1,000. $2,000 for 250,000 views is $8.00 per 1,000 views. This is what you actually paid, unlike the CPM in the EMV formula, which is an assumed ad price.
It is widely reported and widely criticized. AMEC's Barcelona Principles V4.0 say advertising value equivalents should not be used and list EMV as another name for them. If a client asks for it, report it with its assumptions, next to views, engagement and sales.
Paste the links into the campaign report form on this page or into the bulk TikTok views checker. Both read public counts, so they need a free account and spend credits. The calculator itself is free and needs no account.
Sources
- Brandwatch glossary: earned media value (last updated March 12, 2026). Both formulas, the statement that no single standard exists, and the illustrative $8.50 CPM and per-engagement values. · checked November 5, 2026
- Sprout Social: Earned Media Value (November 20, 2024). $0.50 cost per engagement with weights of 1, 2 and 3 for likes, comments and shares, given as a simplified example. · checked November 5, 2026
- Later glossary: earned media value. $0.50 per like and $5 per share as an example; Later Influence itself uses the Ayzenberg Earned Media Value Index. · checked November 5, 2026
- SocialRails earned media value calculator: engagement weights. · checked November 5, 2026
- Upfluence metrics and definitions: Estimated Media Value and the CPM of about $6.50 it lists as an industry average. · checked November 5, 2026
- HypeAuditor help: Earned Media Value (EMV). Lists what goes into its EMV, without per-action figures. · checked November 5, 2026
- Triple Whale: TikTok CPM explained (October 12, 2026). Median ad CPMs of its customers, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026; over 6,000 stores on TikTok. · checked November 5, 2026
- AMEC: Barcelona Principles V4.0 (June 2025). Principle 5 and its note listing EMV among the names for AVEs. · checked November 5, 2026
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