Earned media value (EMV) is an estimate of what a post's views and engagement would have cost as ads. It is a contested metric, not revenue. Enter the counts, set your own value per action, and see two methods side by side.
There is no official price for a like or a view, so you set them. The dollar values start as illustrative assumptions of ours. Change every one, and see two methods side by side. The result is saved in the page URL.
Counts from the creator's analytics, and a value you assign to each action.
| Action | Count | Value each |
|---|---|---|
| Views / plays value each | ||
| Likes value each | ||
| Comments value each | ||
| Saves value each |
What you pay per 1,000 impressions in ads. Take it from your Ads Manager.
Used only for the multiple below. Gifted? Enter product and shipping.
An estimate of attention. Not revenue.
Method 1: per-action values
These figures are only as good as the values you typed in. Change one value and the answer moves, which is the main reason EMV is contested. None of this is money received. For a return, track orders from promo codes or UTM links and use the ROI calculator.
Next: calculate campaign ROI and ROASGifting creators on Shopify? Seed tracks who posted, so you have real posts to measure.
Install Seed on Shopify| Action | Count | Value each | Subtotal | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Views / plays | 50,000 | $0.01 | $500 | 52% |
| Likes | 2,500 | $0.10 | $250 | 26% |
| Comments | 120 | $0.50 | $60 | 6% |
| Shares | 80 | $1.00 | $80 | 8% |
| Saves | 150 | $0.50 | $75 | 8% |
| Total EMV | $965 | 100% |
There are two common ways to build an EMV figure. This calculator runs both.
Method 1: EMV = (views x value per view) + (likes x value per like) + (comments x value per comment) + (shares x value per share) + (saves x value per save)
Method 2: EMV = (impressions or views / 1,000) x your paid CPM
Method 1 depends entirely on the per-action values, and no one publishes an agreed set. Different tools use different ones, so the same post can get quite different EMVs depending on which tool you ask. That is why the values here are yours to set. Method 2 is simpler and easier to defend, because the price comes from your own ad account, but it counts only reach and ignores engagement.
Worked example with the defaults (all assumptions): 50,000 views x $0.01 = $500, 2,500 likes x $0.10 = $250, 120 comments x $0.50 = $60, 80 shares x $1.00 = $80, 150 saves x $0.50 = $75. Total: $965. Method 2 at an $8 CPM gives $400. Neither number is a fact about the post. Compare reach for the same post with the influencer CPM calculator.
EMV descends from advertising value equivalency (AVE), the old PR habit of pricing media coverage as if it were bought ad space. The industry body AMEC's Barcelona Principles, a widely cited framework for measuring communications, state that AVEs are not the value of communication. See the PR News summary of the principles and the Wikipedia overview. We are not saying EMV is useless. We are saying be honest about what it is.
Lead with orders and revenue from tracked links or codes (promo code attribution), then cost per acquisition and ROAS (influencer marketing ROI calculator), and cost per piece of content (gifting ROI calculator). If a stakeholder asks for EMV anyway, give it with the assumptions printed beside it, and label it as an estimate of attention.
Earned media value is an estimate of what the attention on a post would have cost if you had bought it as advertising. Tools usually assign a dollar value to each view, like, comment and share, then add them up. It is an estimate built on assumed prices, not money that came into your business.
Multiply each action by its assigned value and add the results: views x value per view, plus likes x value per like, and so on. A second method multiplies impressions by your own paid CPM. This calculator shows both, and you set every value, because there is no agreed price list.
No. EMV is a hypothetical advertising price for attention. Revenue is money from orders. A post can have a high EMV and drive no sales, or a low EMV and drive many. Use EMV as a rough size-of-attention number, and judge the campaign on sales, promo-code or UTM-tracked orders, and cost per piece.
Because each vendor picks its own per-action values and rules, and there is no standard. The same post can get very different EMVs across tools. That is why this calculator lets you set the values and shows a second, CPM-based figure beside the first. Compare EMV only within the same method.
Only with the assumptions stated next to it, and never as a return. Measurement bodies such as AMEC state that advertising value equivalents are not the value of communication. Lead with sales and cost per acquisition, and show EMV, if at all, as a secondary attention figure.
Last updated: October 29, 2026. Method 1 sums count x value for each action. Method 2 is views / 1,000 x your CPM. The "multiple" divides each EMV by what you say the post cost. All counts and values are inputs; the defaults are illustrative starting assumptions of ours, not surveyed rates, and we cite no per-action benchmarks because we found no agreed source. The one external source is AMEC's Barcelona Principles on advertising value equivalents, summarised by PR News. We read secondary summaries and did not check AMEC's own text. Everything runs in your browser.
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