Earned Media Value Calculator

Currency

Coverage

Clips / mentions

Estimated coverage views

Value per 1,000 views (CPM)

What 1,000 ad impressions would cost. Typical earned-media CPM: $5–$15.

Website

Visitors the coverage sent to your site. Valued at what a click is worth in your product & marketing context.

Website visitors

New visitors from the coverage (check your analytics tool).

Value per visitor

Use your Google Ads CPC for similar keywords.

Sales

Revenue you can trace to the coverage.

Attributed sales uplift

Extra revenue during and after the coverage vs. a baseline period. Leave blank if you cannot attribute revenue.

Investment

Input campaign cost to calculate ROI.

Campaign cost

Agency and influencer fees, as well as any other campaign cost.

The granddad of PR metrics

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)

Prefer the good old way of doing things? Use it as an AVE calculator: take the cost of an equivalent ad and multiply it by three. Keep in mind that this only measures what the space would have cost, not the actual value of the media coverage.

Equivalent ad cost

What buying the same placement as an ad would cost.

AVE (ad cost × 3)

Gap vs. real value

—

What is Earned Media Value?

Earned Media Value (EMV) estimates the monetary value of the media coverage your company has earned. It combines the value of the audience reached, based on a realistic CPM, the referral traffic driven to your website, and any sales that can be attributed to the coverage. Compare that value with the cost of the campaign to calculate a clear ROI.

How to Calculate Earned Media Value

There is no single formula for calculating Earned Media Value, but the basic approach is always the same. Instead of relying on one headline number, calculate EMV using the results you can measure and explain. Focus on these three areas:

Value the audience you reached. Estimate how many people saw your media coverage and assign a value using your CPM, or the cost of 1,000 advertising impressions.

Views ÷ 1,000 × CPM
Value the traffic it generated. Multiply the number of visitors the coverage sent to your website by the value of each visitor. A good estimate is your Google Ads cost per click for the same keywords, since that is what you would have paid to attract those visitors through advertising.

Visitors × Value per visitor
Add the sales you can attribute. Compare your revenue during and shortly after the coverage with a normal period. Any increase that can reasonably be linked to the media coverage should be included in your EMV.

Calculate your ROI

Add the values from audience, traffic, and sales, then divide the total by the cost of the campaign.

ROI = Total value ÷ Campaign cost

Media mentions and clip counts can still be included in your report as useful context, but the real value comes from the audience you reached, the visitors you gained, and the sales you generated.

Why we do not report AVE

Advertising Value Equivalency, or AVE, answers a different question: What would this media coverage have cost if it had been an advertisement?

The usual method is simple. Take the cost of an equivalent ad and multiply it by three. The problem is that this multiplier is arbitrary. AVE changes with advertising prices, not with the results of your campaign, and it does not show whether the coverage brought in visitors, leads, or sales.

Earned Media Value

Measures real results.

It is based on the audience reached, the traffic driven to your website, and the sales that can be linked to the coverage. These values are calculated using real costs, making EMV a more reliable way to measure ROI.

Advertising Value Equivalency

Measures advertising costs.

It estimates what an equivalent advertisement would have cost. While it is simple to calculate, it does not reflect the actual impact of your media coverage and is no longer considered a reliable measure by many PR professionals.

Earned media value FAQ

What is the AVE formula?

The AVE formula estimates what your media coverage would have cost if it had been an advertisement. The usual method is to take the cost of an equivalent ad and multiply it by three. For example, if the ad would have cost $5,000, the AVE would be $15,000. You can calculate it yourself or use the AVE calculator above. The multiplier is not based on evidence, and frankly does not make any sense.

How do you measure earned media?

Start by tracking your media coverage, including the number of articles, publications, and estimated audience. Then measure the value it created by looking at the audience reached, the visitors it sent to your website, and any sales that can be linked to the coverage. Using real advertising costs and business results gives a more defensible measure than a multiplier.

What’s a good earned media value or ROI?

There is no single benchmark because every campaign has different costs and goals. A useful rule of thumb is if your Earned Media Value is three times the campaign cost or more, the campaign performed well.

Is AVE still used in PR?

Yes, the metric is sticky because it is simple and “everybody uses it”. If you include AVE in a report, also show other metrics such as estimated views, so clients can better evaluate the impact.

What should a PR coverage report include?

A good PR coverage report should include the number of articles, the names of the publications, publication dates, links to each article, estimated audience, and social shares. This post explains where to find all data for your earned media reports.

Method based on ReachReport's guide to creating a coverage report.