Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Earned Media Value (EMV)

See also: Measuring Business Impact: How to Calculate Earned Media Value (EMV) with Custom Metrics and Custom Metrics: Best Practices Guide

Q. What is Earned Media Value (EMV) and why is it important?

• EMV is a metric that converts your organic social media success (impressions, engagement) into a dollar amount. It answers the question, "What would we have paid for this organic reach and engagement if we had to purchase it through advertising?"

It is important because it translates social performance into the language of executives—dollars and ROI—proving that organic social directly reduces paid media spend and drives business impact.

Q. Why should I use my company's internal paid media costs instead of generic industry benchmarks for my EMV calculation?

• Internal paid media costs (actual CPM and CPC) are essential for credibility. Generic benchmarks found online won't hold up under executive scrutiny because they won't align with your company's actual paid performance data. Using internal data ensures your EMV metric speaks the same language as the rest of your marketing organization, increasing the defensibility of your numbers.

Q. Where can I find my company's actual historical ad costs?

• You should consult with your internal Paid Media or Ad Operations team. Alternatively, you can pull the data from Sprout's Ad Reports (if you run campaigns in Sprout) or directly from your ad platform dashboards (e.g., Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager).

Q. How do Custom Metrics in Sprout simplify the EMV calculation?

• Custom Metrics eliminate the need for manual, recurring work. You build your EMV formula once in Sprout, and it automatically calculates and updates across all your historical and future reporting. This removes the need to export data to spreadsheets, maintain complex formulas, or manually update reports every cycle.

Q. What are the two primary models for building an EMV Custom Metric?

• The two primary models are:
  • CPM-Based Model (Impressions Focus): Values all impressions equally at your paid CPM rate. The formula structure is Impressions * 0.001 * [Your Internal CPM].
  • Weighted Engagement Model (Action Focus): Assigns specific dollar values to different actions based on your business priority (e.g., Clicks * $5.00, Shares * $3.00).

Q. If I use a Weighted Engagement Model, how do I determine the dollar value multipliers?

• Start with your actual paid media costs (CPC, Cost per Like, etc.) as a baseline. For instance, if your paid CPC is $3.50, you could value organic clicks at $3.50 or apply a modest premium (e.g., 10-20%) to account for the higher trust and longevity of organic engagement. The key is consistency and being able to explain your rationale to leadership.

Q. Can Custom Metrics accurately calculate Organic EMV on all social networks?

• Due to data restrictions from some social networks (like Facebook), Sprout may only provide Total metrics (organic + paid combined) for certain data points. To ensure your EMV only reflects true organic performance, you must filter out paid content.

Q. What is the recommended workaround to ensure EMV only measures organic performance?

• When adding your EMV Custom Metric to your Premium Analytics reports, use the filtering options within the report to exclude "Boosted Post" and "Ad Post". This ensures the EMV calculation only runs against your true organic content.

Q. How do I apply my new EMV metric to my reporting?

1. Navigate to Premium Analytics > My Reports.
2. Create a new report or edit an existing one.
3. Add the Post Summary widget.
4. In the metrics selector, find and select your "Earned Media Value" Custom Metric.

Q. Who can create or edit Custom Metrics in Sprout?

• Only users with Global Admin or Group Admin permissions can create or edit Custom Metrics.