---
title: Earned media value overview
slug: earned-media-value-overview
description: Earned Media Value (EMV) in Roster quantifies the dollar value of the awareness and engagement your ambassadors and creators generate.
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-10-21T21:21:20.215Z
---

Earned Media Value (EMV) gives brands a way to understand the real dollar value of the exposure, awareness, and engagement their ambassadors and creators generate, without paying for ads or production teams. It’s a standardized way to quantify what a piece of content *would have cost* if you had achieved the same results through paid media.

At Roster, EMV is calculated using impressions and engagement on each post, multiplied by industry-standard CPM (cost per thousand impressions) per-engagement values.

## What EMV Represents

EMV is designed to answer a simple question:

:::BlockQuote
**If we had to pay to get this level of visibility and interaction, how much would it have cost?**
:::

The idea comes from paid media benchmarks. Marketers often pay anywhere from a few dollars to tens of dollars per thousand impressions (CPM). EMV applies those same CPMs to organic ambassador content so you can see its equivalent paid value.

Examples of what EMV captures:

- How many people saw the content (impressions)
- How many interacted with it (likes, comments, reels views, etc.)
- How much that exposure would cost as a paid campaign

## How Roster Calculates EMV

Roster’s EMV is based on two components:

1. **Impressions Value: **Using CPM values for each social network and post type.
2. **Engagement Value: **Giving additional credit for high-quality interactions such as comments, likes, shares, and saves.

To get these inputs, Roster uses…

- Actual impressions and engagement from the social networks whenever they are available.
- Estimated impressions (using Roster’s real-world ratios by follower size + post type) when networks do not provide them. See [Reach and impression estimates](docId\:v_I9hQ8xDZ3E1HOEa5ebo) 

This ensures every post has a dollar-value attached, even if the network doesn’t expose all the raw metrics.

## Why EMV Matters

EMV helps brands:

- See the true value of ambassador content, not just number of posts or likes—but the paid-equivalent value of their effort.
- Compare organic and paid performance. EMV puts creator content and advertising on the same playing field.
- Understand ROI more clearly. You can finally quantify how much value ambassadors generate compared to what you pay them.
- Spot high-value creators. EMV highlights who consistently generates meaningful visibility.

## Customizing EMV for Your Brand

Every brand has its own philosophy on earned media. To support this, Roster lets you:

- Adjust CPM rates for each network and post type
- Add custom CPM values for unique situations
- Retroactively apply updated EMV settings to historical posts

This ensures EMV reflects *your* strategy, not a one-size-fits-all model. See [Configure EMV rates](docId:-YhoRLW9CeAlFzW0lJzf1) 

## Summary

Earned Media Value turns ambassador activity into a clear, dollar-based performance metric. Roster uses a blend of verified network data and real-world estimation models to provide consistent, credible EMV values across every campaign, ambassador, and post type. With customizable settings and transparent calculation logic, you get an EMV score that aligns with your brand and helps you measure real impact.