WHAT IS EARNED MEDIA VALUE?
Earned Media Value (EMV) is a dollar estimate of the marketing value generated by each piece of creator content. It quantifies the impressions, likes, comments, shares, and saves a post earns and translates them into what it would have cost to buy the same outcome through paid advertising.
EMV is the industry-standard way to compare creator campaigns to traditional paid media, and it's how most paid media teams already think about UGC performance. If you're coming to Aspire from another platform, EMV is the metric you've been using to evaluate creator effectiveness.
EMV is replacing Total Media Value (TMV) in Aspire. See the "What happens to TMV?" section below for how the two coexist.
WHY DOES EMV MATTER?
EMV gives your brand and your paid media team a single, defensible number to:
Compare creators apples-to-apples. A nano creator with a hyper-engaged audience often outperforms a mega creator with passive followers — EMV captures that.
Decide what to boost. EMV, CPM, and CPE side-by-side tell your paid team which creative is worth amplifying and which isn't.
Justify creator spend. EMV converts engagement into the language your finance and CMO already speak.
Spot what's working across every network. One number, every platform, every post type.
The outcome is simple: brands that act on EMV drive their UGC media value up while keeping cost down, freeing budget for bigger campaigns.
HOW IS EMV CALCULATED?
The formula is:
EMV = Σ ( interaction_count × base_value ) × creator_factor
Two inputs you control:
Base values — the dollar amount each interaction (like, comment, share, impression, save) is worth, set per network and post type.
Creator-tier factors — a multiplier that scales the post's EMV based on the creator's audience size, because a micro creator's 1k likes is worth more per like than a mega creator's 1k likes.
Default base values
The defaults below ship out of the box and are anchored to roughly 2× the going CPM benchmark for each platform. You can override any of them in Settings → General → EMV Configuration.
Instagram — Post
Impressions $0.015
Likes $0.20
Comments $1.50
Shares $2.00
Saves $3.00
Instagram — Reel
Impressions $0.015
Likes $0.20
Comments $1.75
Shares $2.25
Saves $3.25
Instagram — Story
Impressions $0.009
Likes $0.20
Comments $1.00
Shares $2.00
TikTok — Video
Impressions (views) $0.012
Likes $0.18
Comments $1.00
Shares $2.00
Saves $2.25
YouTube — Short
Impressions (views) $0.011
Likes $0.18
Comments $1.00
Shares $2.00
Saves $2.25
YouTube — Video (long-form)
Impressions (views) $0.025
Likes $0.60
Comments $3.50
Shares $3.00
Saves $3.50
Pinterest — Pin
Impressions $0.012
Clicks $3.50
Saves $3.50
Default creator-tier factors
Tier | Audience size | Default factor |
Brand Fans | < 2,500 followers | 0.8 |
Nano | 2,500 – 24,999 | 0.9 |
Micro | 25,000 – 59,999 | 1.2 |
Mid-Tier | 60,000 – 249,999 | 1.0 |
Macro | 250,000 – 999,999 | 0.95 |
Mega | ≥ 1,000,000 | 0.9 |
💡If a creator's follower count is unavailable, the factor defaults to 1.0 so EMV is never zeroed out.
Worked example
An Instagram Reel from a micro creator (45k followers) earns 20,000 impressions, 1,200 likes, 80 comments, 35 shares, and 60 saves.
Base = (20,000 × $0.015) + (1,200 × $0.20) + (80 × $1.75) + (35 × $2.25) + (60 × $3.25)
= $300 + $240 + $140 + $78.75 + $195
= $953.75
EMV = $953.75 × 1.2 (Micro tier factor)
= $1,144.50
HOW DO I CONFIGURE EMV FOR MY BRAND?
Configuration lives at Settings → General → EMV Configuration and is split into two tabs.
Base Values tab: Pick a network (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest), then edit the dollar amount for each interaction × post type. Changes save per workspace.
Creator Tiers tab: Edit the multiplier for each of the six tiers. Use a factor > 1 to reward a tier, < 1 to discount it, or 1.0 to leave it neutral.
When you save changes, Aspire recalculates EMV across your historical posts immediately so all dashboards and reports reflect your new values.
(A future update will let you choose between "apply going forward only" and "apply retroactively" — for now, all changes are retroactive.)
Click Reset to defaults at any time to revert.
WHAT HAPPENS TO TMV?
When EMV turns on, TMV turns off — EMV is the new primary metric across reports, dashboards, and exports.
90-day coexistence window: You can re-enable TMV alongside EMV for the next 90 days from the same settings page if you want to show both metrics side-by-side while your team transitions. After 90 days, TMV is fully sunset.
If you need help mapping internal reports from TMV to EMV, contact our support team.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Will my EMV match exactly what another platform shows?
No — every vendor uses slightly different base values and weighting. That's exactly why we built the configuration: tune Aspire's defaults to match the benchmark your team already trusts.
Why is Saves a separate, high-value interaction?
Saves indicate purchase intent — someone tagged the content to return to it. We rank Saves above Shares and well above Likes for that reason.
Why does a Micro creator have a factor > 1 but Mega has < 1?
Engagement rates inversely correlate with audience size. A Micro creator's like is statistically a more engaged signal than a Mega creator's like, so we reward it.
How often is EMV recalculated?
Whenever you save changes to base values or tier factors. Otherwise EMV is calculated at the time each post is ingested.
Who can edit EMV Configuration?
Workspace admins. See Roles & Permissions for the full matrix.