What is earned media value?
Earned media value (EMV) is an estimate of what the reach you did not pay for would have cost as paid advertising. For events, earned media is mostly people: attendees, speakers, sponsors and your own team posting about the event on their profiles.
The point of EMV is comparison. It puts organic reach in the same currency as your ad budget, so a report can say "our attendee posts delivered roughly what this much paid media would have". It is not revenue and it does not say who registered. The glossary has the longer version: what earned media value is.
How do you calculate earned media value for an event?
Two steps. First, estimate the impressions: number of posts × impressions per post. Second, value them: impressions ÷ 1,000 × CPM. The calculator above runs exactly these two lines.
A worked example with numbers you can replace. Say 1,000 people attend and you expect 10% of them to post: that is 100 posts. At about 2,500 impressions per post, the figure from our partner analyses, you get 250,000 impressions. Divide by 1,000 and you have 250, so your earned media value is 250 × your CPM. Whatever you pay for 1,000 comparable ad impressions, multiply it by 250.
- Posts. attendees × the share you expect to post. This is the number that moves the result most.
- Impressions. posts × impressions per post. Keep 2,500 unless you have better data from your own speakers.
- Earned media value. impressions ÷ 1,000 × CPM. Always print the CPM next to the result.
Which CPM should you use?
The honest answer is: your own. Open your LinkedIn or social ad account, look at what you paid per 1,000 impressions for an audience similar to your attendees, and use that. CPM differs a lot between channels, audiences and seasons, so a borrowed average rarely fits your event.
No ad data yet? Then do not pretend. Show the result for two or three CPMs you consider plausible and label them as assumptions. A range with a clear label is more credible in front of a sponsor than one precise number nobody can trace.
Impressions, reach or engagement: which one are you estimating?
Impressions count how often a post was shown. Reach counts distinct people. Engagement counts reactions, comments, reposts and clicks. EMV works with impressions, because ad prices are quoted per 1,000 impressions. More on the difference in LinkedIn impressions explained.
One limit to know: organizers do not see the impressions of personal posts, only each poster does. That is why event reach is an estimate. Inside Go Spread, the dashboard estimates impressions per campaign as downloads × (1 − a dropout rate) × impressions per post, with 2,500 impressions and a 15% dropout as defaults you can change in your account.
How do you get more attendees to post?
The share of attendees who post is your biggest lever, far bigger than any CPM debate. People post when it is easy, when they are asked at the right moment and when they see others doing it. That is the core of attendee advocacy.
- Ask right after registration. Put the graphic link into the confirmation email and the reminders, when people are proud to say where they are going.
- Let speakers and sponsors go first. Early posts show attendees what to do. The free speaker card generator helps with the first wave.
- Remove every step you can. One link, no account, a photo and a prepared caption. 40–60% of people who open a Go Spread link download the graphic.
- Write the caption for them. A suggested caption with the event name, date and hashtag gets more people over the line. Try the LinkedIn caption generator.
How do you report earned media value to sponsors and management?
Show the formula, not only the result. A short block with posts, impressions per post, total impressions, CPM and EMV lets anyone check your math. Add the counts you actually measured, such as campaign visits, downloads and direct posts, next to the estimate.
For sponsors, separate their part. If sponsors had their own co-branded graphic, report its downloads and posts on their own line, so they see what their team and network added. More ideas in sponsor activation at events and measuring event marketing ROI.
What earned media value does not tell you
EMV says nothing about registrations, ticket sales or the quality of the people who saw the posts. A post by the right speaker in front of a small, relevant network can matter more than a big impression count. And because impressions per post and CPM are assumptions, the result moves with them.
Use EMV as what it is: a fair way to put organic reach next to paid media. Pair it with the numbers you can count and with what you know about your audience, and it becomes a useful line in any event report. For the bigger picture, see how 100 shares generate 250,000 views.