Earned Media: What Is It, And How Should You Measure It?

A magazine article that profiles a company’s CEO, a TV segment featuring a brand representative and an online product review are all examples of earned media. So it’s important to generate as much of it as possible — especially if you’re bootstrapping a company or have a limited marketing budget. While many successful companies invest in paid marketing efforts, sometimes the most effective way to draw attention to your brand is through earned media. To find out how Cision can help you apply these learnings to your own strategy and enhance your earned media efforts, speak to an expert. Outputs are the traditional earned media measurement, and they’re still important. New earned media analysis technology takes into account not only outputs, but also outcomes and business results.

For brand discovery questions — when users ask who leads a category rather than specific facts about a brand they already know — AI models rely more on earned media and journalism than on owned content. Marketers have the tools to influence some (not all) conversations about their brands. So, while earned media isn't always a direct result of owned media, owned media can help you get more attention from third parties.

Knowing the differences between earned and paid media can help you find new ways to reach your target audience and increase sales. Sometimes the fastest way to reach larger audiences is through tastemakers — people who have a major influence on trends or what’s considered fashionable. In this way, earned media is similar to influencer marketing — it allows brands to capitalize on the trust and goodwill publications have with their audiences.

Sharing insights as an expert voice enables smart leaders to punch above their weight and earn outsize PR for their companies. However, here’s where business thought leaders can leverage a significant strategic advantage. But access to earned media is challenging, with countless companies competing for limited space in business press and other media channels.

Stop Guessing What Matters in B2B Marketing

Earned media builds trust faster than advertising because people trust third parties more than brands. When brands lack credible earned media, they are increasingly invisible in AI answers and discovery experiences. Unlike paid or owned media, earned media cannot be bought or published directly.

What to look out for when earned media value is calculated

It’s a core part of knowing who your audience is and how to stay relevant and in front of them. Monitoring earned media gives you a real-time view of your brand’s reputation. In many cases, it’s what potential customers trust the most. Earned media is what other people are saying about your brand to other people. I’d recommend working with them to founders or executives seeking to defne their own brand, drive the conversation in their industry and, ultimately, set their company apart from the pack.

• While earned media value can be a useful measure for evaluating the success of your social media efforts, it’s important to keep in mind common challenges around earned media value formulas.
• Data studies, benchmark reports, original surveys, interactive tools, and definitive guides are the formats that consistently earn backlinks and citations.
• Gartner predicted traditional search volume will drop 25% this year as users shift to AI-powered answer engines.
• This moves earned coverage from output to strategic signal that can influence decision-making.

Benefits of earned media

The team at Zen feel like a true extension of our in-house team and we are grateful for the work we’ve done together thus far, and are excited for future opportunities. Every activity and interaction with Zen accelerated positive outcomes and a return on our investment – a testament to their expertise, creativity and quality of work. The team at Zen had a strong track record, a deep understanding of our space and a shared passion for our mission. Finally, as brands integrate more AI into their communications workflows, the question shifts from “how powerful is our AI? By monitoring those conversations through tools such as Meltwater’s GenAI Lens, communicators can see how their brand or industry is represented inside major AI platforms, helping them catch inaccuracies or bias before they spread. Swope points to early reports from OpenAI and Anthropic that reveal what people ask large language models, and how the models respond.

Earned Media vs. Paid Media vs. Owned Media

A growing audience signals that people are regularly interested in what you have to share, amplifying your brand’s reach and awareness. Meltwater's social listening analytics provides a wide array of valuable insights to help teams understand brand perception, audience sentiment, and emerging trends. We can show impressions, reach, view-through rates, and which audiences we’re actually talking to — it’s all at our fingertips” Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection. When reporting to stakeholders about your social media impact, it’s valuable to include a high-level overview of your earned media value.

Besides being free advertising, earned media can also help earned media you reach new audiences you otherwise may have missed. Both of these serve as examples of earned media and demonstrate its ability to help brands reach new, younger demographics. Influencer marketing can be a game-changer if you set strategic goals that align with your social media strategy and hire the right influencers for your target audience.

Competitive Analysis

Our strategists pinpoint what you want to say as a leader and how to have the greatest impact on your target audience. By placing articles in respected industry and business publications, company leaders can get their message in front of high-value audiences, including decision-makers, investors and officials. Earned media has the potential to reach influential segments of the market that traditional marketing efforts overlook.