Comprehensive data on EMV performance, measurement challenges, and why creator content continues to outperform traditional paid advertising

Key Takeaways

• Creator content generates massive economic value: Influencer-created content produced $236 billion in Earned Media Value during 2024, demonstrating the massive scale advantage of community-driven marketing over traditional paid approaches.
• Measurement remains the industry's biggest gap: 79% of marketers cite measuring influencer ROI as their biggest challenge, yet only 40% feel confident in the metrics they report—creating significant opportunities for teams with automated tracking and reporting.
• Consumer trust favors earned media decisively: 92% of consumers trust earned media over all other forms of advertising, and 83% trust recommendations from friends and family, making authentic creator content more valuable than equivalent paid media spend.
• Platform performance varies dramatically: TikTok nano-influencers achieve 10.3% engagement rates compared to Instagram's 1.73%, highlighting why brands need social listening tools that capture content across multiple platforms.
• AI adoption separates high performers from the rest: 66.4% of marketers report AI improved their influencer marketing outcomes, creating substantial competitive advantage for early adopters.
• Investment continues accelerating: The global influencer marketing platform market was valued at $20.24 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $70.86 billion by 2032, with average ROI ranging from $5.20 to $6.50 per dollar spent.
• ROI consistently outperforms paid media: Average influencer marketing ROI ranges from $5.20 to $6.50 per dollar spent, with top performers generating significantly higher returns—far exceeding typical paid media performance.

EMV Performance and Market Size

1. Influencer-created content generated $236 billion in Earned Media Value during 2024

The sheer scale of EMV production demonstrates why creator marketing has become essential for modern brands. This figure represents the estimated cost brands would need to spend on paid advertising to generate equivalent impressions, reach, and engagement. For teams still tracking creator content manually through screenshots and spreadsheets, the volume makes comprehensive campaign reporting virtually impossible without automated systems. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

2. The global influencer marketing platform market was valued at $20.24 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $70.86 billion by 2032

The market's explosive growth trajectory reflects fundamental shifts in how brands allocate marketing resources and how consumers discover products. This expansion creates pressure for corresponding infrastructure investment—larger programs require more sophisticated tracking, reporting, and optimization capabilities. Brands without proper systems to track community content risk missing significant portions of their earned media value. Source: Fortune Business Insights

3. Average influencer marketing ROI ranges from $5.20 to $6.50 per dollar spent

This return significantly outperforms most paid media channels, where CPMs typically range from $5 to $30 depending on platform and placement. The compounding value of creator relationships—ongoing content production, authentic endorsement, audience trust—creates cumulative returns that paid media cannot replicate. Understanding how to calculate earned media becomes essential for demonstrating these returns to leadership. Source: Sociallyin Influencer Marketing Statistics 2024

Trust and Consumer Behavior

4. 92% of consumers trust earned media over all other forms of advertising

This statistic fundamentally explains why EMV calculations matter. When the vast majority of consumers place higher trust in earned content than paid messaging, the strategic value of creator partnerships and authentic UGC extends far beyond simple reach metrics. Brands that systematically capture and repurpose their best earned content for ads and product pages can leverage this trust advantage across their entire marketing mix. Source: Nielsen

5. 83% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family

Peer recommendations remain the gold standard for purchase influence. Creator content that feels authentic and personal captures a portion of this trust, particularly when creators have genuine affinity for products rather than purely transactional relationships. Gifting programs that identify creators already talking about relevant problems—before any formal partnership—tend to generate the most trusted content. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

6. 69% of consumers trust influencers, friends, and family over information from brands

Nearly seven in ten consumers explicitly prefer third-party voices to brand communications. This trust gap makes captured UGC one of the most valuable marketing assets available—authentic content that performs better in ads while costing less to produce than traditional creative. Teams that automatically collect this content can build libraries of high-trust assets for ongoing use. Source: Matter Study 2023

7. 94% of organizations believe creator content yields higher ROI than traditional advertising

Organizational conviction about creator marketing effectiveness is nearly universal. The challenge isn't convincing leadership that creator content works—it's proving exactly how well it works through systematic measurement and reporting. This is where automated reporting that shows what's working now becomes essential for maintaining and growing program budgets. Source: Social Native Creator Marketing Statistics 2024

Measurement Challenges and the Confidence Gap

8. 79% of marketers cite measuring influencer ROI as their biggest challenge

Despite nearly universal belief in creator marketing effectiveness, four out of five marketers struggle to quantify it. This measurement gap creates budget vulnerability—programs that can't demonstrate ROI face cuts during resource allocation discussions. Platforms that automatically track performance metrics, calculate EMV, and generate leadership-ready reports close this gap. Archive tracks 400% more content than competing platforms, giving teams comprehensive visibility into their earned media performance. Source: Linqia State of Influencer Marketing Report 2026

9. Only 40% of marketing professionals are "very confident" in reported metrics

The confidence crisis in measurement runs deep. When the majority of practitioners doubt their own data, strategic decision-making suffers. Manual tracking methods—screenshots, spreadsheets, periodic platform checks—introduce errors and gaps that undermine confidence. Real-time automated capture with Smart AI Fields that label posts with products, campaigns, and sentiment creates the data foundation for confident reporting. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

10. 48% of PR professionals struggle to prove the value of their work

Nearly half of communications professionals face difficulty demonstrating impact. This challenge extends across earned media functions—PR, influencer marketing, community management—wherever content isn't directly purchased and controlled. The solution requires systematic capture of all earned content and consistent methodology for valuing its impact. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

11. 89% of communicators state that demonstrating impact is measurement's main purpose

The purpose of measurement is clear—proving value to stakeholders. Yet the measurement gap persists because traditional tools and manual processes can't keep pace with content volume. Teams that implement automated tracking report spending less time on data collection and more time on analysis and optimization. Immi saved 80 hours per week on UGC management after implementing automated systems. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

12. 24% of professionals distrust sentiment analysis despite tracking it regularly

One in four practitioners track sentiment but don't trust the results. This distrust often stems from black-box algorithms that provide scores without context. Archive's AI takes a different approach—watching video, listening to audio, and reading text to provide transparent sentiment analysis that shows how people actually feel when they talk about your brand. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

Platform Performance and Engagement

13. TikTok nano-influencers achieve 10.3% engagement rates versus Instagram's 1.73%

The platform performance gap is significant—TikTok nano-influencers deliver nearly 6x higher engagement than their Instagram counterparts. This disparity makes cross-platform tracking essential. Brands monitoring only Instagram miss substantial engagement happening on TikTok, while those without proper capture systems for both platforms can't compare performance or optimize creator selection. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

14. Instagram engagement rates declined from 2.18% in 2021 to 1.59% in 2024

Organic engagement continues declining as platforms mature and competition intensifies. This trend increases pressure on brands to work with creators who can cut through declining organic reach. It also raises the stakes for identifying and re-engaging your highest-performing creators rather than spreading resources across underperformers. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

15. Nano-influencers represent 75.9% of Instagram's total influencer base

The creator economy is dominated by smaller creators. This distribution means brands have enormous selection—but finding the right creators among millions requires more than basic searches. AI Creator Search that finds creators based on semantic similarity, audience quality, and brand safety becomes essential for navigating this scale efficiently. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

16. 66% of brands use TikTok for their influencer marketing efforts

Two-thirds of brands have expanded to TikTok, making cross-platform presence standard rather than exceptional. Managing creator relationships and tracking content across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube requires unified systems that consolidate data rather than fragmented tools that create additional manual work. Source: Digital Marketing Institute 2024

17. U.S. TikTok influencer content earns engagement rates of 18%

TikTok's engagement advantage makes it particularly valuable for EMV generation—higher engagement translates directly to higher earned media value calculations. Brands need TikTok capture capabilities that detect Stories, track hashtags, and ensure comprehensive content collection on this high-performing platform. Source: Digital Marketing Institute 2024

AI and Automation Impact

18. 73% of marketers believe influencer marketing can be largely automated by AI

The industry consensus favors automation. Manual processes for creator discovery, content tracking, and reporting are increasingly seen as unsustainable given content volumes. The question isn't whether to automate—it's which workflows to automate first and which tools to trust with automation. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

19. 66.4% of marketers report AI improved influencer marketing outcomes

Two-thirds of marketers using AI see measurable improvement. Archive's AI watches video, listens to audio, and reads text to turn every detected post into searchable, brand-safe data through Smart AI Fields. This approach replaces manual tagging and classification with automated intelligence that improves as it processes more content. Agency Eight saved 40+ hours weekly after implementing AI-powered automation. Source: Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2024

20. 75% of PR professionals now track campaign efforts regularly

Regular tracking has become standard practice. The differentiator is tracking comprehensiveness and efficiency—are you capturing everything, or just what you happen to notice? Automated systems that detect Stories 24/7 and track tagged content across platforms ensure complete visibility rather than sampled snapshots. Grüns manages 650+ influencers in just 1 hour per week using automated tracking. Source: Britopian PR and Earned Media Measurement Report 2024-2025

Budget and Investment Trends

21. 76% of marketers plan to dedicate budget to influencer marketing in 2025

Investment momentum continues. As budgets grow, so does scrutiny on returns. Marketing leaders approving larger influencer budgets expect clearer ROI demonstration—making automated reporting that proves impact to leadership increasingly essential for program sustainability. Source: Digital Marketing Institute 2024

22. Marketers spend approximately 25% of total budget on paid media

The allocation benchmark provides useful context for EMV comparisons. If a quarter of marketing budgets go to paid media while earned media delivers higher trust and engagement, the case for shifting resources toward creator programs—and the infrastructure to support them—becomes compelling. Source: Cision Survey via Marketing Insider Group 2024

Case Studies and Notable Results

23. Nike generated $238.8 million in EMV during the 2024 Summer Olympics

The scale of EMV generation during major brand moments demonstrates both the opportunity and the tracking challenge. Nike's Olympic performance required capturing and valuing content across thousands of creators, multiple platforms, and dozens of markets. LeBron James' involvement alone generated over $21 million in EMV. For brands managing similar scale, manual tracking simply isn't viable—comprehensive competitor insights and automated capture become requirements rather than nice-to-haves. Ketone-IQ achieved a 29% website revenue increase by systematically capturing and repurposing their earned content, while She's Birdie saved $10,000+ per month on content creation costs. Source: WeArisma via Influencity 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the primary difference between earned media value and paid media?

Earned media value represents the estimated cost of achieving equivalent reach, impressions, and engagement through paid advertising for content you didn't directly pay to create or place. Paid media involves direct payment for placements. The key distinction is trust—92% of consumers trust earned media over paid advertising, making EMV inherently more valuable than equivalent paid spend would suggest.

How can I accurately track the ROI of my earned media efforts?

Accurate EMV tracking requires three capabilities: comprehensive content capture across platforms (detecting tagged posts, Stories, and mentions), consistent valuation methodology (typically based on CPM equivalents adjusted for engagement), and systematic reporting that connects content performance to business outcomes. Platforms that automate content detection and apply consistent EMV calculations eliminate the manual gaps that undermine accuracy.

What role does AI play in optimizing both earned and paid media campaigns?

AI improves earned media programs through automated content detection, sentiment analysis, creator discovery, and performance prediction. 66.4% of marketers report AI improved their influencer marketing outcomes. For paid media, AI optimizes targeting and creative—but cannot replicate the trust advantage of authentic earned content. The most effective strategies use AI to scale earned media capture and repurpose high-performing UGC for paid amplification.

Can earned media replace paid media entirely in a marketing strategy?

No—but the balance is shifting. Earned media delivers higher trust and often better ROI, but lacks the predictability and immediate scalability of paid media. The optimal approach captures earned content systematically, identifies top performers, and amplifies the best content through paid channels. This combination leverages earned media's trust advantage while maintaining paid media's targeting precision.

How does automatic UGC capture impact earned media measurement?

Automatic capture transforms EMV measurement from sampling to census. Manual tracking typically catches a fraction of tagged content, missing Stories that disappear, posts from smaller creators, and content during off-hours. Platforms that provide comprehensive content capture enable accurate EMV calculations and confident reporting to leadership. Archive tracks 400% more content than competing platforms, ensuring teams don't miss valuable earned media.