How the calculator works
It multiplies four numbers to estimate impressions a month, then values them at a LinkedIn Ads CPM, the price of 1,000 ad impressions:
- People who post, times their average followers, gives the audience your team can reach.
- Times posts per person a month, gives how many times that audience could see a post.
- Times the share of followers who see a typical post, gives estimated impressions a month.
- Divided by 1,000 and multiplied by the CPM, gives what those impressions would cost as LinkedIn ads.
With the defaults: 10 people x 1,000 followers x 2 posts x 22% = 4,400 impressions a month. At a $63.19 CPM, that's 4,400 / 1,000 x $63.19 = $278 a month. For the same 10 people, Postfox costs $190 a month billed monthly, or $1,800 a year ($150 a month) billed yearly.
Where the defaults come from
The CPM: $63.19, with LinkedIn's own lower figures for reference
The default is what B2B advertisers paid LinkedIn per 1,000 impressions in 2025, across all campaign goals: $63.19, from Metadata's benchmark of 138 B2B advertisers, which publishes its sample and method (B2B advertising benchmarks 2026). It leans toward lead generation campaigns, which cost more per impression than campaigns that only buy reach.
LinkedIn's own global benchmarks for brand awareness campaigns are far lower: US$5.05 per 1,000 impressions for a single image ad, US$7.39 for video and US$7.4 for a carousel. That page gives no date and averages every market. If you'd only ever buy reach, type one of those figures in the CPM field: the value drops by about 90%.
The share of followers who see a post: it follows the follower count
The Shield Index tracked 50,000 LinkedIn posts in March 2026 and published the median reach of a typical post as a share of the account's followers (March 2026 reach benchmarks by follower size, April 9, 2026). The smaller the audience, the larger the share:
| Followers | Typical post reaches |
|---|---|
| Under 500 followers | 45% of followers |
| 500 to 1,000 followers | 29% of followers |
| 1,000 to 2,500 followers | 22% of followers |
| 2,500 to 5,000 followers | 15% of followers |
| 5,000 to 10,000 followers | 11% of followers |
| 10,000 to 25,000 followers | 8% of followers |
| 25,000 to 50,000 followers | 6% of followers |
The default share changes with the follower count you type, until you type your own share. The posts were tracked by Shield, an analytics tool for LinkedIn, so they likely come from people who post more than most employees: treat the share as an upper estimate. Shield stopped publishing the series in May 2026 (The Shield Index ends here).
Followers and posts per person: assumptions
We found no reliable average for either. LinkedIn doesn't publish an average follower count, and the studies we read measured only people who post a lot. The defaults, 1,000 followers and 2 posts a month, are round assumptions: replace them with your team's own numbers.
What earned media value is, and what it isn't
It's a way to put organic reach and paid reach on the same scale. It isn't revenue, pipeline or return on investment: an impression bought from LinkedIn and one earned from a colleague's post aren't the same thing, and nobody pays you the figure above.
LinkedIn counts an impression each time a post is displayed on screen, and members reached as the people who saw it at least once (LinkedIn Help). Each author sees their own post's numbers in LinkedIn, which is where to check the estimate once your team posts.
Postfox doesn't show post impressions yet, so use the numbers from each person's LinkedIn analytics.
FAQ
What is earned media value?
A dollar value for attention you didn't pay for: the impressions or engagement a post earns, priced at what the same result would cost as advertising.
How do you calculate earned media value for LinkedIn posts?
Estimate the impressions (people x followers x posts a month x the share of followers who see a post), divide by 1,000 and multiply by a LinkedIn Ads CPM. This calculator does it with sourced defaults you can change.
Which CPM should I use?
Use your own if you run LinkedIn ads. Otherwise, $63.19 is what 138 B2B advertisers paid across all campaign goals in 2025 (Metadata), and LinkedIn's own global benchmark for brand awareness campaigns is US$5.05 to US$7.4 depending on the format (LinkedIn).
Is earned media value the same as ROI?
No. It compares organic reach with what ads would cost; it says nothing about leads, sales or hires. Use it to size the reach of your team's posts, not to report revenue.
Where do I find the real impressions of a post?
In LinkedIn, under each post's analytics, the author sees its impressions and members reached (LinkedIn Help). Add up your team's posts for a month and compare them with the estimate.
Does Postfox measure impressions?
No. Postfox doesn't show post impressions yet, so use the numbers from each person's LinkedIn analytics.
Running posts as a team? Start with what employee advocacy is, for a small team, or see what tools cost in employee advocacy software pricing compared.