Media buyers think in cost per thousand impressions. If your sponsorship report speaks that language, renewals get a lot simpler. Here are the numbers Listener uses and how each one is calculated.
Expected CPM
This is the price the sponsor agreed to pay for each thousand impressions, set at the start of the campaign.
Expected CPM = budget ÷ expected impressions × 1,000
Example: a $48,000 campaign with a goal of 2,000,000 impressions has an expected CPM of $24.
Delivered CPM
This is what each thousand impressions actually cost, based on what the campaign delivered.
Delivered CPM = budget ÷ delivered impressions × 1,000
Example: if that same campaign delivers 2,190,000 impressions, the delivered CPM is about $21.92, comfortably under the $24 the sponsor expected to pay. That gap is your over-delivery, expressed in the buyer's own terms.
Listener only shows delivered CPM once a campaign has delivered at least 25% of its expected impressions, so an early number never makes a campaign look more expensive than it will end up.
Earned media value
Earned media value, or EMV, estimates what the organic reach around a campaign would have cost to buy. It's especially useful for clips, which often travel far beyond the paid placement.
EMV = long-form views × long-form CPM ÷ 1,000 + short-form views × short-form CPM ÷ 1,000 + likes × like rate + comments × comment rate
Listener's default rates are a $25 CPM for long-form, a $20 CPM for short-form, $0.25 per like and $1.25 per comment. You can set your own rates for your network, a show, a single cluster or a specific campaign.
Example: 100,000 long-form views, 400,000 short-form views, 20,000 likes and 1,000 comments add up to $2,500 + $8,000 + $5,000 + $1,250, or $16,750 in earned media value.
Putting them together
Expected CPM sets the deal. Delivered CPM shows whether you beat it. EMV shows everything the sponsor got on top. Lead with all three in your wrap report and the renewal conversation starts from value, not from a recap.
Listener calculates all three automatically for every campaign. Want to see the numbers for yours? Book 20 minutes with our team.
