Earned-Media ROI
Put a number on the VIPs hiding in your orders.
Notable customers already buy from you. Every one you identify and reach is a chance at a post, a story, a tag. Estimate the earned media value you're leaving on the table.
Total monthly orders across your store.
Celebrities, founders, execs, press, creators. Conservative industry estimate, adjust to your niche.
Of the VIPs you can see, how many you reach out to.
Not everyone posts. Keep this honest.
Followers or typical impressions for a VIP who posts.
What comparable paid reach would cost. Social CPMs typically run $6 to $18.
Estimated earned media value
$900 per month, unlocked from VIPs already in your orders.
Free scan. No credit card. Uses public identity data only.
Under the hood
How this is calculated
VIPs = orders × VIP rate engaged = VIPs × engage rate posts = engaged × post rate impressions = posts × reach EMV / mo = impressions ÷ 1,000 × CPM cost / mo = $49 + orders × $0.03 ROI = EMV ÷ cost
- Starting assumptionseditable above
- VIP-worthy customers1.0% of orders
- Engaged of those seen40%
- Engaged who post25%
- Reach per post25,000
- Value per 1K impressions$12 CPM
- SonarID cost$49 + $0.03 / enrichment
This is an illustrative estimate, not a guarantee. Earned media depends on your product, your outreach, and whether a given VIP chooses to post. Every input above is a starting assumption you can and should change to match your own store. The SonarID cost line assumes the Starter plan and one enrichment per order; repeat customers are enriched once, so real cost is usually lower.
FAQ
Questions merchants ask
What is customer enrichment?
Enrichment takes what a shopper already gives you at checkout, their email and shipping address, and matches it against public identity data to build a fuller picture of who they are: their public profiles, professional background, and reach. It turns an anonymous order into a recognizable person you can actually act on.
How does SonarID find celebrities and VIPs in my orders?
When an order comes in, SonarID matches the customer's email and shipping address against public identity signals, including professional profiles on LinkedIn and X and public press. If those signals point to a notable person, it flags the order and scores how relevant they are, with a confidence score on every match so you know how sure it is.
Who counts as a VIP?
Celebrities, founders and executives, investors, journalists, and creators, plus the wholesale and B2B buyers hiding inside your direct-to-consumer orders. You set what “notable” means for your store, so a beauty brand and a B2B supplier can weight it differently.
Why does it matter who my customers are?
A notable customer is an earned media opportunity worth far more than the order itself. If you know a celebrity or a journalist just bought, you can send a personal note or a gift while it's fresh, instead of shipping it like any other order and missing the moment. It also surfaces your highest-value and wholesale buyers for retention.
What do I do after I identify a VIP?
SonarID scores and surfaces the match, sends you a Slack alert, syncs to Klaviyo, and gives you a simple pipeline to track outreach from contacted to engaged to won. The play is yours: a handwritten note, a gift, an upgrade, an event invite. The calculator above estimates what that outreach is worth if they post.
What is earned media value?
Earned media value is the dollar value of exposure you get for free when someone talks about you, versus what the equivalent paid reach would cost. When a VIP posts about your product to their audience, that reach has a real, estimable value, which is what this page calculates.
How accurate is it? Won't it flag the wrong person?
SonarID prioritizes precision over recall: it would rather miss a VIP than falsely flag someone. Every match carries a confidence score, so you can focus only on the ones it is confident about and skip the rest.
Where does the data come from, and is it private?
Only publicly available information tied to the email and address the customer already shared with you at checkout. No private data, and nothing behind a login. You can suppress any customer from detection at any time, and the product is built to align with GDPR and CCPA.
How fast will I know about a VIP order?
Usually within seconds of the order through a webhook, with a fallback that catches anything within a few minutes. Fast enough to reach out while the purchase is still top of mind.
What does it cost, and which platforms does it work with?
SonarID is free to start, then $49 a month (Starter) or $199 (Pro), plus $0.03 for each customer enriched. It works with Shopify and WooCommerce today, with a REST API for other platforms, and pushes alerts to Slack and Klaviyo.