Gross Advocacy Value (GAV): How to measure Brand Advocacy

CMOs track everything. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Earned Media Value (EMV), the list goes on. Yet ask any marketing or brand leader: “What’s the commercial value of your word-of-mouth?” Cue the silence.

Advocacy has been obvious, yet invisible. Consumers trust people over ads. Word-of-mouth drives up to 5x more sales than paid media in many categories, and referred customers have higher LTV and lower churn. But without a CFO-ready number, brand leaders have struggled to protect or grow investment in community, UGC, and ambassadorship.

Gross Advocacy Value (GAV) changes that. This is the missing metric, one that quantifies the total commercial value created through customer Advocacy, community engagement, and organic amplification across owned and earned ecosystems. Gross Advocacy Value is becoming the North Star for brand-led, earned growth.

"Gross Advocacy Value is not just a number. It’s the common language between brand and performance teams. It gives marketers the ammunition to fight for budgets and prove the real value of their community."

Paul Archer, CEO, Duel

Definition: What is Gross Advocacy Value?

Gross Advocacy Value is the total measurable value generated by Advocates, made up of gross merchandise or affiliate value, earned media value, and content utilization.

It captures:

• Earned reach from user-generated content (UGC) and ambassador posts
• Engagement quality and influence strength
• Attributed conversions and downstream retention
• The money your brand didn’t need to spend to achieve those results

Think of it as "all the money your brand didn’t have to spend to generate the same outcomes" plus "the incremental revenue uniquely driven by Advocacy touchpoints."

How Gross Advocacy Value Works

Gross Advocacy Value is calculated using a multi-layered model that turns Advocacy signals into a single, defensible financial number:

1. Earned Reach – Who saw the Advocacy content?
2. Advocate Influence – How trusted is the Advocate?
3. Engagement Quality – Was the interaction meaningful?
4. Conversion Attribution – Did it lead to revenue?

Once calculated, Gross Advocacy Value becomes your strategic advantage as a:

• CFO-friendly business case to fund ambassador and creator programs
• Alignment tool across brand and performance teams
• Incentive framework to reward top-performing Advocates
• Repeatable, scalable measurement for Advocacy impact
• It gives you the "how" in "How to measure Brand Advocacy"

Why Gross Advocacy Value Matters Now

Traditional eCommerce metrics are failing. Advertising is buckling under the pressure of rising CAC and diminishing consumer trust. In contrast, community powered growth isn’t just a belief, it’s now measurable.

Gross Advocacy Value reframes growth from “buying attention” to “earning Advocacy.” It unifies brand and performance under one credible financial narrative, empowering leaders to invest where modern growth truly occurs: within communities, creators, and customers.

Final Thought

Gross Advocacy Value is the defining metric of the Advocacy economy.

It enables marketers to reallocate budget from rented eyeballs to owned influence. To stop chasing virality and start building systems that compound.

Most importantly, it gives brand leaders a clear, credible number that earns respect at the boardroom table.

"This is about building a new category. It’s hard. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s ours. And if they don’t believe in Gross Advocacy Value, they’re not ready for the future."
Paul Archer