Likes. Clicks. Impressions. It’s all a bit vague. “There’s a real gold rush to produce content,” says Joe McLewin, digital consultant working with animation studio Gorilla Gorilla!, but he adds, “Measurement seems to have been forgotten.”

For brands trying to gauge the success of their digital content and campaigns, the accepted metrics and measurement systems may not be the most reflective of reality; or indeed, the most accurate. Engagement rate, for one, is calculated as a function of likes, dislikes, comments and views. An acceptable number is .01%. But for video, in particular, this formula takes little into account beyond a three second, audio-free ‘view.’ Because the metric fails to measure video accurately it, “doesn’t give you an idea of if your video is any good,” McLewin says, thus extenuating the challenge of proving ROI.

The focus instead, Dean Beswick, creative partner of Gorilla Gorilla!, says should be on conversion and social engagement, not on video engagement. By removing the reliance on likes, comments and shares – which don’t get to the heart of the value of the content – and instead building in calls to action that can then generate a target behaviour, brands can better understand what their video content is achieving.

However, there are some challenges in accurately measuring social engagement because of the opaque nature of the biggest social networks’ measurements. Beswick advises that Vimeo Pro and a company’s own website, provide the most accurate, detailed and transparent data. By better understanding the social engagement of a piece of content, companies can actually measure conversion rates to sales, click-throughs or other actions.

For Worldpay, which worked with Gorilla Gorilla! on an animated film, 27 enquiry emails were sent to the company based solely on the video – which is more than the company typically receives in an average quarter.

Likes, clicks and impressions are a bit vague. View time, click-through, shares, sentiment analysis and better access to data are less so. And, for proving ROI on video, may make all the difference.