{"id":5471,"date":"2022-08-08T17:51:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T17:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/08\/how-to-craft-a-winning-search-engine-land-awards-entry-past-judges-share-their-advice\/"},"modified":"2022-08-08T17:51:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T17:51:04","slug":"how-to-craft-a-winning-search-engine-land-awards-entry-past-judges-share-their-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/08\/how-to-craft-a-winning-search-engine-land-awards-entry-past-judges-share-their-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"How to craft a winning Search Engine Land Awards entry: Past judges share their advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"search
\nSince its inception in 2015, the Search Engine Land Awards<\/a> has recognized exceptional marketers on an annual basis<\/strong> \u2014 showcasing their outstanding work, providing well-earned exposure in coverage and interviews, and bestowing upon them the highest honor in search.<\/p>\n

But the road between deciding to begin an application and winning the award can be a long one. Although this year\u2019s submission process has been significantly streamlined \u2014 it\u2019s never been faster or easier<\/strong> to apply to the Search Engine Land Awards \u2014 there\u2019s still a story that has to be told. And while the way in which you tell that story is entirely up to you, we thought we\u2019d look back on some advice from past judges<\/strong> about what really wows them, what they would love to see more of, and what areas are best avoided.<\/strong>..<\/p>\n

Keep reading for\u00a017 tips for creating an award-worthy submission:<\/p>\n

What impresses the judges most:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cWhat impresses me is when people have clearly aligned the tools and features they\u2019re using to the goals they want to achieve. It sounds simple, but the entries that are goal-oriented rather than focused on tactics are always strongest.\u201d \u2013 Ginny Marvin<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. \u201cWhen entries have a new take on a situation or feature and talk about into how their strategy is different from the norm, and demonstrate why is their strategy or tactics are award-worthy.\u201d \u2013 Brad Geddes<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cWhen submissions are succinct but concrete in their campaign summaries, show examples (i.e., ad creative where relevant) and use straight-forward English rather than marketing speak.\u201d \u2013 Greg Sterling<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. \u201cWhen applicants are able to go beyond percentages of increases and show tangible results of how the campaign directly impacted the bottom line of the business. Also, it helps to put results into perspective \u2014 so instead of simply saying: \u2018Before the campaign, the client was only bringing in this # of leads, clicks, etc \u2014 but the campaign raised that number to XXX\u2019 offer an example of how the campaign impacted the business overall and not just the analytics. \u2013 Amy Gesenhues<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. \u201cWhen entrants share a lot of technical data around their case studies.\u201d \u2013 Barry Schwartz<\/em><\/li>\n
  6. \u201cWhen entries prove their point with stats, graphs, and especially screenshots of GA\/PPC Engine\/ other paid search tech providers. Too many just say, \u2018we increased business [some huge number]\u2019 with no way to back it up.\u201d \u2013 Brad Geddes<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. \u201cIt really impresses me when entrants show how they retooled, revitalized [a campaign] or did something extraordinary to achieve extraordinary results. Or, how they outfoxed a competitor in a clever way \u2013 anything that shows how extraordinary results came from really extraordinary work.\u201d \u2013 Matt Van Wagner<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What judges want to see more of:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u201cI love to see orchestration \u2014 when teams use tools, tactics and features in interesting ways to solve problems and execute on a strategy.\u201d \u2013 Ginny Marvin<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. \u201cImages from the campaign and data illustrating concrete outcomes. Calling out what was innovative or especially significant or effective about the campaign.\u201d \u2013 Greg Sterling<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. \u201cStories around how the campaign was unique from other campaigns the agency and\/or client had implemented in the past and the tools used to implement the campaign. Also, did you learn anything from the campaign that you\u2019ve been able to introduce to other campaigns\/clients. Were there any unexpected benefits that played out during the course of the campaign?\u201d \u2013 Amy Gesenhues<\/em><\/li>\n
    4. \u201cI\u2019d love to see more data from our entrants that pinpoint successes or failures in their case studies.\u201d \u2013 Barry Schwartz<\/em><\/li>\n
    5. \u201cEntries that show the challenges they had to overcome that are outside of the norm (the scrappy startup against goliath, goliath showing it can innovate still against the scrappy startups stealing market share, etc), which might be market conditions, a business change, etc.\u201d \u2013 Brad Geddes<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What entrants need to stop doing:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \u201cIt\u2019s great to test new betas, but having access to betas doesn\u2019t make you a great marketer. Be sure your entry doesn\u2019t lean on implementing the newest beta features as evidence of running a successful campaign. That\u2019s not enough.\u201d \u2013 Ginny Marvin<\/em><\/li>\n
      2. \u201cPadding their discussions, using marketing jargon or bloated writing. I\u2019d also like to see less self-congratulation.\u201d \u2013 Greg Sterling<\/em><\/li>\n
      3. \u201cUsing language like world-class, best-in-class, etc. to define your campaign. Talk specific numbers and results. Using flowery language to build up the campaign takes away from actual\/quantifiable results. (In other words, let the numbers speak for themselves.)\u201d \u2013 Amy Gesenhues<\/em><\/li>\n
      4. \u201cNot differentiating on strategy or tactics. While it\u2019s important that we see \u2018best or standard practices are in place in an account, we are also looking for a detailed explanation of strategy that truly differentiates the work from others\u2026 For example, an account testing new ad extensions\/formats or a landing page that breaks convention but delivers impressive conversion data.\u201d \u2013 Brad Geddes<\/em><\/li>\n
      5. \u201cClaiming increases of 200% when you really mean 100%. A 100% increase means you doubled your number. Going from $100 to $137 is not a 137% increase. It is a 37% increase. I\u2019d like it that when you say ROAS, you show the formula you used to calculate it. A 1000% increase is almost always ignored as a metric. It is the opposite of impressive \u2013 it is suspicious. It is most likely you were doing very little before and now you are doing a little more than nothing.\u201d \u2013 Matt Van Wagner<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Don\u2019t miss your chance to enter the 2022 Search Engine Land Awards\u2026 the final deadline is Friday, September 9! Review the categories<\/a>\u00a0and begin your application here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

        The post How to craft a winning Search Engine Land Awards entry: Past judges share their advice<\/a> appeared first on Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Since its inception in 2015, the Search Engine Land Awards has recognized exceptional marketers on an annual basis \u2014 showcasing their outstanding work, providing well-earned exposure in coverage and interviews, and bestowing upon them the highest honor in search. But the road between deciding to begin an application and winning the award can be a long one. Although this year\u2019s submission process has been significantly streamlined \u2014 it\u2019s never been faster or easier to apply to the Search Engine Land Awards \u2014 there\u2019s still a story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}