Your final chance for industry-wide recognition, awesome social buzz, and a hefty boost to company morale is fast approaching: The 2021 Search Engine Awards entry period closes at the end of this week — Friday, September 3 at 11:59pm PT to be exact!

There’s still time for you to submit your application — especially because the submission process is faster and easier than ever. But before you begin that entry, take a moment to meet the judges, a fabulous panel of seasoned pros across the SEO and PPC spectrum, led by Search Engine Land’s own editorial experts…

… and look over their first-hand advice for what makes a winning SEO or PPC campaign, and thus, a winning Search Engine Land Awards application.

Azeem Ahmad

For me, a successful campaign starts at the end. Yes, you read that right. What I meant by that statement is that for any campaign to be a success, you have to absolutely decide what the measure of success is, and what success looks like for you. Jumping in without clarity often leads to more harm than good for the business.

It’s ok to just say “we want more traffic”, but the great campaigns go a step further and say “with this campaign, we’re looking to increase leads from [x] to [y] – or a [%] YoY growth – by implementing these strategies.”

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Crystal Carter

What makes difference in for a good SEO campaign is a clear understanding of the target audience – what you have to offer and what is most genuinely of value to those users. SEO provides a wealth of user data and insights to underpin content, advertising, promotion, and technical improvements. Putting that targeting to good use makes all the difference.

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Emily Mixon

My tip for a successful PPC campaign is negative fencing, particularly when you’re in a niche product category, and with all the recent match-type updates and close variants. Crucial to maintaining, and especially improving efficiency, campaigns need to be structured in a way to maintain control of keyword targeting and exclusions in an environment where automation is taking over.

For starters, begin with a phrase match-only campaign with a select few keywords, which you know will have a breadth of search queries matching back to them. For example, if you’re selling kitchen appliances, you could target “ovens” and “ranges”, and then collect the data around all of the search queries matching to them over a period of time. It is key to set a cadence for this, and stick to it, or the amount of search queries to sift through could become unmanageable. My cadence, on a good week, is every Monday, pulling the last 7 days of data.

Next, identify the search queries that are driving significant conversion volume, and add them as exact match keywords into an exact match-only version of the campaign. Do not add them as phrase matches to your phrase match campaign. The point here is to funnel traffic to exact match keywords, for which you can tailor specific and relevant ads and landing page experiences, (ex. [double oven wall unit] or [stainless steel gas ranges]). The phrase match keywords have done their job at this point in identifying converting search queries.

Finally, and most importantly, add the new exact match keywords from your exact match campaign as negative exact match keywords in the phrase match campaign. This helps to ensure that those queries hit the exact match keyword, which should have a better Quality Score and CPC’s than phrase match, and frees up budget for the phrase match keywords to find more search query variations.

Also, while combing through the SQR, be sure to add irrelevant search queries such as, “driving ranges” or “dutch ovens” in this example, as negative keywords to the campaign to help reduce wasted spend.

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Anu Adegbola

Regarding what I think makes a successful campaign… a few things straight away come to mind: A good structure based on either site structure, performance of keywords, match types (Broad vs. Phrase vs. Exact).  Clear indication of testing being done (ad copy, bid strategies, match types, etc). Robust use of different bid strategies (but according to performance not just a one size fits all solution.

Varied use of ad copy types – expanded text ads, alongside response search ads, dynamics ads, as well as using extra functions like countdowns, IF statements etc. Indication of regular search query analysis being done. Use of automation as needed.

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Brett Bodofsky

What makes an effective PPC campaign (specifically Google Ads and Microsoft Ads) is a robust structure which allows for ads that are highly tailored to their targeting. The targeting and copy/creative work together, in unison, to help achieve a clearly defined business objective (obtaining leads, sales, customer retention, creating brand awareness). Landing page also plays an important role in the success of a PPC campaign.

A campaign with refined targeting, bids and creative can drive highly qualified traffic to a page. If the page that traffic is sent to is not what a user would expect, has poor functionality, looks unprofessional, that can severely damage the effectiveness of a PPC campaign.

One factor that gets set up outside of campaigns similar to landing pages that can impact effectiveness is the conversion action. For intelligent bidding decisions and iterations to be made campaigns need a proper conversion action to work off of.

Another factor that can make a PPC campaign effective is time. It sounds so simple, but time allows for data to come in, which helps the machine learning make more informed decisions.

• It is the sum of many aspects which create an effective campaign (settings, targeting, bids, budget, creative, messaging, proper tracking, experimentation, demand, landing page, competition, etc). One of these aspects being off in some way can damage the integrity of your campaign and make it less effective.
• A campaign might not always be effective as soon as you launch or even in the first week or 2, but in due time, with more data in the door, it could become effective through means of machine learning having more to optimize off of and any manual optimizations/iterations the practitioner makes.

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Remember: The final deadline is this Friday, September 3 at 11:59pm PT. Standard entrance fees are $595 per application — and you can submit to as many categories as you like.

What are you waiting for? You, your company, and your career deserve this. Begin your application now!

The post Meet the 2021 Search Engine Land Awards judges appeared first on Search Engine Land.

The global events of the past two years have made it more important than ever for brands and agencies to stand out against the competition. Being able to call your company “award-winning” is one of the most powerful differentiators you can have.

That’s just one amazing reason to enter the 2021 Search Engine Land Awards. Keep reading for more.

Deadline alert: The final date to submit your Search Engine Land Awards entry is next Friday, September 3 at 11:59pm PST. Begin your application now!

1. Showcase exceptional work. The campaigns and initiatives you feature in your application will demonstrate to the judges, the community, and the industry at large just how talented you and your team are.
2. Generate new business. Customers and clients want to work with the best in the biz. And when you take home a Search Engine Land Award, that’s exactly what you’ll be.
3. Dazzle existing clients and customers. New work aside, your existing contacts will be thrilled to tell their circle they’re associated with an award-winning company.
4. Boost company morale. Winning a Search Engine Land Award is a wonderful way to put the spotlight on your hardworking colleagues and praise them for their tremendous work. You’ll ride those good vibes for years to come.
5. Earn international recognition. Search Engine Land Award winners — like Search Engine Land readers — come from all corners of the earth. When you win, you’ll be in the company of some of the world’s most exceptional organizations.
6. Savor legit bragging rights. New business is terrific. Industry praise is humbling. Bragging to friends, family, and your entire LinkedIn network is no less a well-deserved perk!
7. Wave from the front page of Search Engine Land. As a Search Engine Land Award winner, you’ll be featured in editorial coverage on Search Engine Land, the industry publication of record.
8. Enjoy potential speaking opportunities at Search Marketing Expo (SMX). Search Engine Land Award winners are often invited to speak at our sister conference, SMX — yet another opportunity to showcase your expertise and boost brand awareness.
9. Display a stunning trophy. Because, at the end of the day, who doesn’t love something beautiful and shiny to look at?
10. Take home the highest honor in search. The. Highest. Honor. In. Search. This is your field. This is your career. This is your chance. You deserve that honor.

There’s only one catch: You have to get your submission in by Friday, September 3 at 11:59pm PST. The submission process is faster and easier than ever before. What are you waiting for? Begin your application now.

Standard entry fees are $595 per application — and you can submit to as many categories as you like.

Our judges look forward to reviewing your work. Best of luck to you and your team!

The post 10 powerful reasons to enter the Search Engine Land Awards appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Since inception in 2015, the Search Engine Land Awards has recognized exceptional marketers on an annual basis — showcasing their oustanding 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’s submission process has been significantly streamlined — it’s never been faster or easier to apply to the Search Engine Land Awards — there’s 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’d look back on some advice from past judges about what really wows them, what they would love to see more of, and what areas are best avoided...

Keep reading for 17 tips for creating an award-worthy submission:

What impresses the judges most:

1. “What impresses me is when people have clearly aligned the tools and features they’re 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.” – Ginny Marvin
2. “When 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.” – Brad Geddes
3. “When 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.” – Greg Sterling
4. “When 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 — so instead of simply saying: ‘Before the campaign, the client was only bringing in this # of leads, clicks, etc — but the campaign raised that number to XXX’ offer an example of how the campaign impacted the business overall and not just the analytics. – Amy Gesenhues
5. “When entrants share a lot of technical data around their case studies.” – Barry Schwartz
6. “When entries prove their point with stats, graphs, and especially screenshots of GA/PPC Engine/ other paid search tech providers. Too many just say, ‘we increased business [some huge number]’ with no way to back it up.” – Brad Geddes
7. “It 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 – anything that shows how extraordinary results came from really extraordinary work.” – Matt Van Wagner

What judges want to see more of:

1. “I love to see orchestration — when teams use tools, tactics and features in interesting ways to solve problems and execute on a strategy.” – Ginny Marvin
2. “Images from the campaign and data illustrating concrete outcomes. Calling out what was innovative or especially significant or effective about the campaign.” – Greg Sterling
3. “Stories 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’ve been able to introduce to other campaigns/clients. Were there any unexpected benefits that played out during the course of the campaign?” – Amy Gesenhues
4. “I’d love to see more data from our entrants that pinpoint successes or failures in their case studies.” – Barry Schwartz
5. “Entries 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.” – Brad Geddes

What entrants need to stop doing:

1. “It’s great to test new betas, but having access to betas doesn’t make you a great marketer. Be sure your entry doesn’t lean on implementing the newest beta features as evidence of running a successful campaign. That’s not enough.” – Ginny Marvin
2. “Padding their discussions, using marketing jargon or bloated writing. I’d also like to see less self-congratulation.” – Greg Sterling
3. “Using 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.)” – Amy Gesenhues
4. “Not differentiating on strategy or tactics. While it’s important that we see ‘best 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… For example, an account testing new ad extensions / formats or a landing page that breaks convention but delivers impressive conversion data.” – Brad Geddes
5. “Claiming 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’d 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 – it is suspicious. It is most likely you were doing very little before and now you are doing a little more than nothing.” – Matt Van Wagner

The final deadline for the 2021 Search Engine Land Awards is September 3, 2021 at 11:59 pm PST. Review the categories for 2021 and begin your application here. 

The post How to craft a winning Search Engine Land Awards entry: Past judges share their advice appeared first on Search Engine Land.