Former judges share their advice

Since its creation in 2015, the Search engine land prices To exceptional marketers recognized on an annual basis – showcasing their outstanding work, providing well-deserved exposure in coverage and interviews, and bestowing upon them the highest honor in research.

But it can be a long road from deciding to nominate to receiving the award. While this year’s submission process has been significantly streamlined – it has never been faster or easier to apply for the Search Engine Land Awards – there’s one more story to tell. And while how you tell this story is entirely up to you, we thought we’d pick up on some advice from former judges In regards to what really impresses them, what they would like to see more of and which areas are best to avoid...

Read on for 17 tips for creating an award-worthy quote:

What impresses the judges the most:

1. “What impresses me is when people have clearly aligned the tools and features they use with the goals they want to achieve. It sounds simple, but entries that are focused on objectives rather than tactics are always the strongest. “- Ginny Marvin
2. “When inputs have a new take on a situation or feature and explain how their strategy is different from the norm, and demonstrate why their strategy or tactics are worthy of a prize.” – Brad geddes
3. “When submissions are succinct but concrete in their campaign summaries, show examples (ie – Greg Sterling
4. “When candidates are able to go beyond the percentages of increase and show tangible results on the direct impact of the campaign on the results of the company. Also, it helps put the results into perspective – so instead of just saying, “Before the campaign, the customer only brought this number of leads, clicks, etc. – but the campaign increased that number to XXX “. the campaign had an impact on the company as a whole and not just on the analytics. – Amy Gesenhues
5. “When new entrants share a lot of technical data around their case studies.” – Barry schwartz
6. “When entries prove their point with statistics, charts and especially screenshots from GA / PPC Engine / other paid search technology providers. Too many people just say, ‘we increased the business [some huge number]’without any way to save it. – Brad geddes
7. “It really impresses me when the participants show how they have retooled, revitalized [a campaign] or do something extraordinary to achieve extraordinary results. Or, how they outsmarted a competitor in a clever way – anything that shows how extraordinary results have come from truly extraordinary work. – Matt Van Wagner

What the judges want to see more:

1. “I love to see orchestration – when teams use tools, tactics, and features in interesting ways to solve problems and execute strategy. ” – Ginny Marvin
2. “Campaign images and data illustrating concrete results. Denounce what was innovative or particularly important or effective in the campaign. – Greg Sterling
3. “Stories about 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. Additionally, did you learn anything from the campaign that you were able to present to other campaigns / clients. Were there any unexpected benefits during the campaign? “- Amy Gesenhues
4. “I would like to see more data from our participants who identify successes or failures in their case studies. “- Barry schwartz
5. “Entries that show the challenges they had to overcome and which are out of the norm (the rambling startup against goliath, goliath showing that it can still innovate against the rambling startups that steal market share, etc.), which may be market conditions, trade change, etc. “- Brad geddes

What entrants should stop doing:

1. “It’s great to test new beta releases, but having access to beta releases doesn’t make you a great marketer. Make sure your application doesn’t rely on implementing the latest beta features as proof of campaign success. It’s not enough.” – Ginny Marvin
2. “Stuff their discussions, use marketing jargon or bloated writing. I would also like to see less complacency. – Greg Sterling
3. “Use language like world-class, best-in-class, etc. to define your campaign. Talk about specific numbers and results. Using flowery language to develop the campaign takes away the real / quantifiable results. (In other words, let the numbers speak for themselves.) †– Amy Gesenhues
4. “Don’t make a difference in strategy or tactics. While it is important that we see that “best or standard practices” are in place in an account, we are also looking for a detailed explanation of the strategy that really differentiates the work from others … For example, an account testing new extensions / ad formats or a landing page that breaks conventions but provides impressive conversion data. “- Brad geddes
5. “Claims go up 200% when you really mean 100%. A 100% increase means you’ve doubled your number. Going from $ 100 to $ 137 is not a 137% increase. That’s a 37% increase. I would like when you say ROAS you show the formula you used to calculate it. A 1000% increase is almost always ignored as a metric. It’s the opposite of awesome – it’s suspect. Chances are you were doing very little before and now you are doing a little more than nothing. – Matt Van Wagner

The deadline for 2021 search engine land prices is September 3, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Review it categories for 2021 and start your application here.