US Search Awards 2019 - Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

RELIVE THE SEARCH PARTY SAHARA LAS VEGAS HOTEL & CASINO | OCTOBER 9, 2019 Welcome to the US Search Awards Book of the Night 2019. Inside you will find details of all our finalists plus a showcase of this year’s winning work. Since its launch, the US Search Awards has celebrated the very best in SEO, PPC and content marketing across the US, and recognised and rewarded the individuals, companies and organisations that are transforming the Search industry. Entry quality was extremely high and our thanks go out to our judging panel who had the unenviable task of shortlisting and choosing this year’s winners. I’d also like to thank our sponsors and supporters for adding their weight and considerable influence on a competition that continues to reflect the talent, expertise and continuing growth of the industry. Our thanks go to our social wall sponsor, Higher Visibility, our step and repeat sponsor, Majestic, and our category sponsors: DeepCrawl, Microsoft, OnCrawl, Optmyzr, Reprise, SEMrush, SpyFu and 1SEO.com. We'd also like to thanks our host for the evening, Melissa Fach and Dixon Jones. If you were there on the night, you will have celebrated, mixed and mingled with the best in Search – not to mention danced the night away! So, our final thanks and huge congratulations goes to all the winners and everyone who made the shortlist. It’s a real achievement and I hope you enjoyed the evening. Nicky Wake Don’t Panic MD & Creator of Search Awards

THANKS TO OUR 2019 JUDGING PANEL Barry Adams | Polemic Digital

Simon Heseltine | Trader Interactive

Dawn Anderson | Bertey

Anders Hjorth | Innovell

Chris Boggs | webtrafficadvisors.com

Motoko Hunt | Consultant

Elmer Boutin | GTB

Kenny Hyder | Hyder Media

Sheldon Campbell | Search News Central

Christopher Kohan | IBM

Christine Churchill | Key Relevance

Judith Lewis | DeCabbit Consulting

Edwin Choi | JetFuel.Agency

Carla Marshall | TubularInsights.com

Dave Davies | Beanstalk

Debra Mastaler | Alliance-Link

Mary Davies | Beanstalk

Jesse McDonald | IBM

Sean Dolan | PushFire

Brian McDowell | Bloomreach

Kevin Gibbons | Re:signal

Luis Navarrete Gomez | LEGO Group

Greg Gifford | Wikimotive

Zbigniew Nowicki | Bluerank

Lisa Williams | Oregon Health & Science University

Keith Goode | IBM

Lexi Mills | Shift6

Rob Woods | SEO Consultant

Jenny Halasz | JLH Marketing

Polly Pospelova | Delete

Murat Yatağan | Brainly

Bill Hartzer | SEO Consultant

Antony Robinson | Pure Optimisation

Peter Young | Wavemaker

Scott Hendison | Search Commander

Laura Roth | Conductor

Dennis Yu | BlitzMetrics

BEST USE OF SEARCH RETAIL/eCOMMERCE (SEO) FINALISTS Blurb Go Fish Digital & MySpaCover Hewlett Packard Enterprise & Back Azimuth Consulting Merkle with Harry & David Milestone Milestone & Renault Eurofranceses de Mexico Stella Rising & Drybar Stickyeyes & Kroger TopHatRank & WineOnSale.com Wpromote & Hibbett Sports

The judges commented that th efforts around maintaining inte that it is unusual to see a site mi in traffic, impressive wo

WINNER: Hewlett Packard Enterprise & Back Azimuth

his submission displayed great ernational results. They added igration with an immediate uplift ork and a worthy winner.

SUMMARY The HPE SEO team is very excited to showcase their work in going beyond â&#x20AC;&#x153;cookie-cutterâ&#x20AC;? SEO and being innovative in their approach to optimizing their site. This award will show the management team that their support has not gone unnoticed and will allow the team to pursue even more creative and exciting opportunities moving forward.

BEST USE OF SEARCH RETAIL/eCOMMERCE (PPC) FINALISTS 360i & Advance Auto Parts Adtaxi & National Coffee Retailer Crealytics Logical Position & Cocofloss Metric Theory & JG Edelen TENSHI & A1 Supplements The Media Image & Clarins Tombras & Great Clips

The judges commented that this e the story of this campaign while p test. A stand-out win

WINNER: Tombras & Great Clips

entry did a fantastic job of telling providing the data to back up their nner in this category.

SUMMARY This is The Devil Wears Prada story of a paid search campaign makeover. Deciding it was time for a new ‘do, Great Clips hired Tombras to leverage our cutting-edge approach to search engine marketing. Our mission: test the boundaries of Google’s Smart Bidding technology and automation to accelerate store traffic and sales growth. In close collaboration with Great Clips, we launched a three-month nonbrand campaign restructure with a goal post set: reduce cost-per incremental store visit by 30%. The stakes? The system-wide franchise contribution to the national marketing fund. To achieve Great Clips’ CPA goal, we knew we had to re-think every so-called paid search “best practice” to meet traffic count targets for over 1,200 franchises across 4,400 franchise locations. We designed a consolidated campaign structure based on one future-forward thought – structuring campaigns based on a new concept we call “data flow.” Together, Great Clips and Tombras elevated PPC from the C-Suite to the franchisee level by smashing our lofty goal and driving an annual equivalent of 230,000 haircuts.

BEST USE OF SEARCH FINANCE (SEO) FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & J.G. Wentworth 360i & U.S. Bank milestone ROAST & Refinitiv Silverback Strategies & First Savings Mortgage Victorious & Early Growth Financial Services Victorious & Tithe.ly WebMechanix & StreeT

The judges felt this campai approach to the work, overa submission with

WINNER: Milestone

ign displayed an innovative all this was a well-rounded h great results.

SUMMARY Milestone provides digital marketing software and services for hospitality, banking, retail, and more. We provide a full range of solutions including website and mobile design, content creation, SEO, paid search, analytics, and competitive intelligence. Our technology and solutions are best in class, and we drive revenue and ROI for clients across the globe.

At Milestone we are dedicated to finding unique solutions for our clients whenever possible. Our team works extremely hard to stay ahead of digital marketing trends and make our clients successful; so much of what we do is innovative. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so important that our work is recognized. We believe we have one of the best and brightest teams in digital marketing, and our employees deserve recognition for the amazing work they do.

BEST USE OF SEARCH FINANCE (PPC) FINALISTS MediaCom & American Airlines / Citibank Metric Theory & GoFundMe NMPi & Pets Best Insurance The Media Image & Refinitiv

The judges commented that this is Theory & GoFundMe submission w facts, objectives and gene

WINNER: Metric Theory & GoFundMe

s a very worthy winner, the Metric was well presented and displayed erated impressive results.

SUMMARY GoFundMe helps people every day, enabling worldwide action to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pay it forwardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, save lives, and make dreams come true. As one of the only 0% platform fee based for-profit fundraising companies, it makes sure that people in need receive maximum financing, quickly. To be able to collaborate with and support such an incredible company is rewarding for Metric Theory, and both teams are proud to submit this story for the US Search Awards.

BEST USE OF SEARCH TRAVEL / LEISURE (SEO) FINALISTS Arch RoamRight Milestone & The Evelyn Hotel Victorious & Blueboard

Victorious displayed a great they achieved impressive resu The judges felt this

WINNER: Victorious & Blueboard

t analysis of their campaign, ults and shared great evidence. was a clear winner.

SUMMARY Blueboard is an ambitious team that aims to bring celebration and recognition to the workplace. They organize and execute unique trips and experiences as employee rewards. Founders Kevin and Taylor challenged themselves to shake things up through adventurous activities with friends and coworkers after work. Through organizing these events they realized how much fulfillment they and others got out these activities. They discovered a new passion and Blueboard was born! In September 2018, Blueboard’s organic traffic was declining. They made an early splash in organic traffic, but it was short-lived. They needed a tested and proven SEO strategy. That’s when they contacted Victorious to help them rebuild and sustain a strong organic presence. Today, Blueboard is enjoying a all-time high in the number of keywords and keywords on the first page, 166% more keywords, translating into a 73% increase in organic traffic and 50% in conversions in just seven months. We’re pleased with the growth we’ve seen and are thrilled that we get to continue working with Blueboard, growing their organic footprint.

BEST USE OF SEARCH TRAVEL / LEISURE (PPC) FINALISTS Aimclear Hanapin Marketing Marin Software & Kiwi.com MediaCom & American Airlines

The judges felt this was a perfec which stood out in a strong way impressive res

WINNER: Aimclear

ct pitch of an awards submission y, clear objectives were set and sults achieved.

SUMMARY At pennies-per-view and treating Facebook (or Twitter) like a wholly owned TV station, orchestrating new brand search and reaching more prospects is pretty easy. Beautiful travel video – great stock footage will do – imprinted with the brand starts the brand search ball rolling. Client is an approximately $2 billion valuation, international travel fare aggregator and metasearch engine, well known abroad with some US brand recognition. They’re shrewd, have significant media budgets, motivated, skilled at performance marketing, with an excellent in-house team. Conversion was maxed and, as noted above, they had problems spending more ROAS-positive money. New customer acquisition in the U.S. had hit a wall, which the client knew was tied to lack of greater brand awareness. We knew saturating sandboxed audiences would predictably manufacture NEW brand keyword search and direct traffic on a budget. New brand search is golden because it scales conversion and maintains CPAs.

BEST LOCAL CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Junk Rescue 360i & Roto-Rooter Adapt Partners Apogee Results & The Bug Master C-4 Analytics & Planet Honda Nebo & Arrow Exterminators NordicClick Interactive Pan Galactic Digital for Devereaux, Stokes, Fernandez, and Leonard Personal Injury Lawyers Rise Interactive & Stanley Steemer Victorious & Saussy Burbank

The judges felt this was a grea with how Apogee Results & The along with query volume to ma clearly they drew the lines from

WINNER: Apogee Results & The Bug Master

at entry. They were impressed e Bug Master used seasonality ake content decisions and how m implementation to success.

SUMMARY Every client, no matter how large or small, deserves the best return for their search marketing efforts. The relationship between Apogee Results and The Bug Master is an example of how conscientious and creative application of best practices in local SEO, data, and content writing can positively impact a clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bottom line without spending big marketing dollars. As an agency, it is an honor to work with local clients like The Bug Master and a pleasure to see their vision for business growth recognized in the digital marketing industry.

BEST USE OF SEARCH THIRD SECTOR FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey Red Door Interactive WebMechanix & Philanthropy University

1SEO displayed an extraordinar able to identify and pin-point th added that this type of submiss see, especially the connectio

WINNER: 1SEO Digital Agency & CCGNJ

ry use of local search and were he target audience. The judges sion is exactly what they like to on of objectives and results.

SUMMARY The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey (CCGNJ) is a NJ-based nonprofit organization best known for and often referred to as its 24/7, confidential helpline, 800-GAMBLER. That number appears on casino billboards and scratch-off cards statewide, and is also heard all over the radio airwaves, providing a lifeline for problem gamblers and their loved ones. Despite their visibility, CCGNJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is never complete.

BEST USE OF SEARCH HEALTH FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Council Envisionit & Vein Clinics of America First Scribe & Park Dental Go Fish Digital & Bespoke Surgical NordicClick Interactive Stella Rising & CCRM Fertility Tandem Interactive & Banyan Tombras & Atrium Health Victorious & Blink Health Victorious & ShoulderMD

The judges commented on how Surgical submission really stoo added that this entry displayed huge traffic and

WINNER: Go Fish Digital & Bespoke Surgical

w the Go Fish Digital & Bespoke od out in a tough category. They d great creativity and generated revenue growth.

SUMMARY Go Fish Digitalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work for Bespoke Surgical from 2018-2019 has resulted in quadruple-digit organic traffic increases for the website. In working towards more broad goals such as brand awareness, as well as more specific goals such as ranking #1 for niche target terms in the plastic surgery and LGBTQ+ space, our Technical SEO, Content, and Development teams successfully collaborated to far exceed all project objectives. From organic expansion in the face of broad core Google algorithm updates to positioning the Bespoke team for a new product line launch in June 2019, this partnership exemplifies how best practices applied can propel even a small site in a niche industry to achieve big results.

BEST USE OF SEARCH FMCG FINALISTS Carmichael Lynch & Red Baron Go Fish Digital & Leafly Hello Products Reprise Digital The Absolut Company

The judges felt that this was a stro page speed, UX and giving actual e that this was concisely writt

WINNER: Hello Products

ong entry using E-A-T compliance, examples of rankings. They added ten and a stand-out winner.

SUMMARY Path Interactive is a full-service digital marketing agency based in New York City and Nashville, offering search marketing, digital advertising, web development, creative services, analytics and more. Our SEO team and our company have been rapidly expanding in recent years due to the great work we provide our clients, and our dedication to maintaining a strong company culture and happy employees. We are passionate about SEO and love applying new concepts and developments in the industry to our client campaigns. We approach each account creatively, developing customized strategies that meet each client’s individual needs and goals. Our work speaks for itself – virtually all SEO campaigns at Path see tremendous growth in a short timeframe; our employee retention rate is much higher than the average for agencies; and many of our clients stick with us for years at a time. We are excited about the opportunity to compete for a U.S. Search Award and hope the judges can appreciate the hard work and dedication we’ve brought to our clients’ campaigns.

BEST USE OF SEARCH REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY FINALISTS 1SEO & KickCharge 3Q Digital Go Fish Digital & Homes.com LOCALiQ & Pinnacle Mannix Marketing & Adirondack Mountain Land

The judges felt this was an exce displayed a strong set of objec results were achieved. Great w

WINNER: Mannix Marketing & Adirondack Mountain Land

ellent campaign, the submission ctives’ were set and impressive work, a very deserving winner.

SUMMARY Adirondack Mt Land is a small, two-person company and a client every digital marketing agency dreams of. Initially, the two biggest challenges of the Adirondack Mtn Land campaign were budget and website limitations. Had we submitted him during 2016, 2017 or 2018 he would have qualified for the Low Budget SEO award. In April 2019, the client increased his budget a little, but it is remarkable what we were able to accomplish with owner Mike Black’s help throughout the years. Mike is a client who takes our advice and allows us to implement our plans. We have built a trusted relationship that has taken his business to a level he never thought he’d achieve. He is truly a part of our team and it has been a pleasure watching his business grow and transform over the years. Adirondack Mt Land is poised to have the best year yet in 2019.

BEST LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Body Armor Megastore Tandem Interactive TopHatRank Uberall WordStream

The judges commente campaign which was bas yet still managed to ach

WINNER: Tandem Interactive

ed that this is a great sed on a very low budget hieve an impressive ROI.

SUMMARY Tandem Interactive is a small digital marketing agency with a PPC team comprised of imaginative, analytical, optimization-obsessed marketers who spend everyday researching industry updates, analysing data trends, and strategizing new ways to generate more buzz around our client’s businesses and make their online presence more profitable. Our pay per click expertise has grown businesses of all shapes and sizes. A mom and pop shop targeting their local neighbourhood, or a nationwide franchise – the size of the company and their advertising budget aren’t what matter. What matters to us is driving real results to help our client’s businesses grow. Regardless of company size or campaign budget, each client receives in depth market and competitor analysis to develop strategies that we believe would help them hit the ground running whether it’s – search, display, video, Gmail campaigns, or an entirely different out of the box approach. Being recognized for our hard work even on a low budget campaign would just re-emphasize how proud we are of our hard work, even when our wins are technically ‘small’.

BEST USE OF PR IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Fractl Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living SEO-PR & Rutgers VMLY&R & Bridgestone Americas

This submission made the ju contained great content and a have a great PR strategy which h

WINNER: SEO-PR & Rutgers

udges smile when reading, it lot of detail. SEO-PR & Rutgers has achieved impressive results.

SUMMARY In January 2019, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) hired SEO-PR, an award-winning digital marketing agency, to help launch a new Online Professional Master’s in Human Resource Management (MHRM) program. Their objective was to generate 30 applications by June 30, 2019. As of that date, their launch campaign had driven 7,266 new users to SMLR’s online MHRM landing page, generated 947 leads, and produced 61 applications. An analysis of the launch campaign found that an optimized press release on BusinessWire.com, duplicate news content on SMLR’s website, and an optimized landing page generated 33.1% of the campaign’s leads at a significantly lower cost-perlead than either LinkedIn ads or Google Ads. And measuring PR using the same set of metrics and KPIs used for Digital Advertising (including PPC) is a game changer. Winning this award would mean that marketers no longer need to treat PR as a “faith-based initiative”.

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Penn Masala Aimclear Gruen Agency Marin Software & Kiwi.com MilliporeSigma Nebo Agency

The judges really liked this campa strong, successful submission with

WINNER: Aimclear

aign, they commented that this is a great detail and impressive results.

BEST USE OF VIDEO IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & Penn Masala Assembly Media & Fox Reprise Digital & McCormick SalesX with Harney & Sons Fine Tea

The judges commented that this ca perfectly executed. They added tha artfully managed to be so successfu cultura

WINNER: Assembly Media & Fox

ampaign was a great idea and was at this was very well produced and ul and able able to hit both sides of a al dived.

SUMMARY Assembly is a data driven company focused on driving real results for our clients. Through a combined approach of creativity and technology weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve built a new media model we call media arts + sciences. Ultimately, we are a technology company making ideas bigger through media. Our campaign approach was both unique and innovative in strategy as well as execution. We fused a traditional channel, Search, with a new and untapped product solution in order to reach relevant audiences with precise targeting methods while also intercepting unwitting searchers as they asked regular, silly, and out of the box questions. This ultimately proved significant because we were able to do something different while making a big splash and driving buzz and awareness of a sequel film which rarely tops the original. Winning this award would validate our work and showcase our ability to be at the forefront of innovation and creativity and truly represent our belief and approach in this new age of media buying.

BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Aimclear Gruen Agency Metric Theory & Optimizely Neo Media World & CTU Nina Hale & Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota NMPi & Pets Best Insurance Reprise Digital on behalf of Coca-Cola North America SEM International & Altura Interactive SEO-PR Rutgers Statwax & Concorde Career College

The judges felt that this submis a great story. They backed up th displayed examples of their work creative and out of the box thinki

WINNER: SEM International & Altura Interactive

ssion was very transparent and heir work with data, details and k. They added that this was really ing, a truly integrated campaign.

SUMMARY Imagine if your client provided you with three challenges. The first was how to promote a game whose name was considered old and stagnant, the second was you can only target the LATAM region in Spanish and the third was to integrate the campaign with a limited budget on every relevant digital platform the budget can utilize over a period of 60 days. Along with the SEM International partnership with Altura Interactive we met that challenge. Our promotion of integrating Google paid search and display, Facebook and Instagram, inn-app ads, direct publishers and Tinder contributed into creating one of the most successful relaunches of a product in Activision Blizzard history, the World Of Warcraft : Battle of Azeroth Winning this award is not only great recognition of our teams global capabilities, creative insight and integrated strategy, it also shows to our industry that integrated campaigns can be highly successful if done right. We would be honoured to win.

BEST MOBILE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS The judges have decided not to release a shortlist for this category.

The judges really liked this submis and integrated across social and worthy

WINNER: 1SEO Digital Agency & Buy4lesstuxedo.com

sion, the campaign achieved great d search on mobile. A stand-out, winner.

BEST PPC CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & The Law Offices of Darwin F. Johnson Brainlabs & OpenMarkeT DAC & Bridgestone January Digital & Davids Bridal MilliporeSigma Neo Media World & CEC Rakuten Marketing Search & Black Diamond Rise Interactive & Stanley Steemer SalesX & Aeroflow Healthcare Tombras & Great Clips

The judges liked the new technolo Steemer have used for this campa displayed an impressive use of resulted with h

WINNER: Rise Interactive & Stanley Steemer

ogy that Rise Interactive & Stanley aign. They added this submission budget, real clear strategy and happy clients.

SUMMARY Rise Interactive is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in Media, Analytics, and Creative/Web Development. Our vision is to be the leaders in leveraging data to help brands make smarter marketing investments. We have specifically innovated to solve for the challenges that large, complex brands face when using search marketing, including managing hundreds of franchise locations with unique budgets and goals, and optimizing search for business outcomes, as we did for Stanley Steemer. We believe that with smarter and more innovative uses of data, brands can find an edge in even the most competitive environments. Winning this award would prove just that.

BEST SEO CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency & AutoHausAZ Adapt Partners Go Fish Digital & Joybird Investis Digital & Groupon Path Interactive & Hello Products Proofpoint Stella Rising & CCRM Fertility The Absolut Company Ticketmaster Tombras & Orangetheory Fitness

The judges were impressed with of hard work was put in to the su Fertility are a very

WINNER: Stella Rising & CCRM Fertility

h this campaign, it is clear a lot ubmission. Stella Rising & CCRM y deserving winner.

SUMMARY Stella Rising is the top independent media, marketing services, and business consulting firm for rising star brands. Our client, CCRM, certainly qualifies as a stellar brand. While educating and emboldening, CCRM makes possible what can be a difficult journey: starting a family. For all kinds of couples struggling to become parents, CCRM delivers best-in-class support and care. A leading fertility clinic network with 10 locations across the United States and Canada, CCRM signed on with Stella Rising after we agreed upon an impressive list of goals and objectives. Over our working relationship, we have been extremely proud to partner with the CCRM team and consider it to be an incredible collaboration. To review topline results: we have more than quadrupled sessions, increased appointment request goal completions by 71.47%, and increased page one keywords by 209.46%. While we are always a client-first agency, our team feels a particular pride for our work with CCRM because of their incredible mission. We are always thrilled to drive successful business initiatives, but we are also mindful of the sincere meaning driving our work for CCRM.

BEST USE OF CONTENT MARKETING FINALISTS Go Fish Digital & Joybird Homes.com Investis Digital & Groupon OnCrawl - SEO in Orbit Publicis Sapient & H&R BlocK Reprise Digital & McCormick SEO Digital Group & Social Buddy Tandem Interactive Time4Learning

The judges felt this was a very c really liked the use of pop culture Great work and a

WINNER: Go Fish Digital & Joybird

creative and fun submission and to earn traffic through a fun quiz. a worthy winner.

SUMMARY Go Fish Digital developed a successful contentbased link building campaign which generated 112 backlinks for our client Joybird, a La-Z-Boy company. The team designed a fun personality quiz which categorized users into a Game of Thrones house based on their responses (for Harry Potter fans, it was modelled after the Pottermore sorting quiz). We leveraged the media build up for the final season of Game of Thrones to generate high quality links and significant social shares to the quiz on the Joybird site. This drove a large amount of traffic and participation with the campaign as approximately 50,000 individuals completed the quiz before the premier. Tapping into the worldwide interest in the final season of Game of Thrones, this highly tangential content campaign allowed Joybird to capitalize on the timeliness of the pop-culture event to increase its brand exposure, backlink profile and search visibility.

MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Aimclear Assembly Media & Fox Better Collective & US-Bookies.com Go Fish Digital & EIG Hewlett Packard Enterprise & Back Azimuth Consulting PMG Rise Interactive & Stanley Steemer SEM International & Altura Interactive The Absolut Company Tombras & Great Clips

The judges were impressed with Interactive targeted their audie approach and the submission d

WINNER: SEM International & Altura Interactive

h how SEM International & Altura ence, this was a real innovative demonstrated great execution.

SUMMARY Imagine if your client provided you with three challenges. The first was how to promote a game whose name was considered old and stagnant, the second was you can only target the LATAM region in Spanish and the third was to integrate the campaign with a limited budget on every relevant digital platform the budget can utilize over a period of 60 days. Along with the SEM International partnership with Altura Interactive we met that challenge. Our promotion of integrating Google paid search and display, Facebook and Instagram, inn-app ads, direct publishers and Tinder contributed into creating one of the most successful relaunches of a product in Activision Blizzard history, the World Of Warcraft : Battle of Azeroth Winning this award is not only great recognition of our teams global capabilities, creative insight and innovative strategy, it also shows to our industry that integrated campaigns can be highly successful if done right. We would be honoured to win.

BEST SOFTWARE INNOVATION FINALISTS Adalysis Back Azimuth Consulting Brainlabs crawlOPTIMIZER.com DeepCrawl OnCrawl Pacvue Rise Interactive SEMrush Squared.io

The judges were impressed with t well as clear and easy to understa Consulting have created somet valuable, especially for

WINNER: Back Azimuth Consulting

his submission, it was detailed as and. They added that Back Azimuth thing great which will be highly large eCommerce sites.

SUMMARY Back Azimuth works with some of the largest companies solving complex SEO problems. We submitted our HREFLang Builder as the most innovative software to reward the team for the amazing work they have done to make the impossible possible. Our greatest innovation was the ability to map any site based on in URL tags, meta tags, and even harder language mapping between languages and separate sites. No other tool has been able to do this type of mapping and not at the scale of millions of URL combinations and create validated XML files. Winning this award would mean that both HREFLang Builder and HREFLang as a tactic, are seen by our industry, as critical to the overall success of SEO programs for global businesses.

BEST PPC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Adalysis Adlucent Adzooma Kenshoo Optmyzr Rise Interactive Spaceboost Squared.io

The judges were blown away with t on multiple devices, has a great d and easy to navigate. Squared.io valuable s

WINNER: Squared.io

this software suite, it is easy to use dashboard and very user friendly o have created a very useful and software.

SUMMARY Squared.io is a fully automated audit and optimisation platform for Google Ads. We're thrilled to have been recognised at the US Search Awards and look forward to our continued growth in the region!

BEST SEO SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Botify Conductor Searchlight crawlOPTIMIZER.com OnCrawl SEMrush The MarketMuse Suite

The judges commented on how software suite which is easy A very wort

WINNER: SEMrush

w SEMrush have created a solid y to navigate and works well. thy winner.

SUMMARY SEMrush is a leading digital marketing toolkit for SEO, PPC and content marketing professionals worldwide. SEMrush ensures marketing teams always have time for creativity and experiments while we take care of data. It is the only software which enables marketing professionals to build, manage, and measure campaigns across all channels to improve their online visibility. We develop our tools for marketing professionals together with them. All updates are discussed and tested by users before they are deployed. We constantly improve our software so our users would have all the data needed to win today, tomorrow and understand what made them win yesterday. We do all in our power to provide the best customer experience, education and support. This award is a recognition of our customer-centric approach and an enormous motivation for the team.

BEST SEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL FINALISTS AccuRanker Botify Brainlabs DeepCrawl OnCrawl Rise Interactive SEMrush SpyFu Squared.io Swydo Yext

The judges feel that OnCraw fresh new tool which is very and a strong winne

WINNER: OnCrawl

wl have created a interesting, y powerful. Very impressive er in this category.

SUMMARY OnCrawl is a technical SEO platform for enterprise SEO audits and daily monitoring. The solution helps e-commerce websites, SEO agencies, and online publishers to improve their organic traffic, rankings, and revenues by opening Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s black box. Driven by a strong tech spirit, OnCrawl gives search marketers easy access to the data they need by providing actionable dashboards and reports to support the entire search engine optimization process. Winning an award is a thrilling prospect that would recognize the hard work and expertise of our amazing employees and partners who continue to work hard to push the limits of innovation. It will also shine a spotlight on the potential for website owners to gain even deeper insights into website performance and enable them to make better business decisions.

BEST IN-HOUSE TEAM FINALISTS Better Collective Comcast Corporation Hewlett Packard Enterprise HomeToGo GmbH MilliporeSigma Sears Home Services Sprint Synergize Time4Learning

Sears went through tough times a everything they were able to grow judges were very impressed with h working with other departm

WINNER: Sears Home Services SEM SEO Team

and faced challenges yet despite w and achieve amazing results. The how they are moving forward and ments to grow the company.

SUMMARY For generations, people have relied on Sears for their appliance purchases, service, protection and parts. With more than 4.5 million repairs performed annually and thousands of professional technicians employed nationwide, Sears is the #1 appliance repair service in the country, delivering guaranteed quality and workmanship. In the face of all the changes and challenges that came about as a result of Searsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bankruptcy filing, the team was able to quickly recover order volumes in order to keep the promise to our customers to be there in their time of need, as well as, keep our technicians busy and employed.

BEST SMALL PPC AGENCY FINALISTS SalesX Tandem Interactive

SalesX are an impressive agency, work with the community, they ha clients and have displayed excelle An overall wo

WINNER: SalesX

they are involved and doing great ave great relationships with their ent, true data in their submission. orthy winner.

SUMMARY At SalesX®, we assist our clients with achieving business value through digital advertising. We help them understand the importance of tracking and properly mapping the digital advertising technology to their profit centers. We collaborate with them in identifying competitive advantages that keep them in front of their competitors, using the modern speed, agility, and accountability that is inherent in the digital advantage. Our Business Value of Advertising Technology™ (BVAT™) are 12 Business Value Indicators that we use to help clients grow and perform as a market leader in their industry As we help clients evaluate their verticals and determine goals, we also help our clients grow through Google Ads optimization along with real time custom reporting. We utilize a custom library of 100+ scripts (collectively known as X-Vault®) to help us review and update Google Ads accounts in near real time. We also have internal and external reporting to help track and manage the progress and success of the clients goals and KPIs regardless of how many they may have. We not only track the goals and spend, but track 28 other metrics and performance indicators, all the while looking for trends and identifying and correcting errors.

BEST LARGE PPC AGENCY FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency Adlucent Brainlabs Chacka Marketing Logical Position Metric Theory Rise Interactive The Media Image

The judges commented that the Bria clear and to the point, they provide example of successful work they ha of recent achievements and are

WINNER: Brainlabs

anlabs submission was really simple, ed detailed information and recent ave completed Brainlabs have a lot e very deserving of this award.

SUMMARY In 2012, Brainlabs’ founder, Dan Gilbert, began his mission to change digital advertising for the better. He built our foundations on a combination of technological prowess, brainpower and marketing knowledge to make digital marketing a more scientific, data-driven pursuit. We apply scientific thinking to marketing and produce original technology to drive performance far beyond anything that had come before, creating a gamechanging approach to Paid Search. Today, we have 250 employees across two continents providing PPC as well as Display, Social, Analytics, CRO and Consultancy services. We conquered the UK Search landscape at such force that entering the American market was the next logical step. 2016 saw the birth of this exciting opportunity with our first international office, and we’ve been supercharging our clients’ media in the US ever since. In the past 12 months we’ve seen tremendous growth within our agency while staying true to our core values, and our innovative approach continues to produce award winning results for our clients.

BEST SMALL INTEGRATED AGENCY FINALISTS Aimclear Red Door Interactive SSDM The Tombras Group

The judges really liked Aimcle objectives both covering the c success. They added that detaile all with impressive result

WINNER: Aimclear

ear’s detailed list of company company culture and the client ed client examples were provided ts. A very worthy winner.

SUMMARY Aimclear®, a storied Minnesota-based agency, helped define “integrated marketing” for the data era – before “integrated” was sexy The agency continually expands integrated marketing beyond channels and tactics. We fielded holy-grail marketing tools this year, including a branding protocol that predictably manufactures NEW brand keyword frequency at will, at budget, per population. New brand search scales conversion and maintains CPAs. New data tools deep-measure the integrated stack, blurring lines between causation and correlation, GDPR/CCPAcompliant. Culturally driven, Aimclear notably contributes to outcome-based marketing and data integration best practices. In 2018 and 2019, we nabbed industry leaders Susan Wenograd and Mark Traphagen, multiplying vision, execution and new biz chops to the roster. We watched great talent leave the 10-year nest, with agency blessing, to fly high with our iconic brand client. Aimclear is stronger, a redefined powerhouse for the next decade of breakthrough marketing.

BEST LARGE INTEGRATED AGENCY FINALISTS Croud Logical Position Silverback Strategies TopSpot Internet Marketing VMLY&R WebMechanix

The judges were very impressed totesting and growth, they are

WINNER: WebMechanix

with WebMechanix commitment e a great sustainable business.

SUMMARY WebMechanix is a performance-based digital marketing firm on a mission to help middlemarket companies move needles faster, more meaningfully, and more sustainably than any comparable solution. Our workforce is driven by a focus on deeply understanding unique client needs to heartily increase their revenue. We grow annually in leaps forward, not jumps. This award nomination recognizes some of our very best work, and we are proud to put our stamp of approval on the results we achieve every day for each and every client.

BEST SMALL SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Adapt Partners Hive Digital Tandem Interactive TopHatRank

The judges liked how this entry h Adapt Partners are all hands on retention which i

WINNER: Adapt Partners

ad very clear objectives and how n deck yet still have a 100% staff is commendable.

SUMMARY Adapt Partners is an experienced search, development, and integrated marketing agency with a strong focus in Technical SEO. We are proudly one of just 63 companies throughout the world that is recommended by Moz, a thought leader in the industry. As a small agency, we value our culture greatly, with honesty and transparency at the forefront of that culture. This is evident in the relationships we have with our employees, as well as the relationships we maintain with clients, competitors and throughout the SEO community at large. Our talented and diverse team adapts quickly to individual client needs, always offering special focus to the intimate details that are often overlooked by larger agencies. Clients seek us out for our distinctive service. We are an agency built on collaboration. Winning this award would be a true testament to what we have been able to accomplish as a team and reinforce the example we hope to set for ourselves, our clients and our colleagues in SEO.

BEST LARGE SEO AGENCY FINALISTS 1SEO Digital Agency Digital Resource Go Fish Digital HigherVisibility Merkle Path Interactive Publicis Sapient Reprise Digital Stella Rising Victorious

Reprise Digital have displayed gre client portfolio, they are overall well wo

WINNER: Reprise Digital

eat growth and have an impressive l- rounded agency who create great ork.

SUMMARY Reprise is an SEO agency unlike any other. Armed with intelligent insights and an audience-centered approach, our expert team of specialists deliver integrated initiatives that help the world's biggest brands connect to the people who drive their business forward - efficiently and effectively. Driven by creativity, innovation and results, Reprise has recorded significant growth year on year, both in size and revenue. It recorded a 31% revenue increase from 2017 to 2018, with an increase in full time employees from 166 to 440. At Repriseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core is its people, and its four values: be real, be on, be great and be fearless. Reprise has built an inclusive culture and workplace that celebrates diversity amongst its team members in thoughts and ideas. It has done this through talent initiatives, events and strategic partnerships. Its mentorship and leadership program, Rise Up, is unlike any other, empowering employees to feel confident and skilled as they progress through their career and develop into future leaders. While WeRise, Repriseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s network, the profile of women within the organization, raises money for charity partners and provides a sense of community.

US SEARCH DIVERSITY, INCLUSION & EQUALITY AWARD FINALISTS 3Q Digital Reprise Digital Sara Resnick

3Q Digital show a clear indication of easy to see that they work hard to en equal with all their employees an

WINNER: 3Q Digital

f diversity within the workplace, it is nsure they are diverse, inclusive and nd clients, a very worthy winner.

YOUNG SEARCH PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR FINALISTS Rachel Bills Brennen Bliss Oliver Brantley Nick BurdsalL Emily Christon Regan Hamilton Tyler Hendershot Erika Tapie Joseph Woll

The judges felt Brennen was the c to order a drink yet he has buil great mentor. For such a young a business-man with a

WINNER: Brennen Bliss

clear winner, not even old enough t an agency and has become a age he has achieved a lot, a great great business mind.

SUMMARY I started PixelCutLabs® six years ago in the back of a high school classroom. At first, it was an app development gig, and then web design (hence the name), but after using SEO to get my first big client (The College Football Playoffs), I fell in love with the idea that the little guy can have an upper-edge with SEO – which we don’t see in paid advertising and rarely in social marketing. As the underdog myself (especially in growing up), this idea resonated with me in a big way. Since 2015, PixelCutLabs® has evolved into a specialized SEO agency that time-and-time-again delivers outstanding organic search performance for small businesses with $1M - $10M in annual revenue. We do it with our flagship managed SEO service, The Organic Visibility Framework™, which reliably hits the target more times than any other strategy we’ve ever used. I am deeply humbled by the recognition our little agency has received, and as Founder & Lead SEO of a five-person-small team (in which I am the youngest employee), the fact that we are trailblazing the industry (as the little guys) is the reason I sleep with a smile on my face.

US SEARCH PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

The judges felt that Purna is a very deserv not just this year but the past several year and she is constantly promoting the search in the industry and she has had a pos

WINNER: Purna Virji

ving winner. The work she has been doing, rs has had a positive impact in the industry h industry. Purnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work benefits everyone sitive impact on a lot of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives.

SUMMARY Purna Virji is the Senior Manager of Global Engagement at Microsoft. Named by Adweek on their 2018 Young Influentials List, Purna specializes in digital marketing, AI, and the future of search. In 2016 she was named by PPC Hero as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world. She is a regular keynote speaker at conferences across the globe such as AdWeek, DMEXCO, The Next Web Conference and INBOUND. An awardwinning former journalist, Purna is also a columnist for Search Engine Land and Moz. In her spare time, she is an avid traveler, aspiring top chef and amateur knitter.