US Search Awards 2018 Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS & PARTNERS

RELIVE THE SEARCH PARTY Welcome to the Book of the Night 2018. Inside you will find details of all our finalists plus a showcase of all the winning work. Since its launch, the US Search Awards has celebrated the very best in SEO, PPC and content marketing across the United States, 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. If you were there on the night, you will have celebrated, mixed and mingled with the best in Search. 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 2018 JUDGING PANEL Barry Adams | Polemic Digital

Carla Marshall | TubularInsights.com

Dawn Anderson | Move It Marketing

Manuel Martinez | SEO Consultant

Jim Banks | Spades Media

Jesse McDonald | TopHatRank

Chris Boggs | webtrafficadvisors.com

Brian McDowell | Bloomreach

Elmer Boutin | GTB

Matt McGowan | Google

Christine Churchill | Key Relevance

Lexi Mills | Marquis Communications

Dave Davies | Beanstalk Internet Marketing

Kate Morris | Craftsy

Kevin Gibbons | Re:signal

Luis Navarrete-Gomez | The Lego Group

Greg Gifford | DealerOn

Zbigniew Nowicki | Bluerank

Keith Goode | IBM

Lauren Polinsky | Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

Danny Goodwin | Search Engine Journal

Antony Robinson | Pure Optimisation

Bill Hartzer | SEO Consultant

Eli Schwartz | SurveyMonkey

Scott Hendison | Search Commander

Carolyn Shelby | CSHEL Search Strategies

Simon Heseltine | Trader Interactive

Aleyda Solis | Orainti

Anders Hjorth | Innovell

Patrick Stox | IBM

Matt Holmes | Distrelec

Shari Thurow | Omni Marketing Interactive

Motoko Hunt | Search Marketing Consultant

Grant Tilus | CROmetrics

Saif Jarad | Chain Reaction

Pinar Kilic Ünsal | Kubix Digital

Stephen Kenwright | Branded3

Lisa Williams | Oregon Health & Science University

Mark Knowles | Pixelsilk

Rob Woods | SEO Consultant

Topher Kohan | The Weather Company & IBM Company

Murat Yatagan | Brainly

Judith Lewis | DeCabbit Consultancy

BEST USE OF SEARCH – RETAIL / eCOMMERCE FINALISTS 1SEO.com Rewires Nassau National Cable for Online Relevance Crealytics & Urban Outfitters All Devices PPC Campaign for Cyber Weekend 2017 Infront Webworks & Del-Immune eCommerce SEO Campaign MediaCom & Bose From Google to Amazon: Bose 360 Degree eCommerce Search Strategy Merkle & Nespresso Fulfilling the Funnel: How Merkle and Nespresso Tackled the Purchase Process PMX Agency & Fingerhut How Fingerhut’s Non-Brand Campaign Drove 2100% Incremental YOY Revenue Rise Interactive & Follett Higher Education Fall Rush PPC Campaign Stone Temple (now Perficient Digital) Grows Search Visibility and Traffic for Comcast Xfinity Home Webspec Design “Lifts Up” Kelderman Air Suspension Search Campaign

WINNER: MediaCom & Bose SUMMARY In FY17, our paid search (PPC) strategy on always-on brand, generic and shopping campaigns resulted in a growth of 68% in revenue year on year (FY16 vs FY17), and therefore we were eager to explore further opportunities outside of Google & Bing to drive incremental revenue for Bose. Research showed us a new trend in online shopping where up to 55% of e-shoppers start their purchase journey from reseller websites. Following this observation, we designed a 360 Degree E-commerce search strategy that would complement our always-on paid search campaign (Google & Bing), expand our paid search portfolio and capture untapped audiences. As a result, our online revenue increased by 55% year-on-year. The sales and conversion rate (CVR) increased by 98% and 27% respectively (year-on-year). With our E-commerce search campaign launched we successfully completed our paid search portfolio coverage.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The campaign from MediaCom & Bose understood its target audience brilliantly, and demonstrated excellent results to reflect this. Their supporting materials were an outstanding addition o the entry.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FINANCE FINALISTS Trading Up: How 1SEO.com Helped Lightspeed Capitalize on Prime Opportunities 3Q Digital Huge Account Growth through Advanced Audience Segmentation Catalyst & UPS Capital US Paid Search Conductor & John Hancock Investments The Voice of the Customer Campaign Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living. Disney Princesses Reimagined as Modern Career Women Position2 & FinTech Client Cost Reduction Through Effective Use of Audience Segments Reprise Digital Voice Search Optimization The Media Image & FOREX.com A Profitable PPC Restructuring

WINNER: Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living. SUMMARY Our client, Simple. Thrifty. Living. (STL), is a financial website dedicated to providing resources on personal finance, money saving tips, investing, credit cards, and general career advice with articles such as “Asking for Raises at Work” and “Fastest-Growing Professions with Highest PayScale.” Our content team at Go Fish Digital developed the Disney Princesses Reimagined as Modern-Day Career Women Content Campaign as a way to boost their visibility in the financial sector and optimize how they show up in search results. Our content team and graphic designer worked closely with the client to see how we could place Disney princesses in relevant, high-paying leadership roles that align with the goals of gaining valuable SEO links back to the STL home page, building brand awareness, and inspiring little girls everywhere to pursue their dreams. This campaign was a highly successful SEO campaign due to the career and pop culture tie-in, garnering over 100 quality high domain authority links to our client’s site. In addition, both our company and client support empowering women in leadership roles and feel passionate about the inspiring message this campaign sends as it relates to careers and finances.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign was incredibly smart and Go Fish Digital really tapped into an interesting and relevant topic. Their wellstructured campaign is of a high quality and also successfully delivered impressive results.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TRAVEL & LEISURE FINALISTS The Road Ahead: How 1SEO.com Set Up Kevin Smith Transportation Group for Lasting Success Online Acronym & Luxury Hotel Group Catalyst & Tauck Connecting SEM & Offline Conversions From The Future & Sandals Resorts All Inclusive US SEO Campaign Media Storm & Celebrity Cruises Campaign Tune-Up 2018 PMG SEM Innovation Leads to Business Transformation TopSpot & You First Limousine Services Data Driven Results Touchdown for Croud & TickPick Increasing Super Bowl Ticket Sales by 323% Victorious & Exceptional Villas SEO Without Borders Wheelhouse DMG & Clipper Vacations Seattle SEM Campaign

WINNER: TopSpot & You First Limousine Services SUMMARY Headquartered in Houston, Texas, TopSpot has been helping companies plan, implement and measure their online marketing efforts for the last 15 years. We are a search engine marketing agency with an emphasis on accountability, transparency, collaboration, education and delivering meaningful results for our clients. As a Premier Google Partner, Bing Ads Elite SMB Partner and a member of the Google Analytics Certified Partner Program, our culture is built around a quality focused approach-both in our work & customer service.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges commented that the budget, while low for this campaign, did not stop TopSpot from delivering great results with creative solutions. Excellent work!

BEST USE OF SEARCH – THIRD SECTOR FINALISTS Driving Donations: How 1SEO.com Helped the American Children’s Society Excel During Its “Season of Giving” Bad Penny Factory & Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity SEO Campaign Conductor & St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Dream Home Campaign Victorious & Ethnos360 The Land of Milk and Honey

WINNER: 1SEO.com & The American Children's Society SUMMARY Taking home our first US Search Award for American Children’s Society’s campaign would recognize both our client’s success and our amazing staff for all the hard work they put into it. Plus, it would put us back on even footing with DiCaprio – that guy’s been rubbing his Oscar in our faces ever since he took home his first prize for “The Revenant”.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were thrilled to award 1SEO’s Driving Donations Campaign as the winner of the Third Sector category. They commented that 1SEO provided all-round great effort and delivered fantastic outcomes as a result of this.

BEST USE OF SEARCH – HEALTH FINALISTS 1SEO.com Ups the Ante for CCGNJ’s Online Campaign Barefoot Proximity & Cincinnati Children’s Digital Third Coast & Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Go Fish Digital & Bespoke Surgical Healthy Branding Equals Healthy Rankings Infront Webworks & Del-Immune eCommerce SEO Campaign Johns Hopkins Medicine Building a Search Friendly Content Powerhouse for the Patient Journey LSEO & Cawley PT Local NEPA SEO Campaign Memorial Hermann Health System Hurricane Harvey Digital Marketing Urgent Care Campaign Path Interactive & Buoy AI Health Assistant SEO Campaign Tandem Interactive & Treatment Centres Come Clean Stay Clean

WINNER: Path Interactive & Buoy SUMMARY When Buoy first came to Path Interactive, the company had just launched a brand new website that received virtually no organic traffic. Path integrated itself into Buoy’s business model to work with its team of writers (along with support from our own content team) to produce highly informative, well-optimized website copy that best answered searchers’ questions. Path simultaneously worked as partners to Buoy’s developers to implement technical SEO-best practices and to build out an intuitive website architecture based on search behaviour & UX best practices. Using techniques such as content optimization, page speed optimization, AMP, mobile UX improvements, good internal linking, pagination, and link acquisition, Path helped buoyhealth.com transform into a high-performing website that followed all of Google’s best practices for quality of content and technical compliance. Within one year, Buoy grew from receiving approximately 1,500 organic visits a day to over 80,000 per day. Buoy’s original goal of 4 million SEO users in 2018 was shattered in Q1; as of July 1, 2018, Buoy has already received over 7.7 million users from SEO, and currently ranks in position #1 (including featured snippets) for over 10,000 keywords with an aggregate search volume of over 2 million searches per month.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Path Interactive and Buoy provided an excellent explanation of their SEO approach, and built a massively successful health campaign with outstanding results.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY FINALISTS Making Moves: How 1SEO.com Helped MK Management Group Become a First Choice in College Apartment Hunting Bozzuto & Hanapin Using Ad Customizers To Lower CPL and Garner Higher Quality Leads Conductor & WeWork Hypergrowth with Search Go Fish Digital & Homes.com The Cities Making the Most Off of Airbnb Campaign ReachLocal & Pinnacle ReachLocal Leverages Strategic Search Marketing Plan to Create Lasting ROI for Pinnacle Search Discovery & Starlight Homes Search Campaign

WINNER: Go Fish Digital & Homes.com SUMMARY In this campaign for Homes.com, Go Fish Digital compared the average daily earnings from renting out a home through Airbnb (based on the median rental rate) to the average daily cost of owning a home in various cities around the United States to see where the largest discrepancies are on a daily and monthly basis. We represented the comparison of these data points in a few ways, including the number of renting days required to cover the monthly cost of the average mortgage by city, in order to find which cities are most lucrative for Airbnb hosts. We were able to reach local and national audiences with coverage in publications ranging from Forbes and MSN to AJC and Statesman. Winning this award would mean a lot to our team – especially the researchers on this project (it took a lot of time) – and would highlight that quality can lead to quantity.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges thought that this campaign highlights the components that make a truly successful search campaign. They delivered very strong coverage with the creative use of a relevant topic to boost brand awareness.

BEST USE OF SEARCH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FMCG FINALISTS Absolut Drinks Searcher Interests Drives eCRM Signups Catalyst & Brawny Winning Amazon Search Reprise Digital on behalf of Coca-Cola North America Coke Zero Sugar Launch

WINNER: Absolut Drinks SUMMARY Winning this award would be an amazing accomplishment for the Absolut team. We are proud that the Cocktail Discovery Model has brilliantly elevated old-fashioned keyword research and taking it from a chore to a business intelligence and business change enabler. By understanding the true “Voice of the Consumer” and improving the landing page offers we are able to create effective engagement opportunities that contribute directly to bottom-line business growth.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges commented that this campaign was a great idea and provided exceptional connection of search objectives to creative, with successful execution by an in-house team.

BEST LOCAL CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Avalaunch Media & Brighton Resort Tier 2 Season Pass Infront Webworks & Garden of the Gods Storage Local SEO Campaign January Digital & Peapod NYC Geo-Targeted Campaigns Increase Grocery Orders by 262% Jellyfish & Total Wine & More Utilizing In-Store Attribution to Drive eCommerce & In-Store Revenue Location3 & Mountain Mike’s Pizza Innovative Use of DoubleClick to Help Franchisees Increase Online Conversions PMG SEM Innovation Leads to Business Transformation TENSHI Delivers an Over 7X ROAS for Local Moving Through SEM Victorious & Tailors’ Keep Bursting at the Seams WebMechanix & Keane Local SEO Leads to Explosive Growth Wheelhouse DMG & Providence Medical Group Local SEO in Healthcare

WINNER: Infront Webworks & Garden of the Gods Storage SUMMARY Our SEO Team at Infront Webworks is honoured to be recognized by The US Search Awards and appear among so many of the peers we respect in the SEO industry. When working with clients like Garden of the Gods Self Storage our commitment to the success of their program is equal to our commitment to leave the impression on clients, the quality core values of “trust, transparency, results, and reporting” that we work to reinforce as part of the reputation that quality SEO Agencies convey to clients. The “Local Search Category” is one that we love to enter clients from our local community in, to share the opportunity to be recognized together. Achieving great SEO results is often a by-product of solid strategy, diligent implementation and a client that is knowledgeable about their goals and assists in making the program a success. It means a lot to our team to be able to share this acknowledgment with clients from our community that assist us in helping them grow their business.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were very impressed with Infront Webworks, as they thought the campaign was presented holistically, explaining their all-round campaign, SEO and performance, which was excellent.

BEST LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN FINALISTS AdEdge Digital Marketing The Tile Solution Search Campaign Milestone & Lacroix Restaurant GMB Campaign Portent & RPM Truck Repair Small Business PPC Campaign TopSpot & You First Limousine Data Driven Results

WINNER: Portent & RPM Truck Repair SUMMARY Portent is a twenty-three year old digital agency in Seattle. When we opened our doors, the entire internet could’ve fit on a single thumb-drive. We’ve grown from a one-person shop that helped clients get their content onto the earliest versions of the web, to a well-respected SEO consultancy, to a full-service digital marketing agency that covers the complete range of internet marketing services. The US Search Awards and the search marketing community are very much our home crowd. While we’re not hardware-focused, being recognized by the US Search Awards for doing work that helps to advance the state of the industry as well as our client’s businesses is a humbling distinction that we value immensely.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This campaign was developed with a good understanding of the target audience. The Portent team really hit the ground running with their new campaign to deliver successful results with excellent implementation and creativity.

BEST USE OF PR IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Acronym & Luxury Hotel Group Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living. Disney Princesses Reimagined as Modern Career Women Stone Temple (now Perficient Digital) Data-Based Research Studies Create Significant Media Attention and SEO Value

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WINNER: Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living. SUMMARY Our content team at Go Fish Digital developed the Disney Princesses Reimagined as Modern Day Career Women Content Campaign for our client, Simple. Thrifty. Living. (simplethriftyliving.com), as a way to use effective content and PR to boost their SEO efforts through a powerful search campaign. Our content team and graphic designer worked closely with the client to see how we could place Disney princesses in relevant leadership roles in the workplace with the goals of gaining valuable SEO links back to the Simple. Thrifty. Living. home page, building brand awareness, and inspiring little girls everywhere. This campaign was a highly successful SEO campaign due to the pop culture tie in and our creative PR approach, garnering over 100 quality high domain authority links to our clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s site. In addition, our company and client supports women in leadership roles and business empowerment, and feels passionate about the inspiring message this campaign sends.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The campaign by Go Fish Digital successfully generated very good coverage on a relevant topic and created something very creative to address this theme and they effectively achieved the results they were hoping for.

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS How 1SEO.com Drove Conversions for CollegeBound Saver through Social Media Assembly & FX Marketing Campaign of Fear Barefoot Proximity & Cincinnati Children’s Nebo Agency & Brookdale Senior Living Availing Social Media to Revamp Brookdale’s Paid Search Campaigns Qiigo & Soccer Shots High Scoring Quality Leads with Search and Social Tandem Interactive & Deer Creek The Grass is Greener Webspec Design “Soars” With Des Moines Feed Facebook Campaign Wheelhouse DMG & Play Impossible The Impossible Viral Campaign

WINNER: Assembly & FX 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 media channel - Paid Search - with a new product solution in order to reach relevant audiences with precise targeting methods while enhancing and amplifying our reach via high impact image and video based placements in a contextually relevant environment. This ultimately proved significant because Pinterest Search as a tactic was not even on the radar prior to this campaign. Winning this award would validate our work and showcase our ability to be at the forefront of technology and creativity and truly represent our belief and approach in this new age of media buying.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS This campaign took a very innovative approach to creating highly qualified awareness to the new season. The use of Pinterest search to get in front of their target audience, alongside excellent strategy, analysis, and ideas was very impressive.

BEST USE OF VIDEO IN A SEARCH CAMPAIGN FINALISTS 1SEO.com “Wines of Tuscany” Reaches Thousands of Wine Lovers Nationwide NordicClick Interactive Consumer Graphics Software: New Product Launch

WINNER: NordicClick Interactive SUMMARY Full-funnel online marketing strategy with limited budget proved concept to client to encourage the continued creation of diverse marketing collateral to reach a wider prospect base than relying on Search ads alone. This campaign taught our client that by investing in a demo version of the software to be available it allowed us to move away from relying on a “buy now” call-toaction in our marketing messaging (that historically required a deep-discount on any new version they released for their other products, Moho or Poser, to motivate new users to act). Our campaign should win for the Best Use of Video in a Search Campaign category as we set out with the intention of using Video to create search demand. Demand creation is a critical marketing tactic for new product launches, as the marketplace is unaware of how the product will serve a need. Video is an effective medium for explaining that story, and one we intend to continue to use to grow the base of new users for our client.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were very impressed with NordicClick Interactive’s well planned and thought out implementation strategies for their Video Search Campaign.

BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Absolut Drinks Searcher Interests Drives eCRM Signups Apogee Results & Capson Physicians Insurance Marketing Integration from 0 to 60 Barefoot Proximity & Gallup Custom Workplace Solutions Barefoot Proximity & Cincinnati Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heart Institute DAC & TaxSlayer Maximizing Your Return One KPI at a Time Location3 & Anytime Fitness Generating 50000 New Membership Leads & 127% ROI in 30 Days Merkle & Classic Brands Using Amazon Stores to Support an Integrated Search Program Nebo Agency & FLOR Bringing Personalization to Integrated Digital Rakuten Marketing & Safe Step Walk-In Tubs Message Extensions

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Stickyeyes & Kroger Money Services

JUDGES’ COMMENTS A cross-channel approach worked well for this innovative campaign. They were impressed with Absolut Drinks’ display of exceptional creativity and their implementation was clearly defined, alongside objectives and budget.

BEST MOBILE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Embracing Change: How 1SEO.com Continuously Improved Mobile Performance for Centre City Emergency Dentist Edible, An Edelman Company Hey Google, Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in my Orange Juice? Gruen Agency & Pest Control Company Mobile Campaign Mediahub & Chipotle Mexican Grill Tap Your Appetite Mobile App Launch Reprise Digital & McCormick AMP Recipes Mobile Campaign

WINNER: Edible, An Edelman Company SUMMARY The Florida Department of Citrus in partnership with Edible, were able to withstand the tragedy of Hurricane Irma and become a resource center for the growers and consumers who love OJ. We provided a 411 center to provide real time updates around the impact of Hurricane Irma and created an optimized a cold and flu web experience that was built to appear in top of search results by millennial moms looking for resources to keep their families healthy during the tough cold and flu season. Our efforts ensured we showed up in real-time mobile searches and also served to educate and inspire millennial moms during the devastation of Hurricane Irma. This win would be an honor for the work that wasn’t just about peddling more OJ, but about providing hope in a time of tragedy.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were impressed with how Edelman thought outside of the box for this mobile campaign. Their desire to provide “hope in a time of a tragedy” struck a chord with the judges, displaying real dedication to the cause.

BEST PPC CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Meeting the Mark: How 1SEO.com Helped One of Pennsylvaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top Charter Schools Make the PPC Honor Roll Aimclear & Iconic Transportation Client Perpetual Creative Optimization Scripting for Enduring PPC Savings January Digital & Peapod NYC Geo-Targeted Campaigns Increase Grocery Orders by 262% MediaCom & Bose From Google to Amazon: Bose 360 Degree eCcommerce Search Strategy MilliporeSigma PPC Team Exponential Growth Through Scale and Targeting Nebo & Gas South Turn Up the Heat with Weather-Triggered Ads Nina Hale & TRX Training US Paid Search & Shopping Campaign Rise Interactive & Follett Higher Education Fall Rush PPC Campaign SalesX Inc & Aeroflow Healthcare Search Laboratory & Staar Surgical Localized strategy producing profound results

WINNER: MilliporeSigma PPC Team SUMMARY At MilliporeSigma, we aim to simplify the process of scientific research for our customers. By meeting our customers through search, our focused PPC team accomplishes just that, while generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for our organization and maintaining an outstanding return on ad spend. During this measurement period, this team focused on expansion via scalability and automation, while improving targeting through refined audiences. It would be a great honor to win this award from the larger search community in the United States, and help concrete the confidence that our team is leading its strategy in the right direction. Furthermore it would help continue to position our team as thought leaders within our larger organization.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges were impressed by MilliporeSigmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tangible PPC campaign. They provided trustworthy examples of results with some out-of-the-box approaches. A very worthy winner!

BEST SEO CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Building Trust: How 1SEO.com Certified the Management and Strategy Institute’s Online Visibility Croud & Insureon A Strategy for Long-Term SEO Success Go Fish Digital & Simple. Thrifty. Living. Disney Princesses Reimagined as Modern Career Women Marie Haynes Consulting & RetractableAwnings.com How Good SEO Resulted in Phenomenal Growth Path Interactive & Buoy Portent & Star Rapid Site Relaunch & Global SEO Campaign Qiigo & British Swim School See Pools of New Business Growth through Organic Search Search Laboratory & a Footwear Retailer Technical SEO Wizardry Ensures a Competitive Edge Victorious & Felix Gray Love at First Sight Women’s Marketing Jane Iredale SEO Campaign

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WINNER: Victorious & Felix Gray SUMMARY FELIX GRAY, a fun team developing cutting edge computer glasses, sought out Victorious’ partnership to transform their presence in search. The computer glasses market is relatively new with many flourishing competitors looking to seize market share. As a result, many of Felix Gray’s competitors are investing heavily into SEO, leaving Felix Gray’s website with low search visibility and struggling organic sales. As an NYC startup hustling to scale quickly, Felix Gray didn’t have the time to optimize their site internally. By partnering with Victorious for comprehensive SEO strategy and execution, the Felix Gray team was able to see astonishing annual growth, including an 11,802.57% return on investment.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges thought this campaign by Victorious was a great all-round entry with an effective multi-approach SEO campaign. They were impressed by the advanced strategy presented in their submission.

BEST USE OF CONTENT MARKETING FINALISTS Thinking Outside the Catalog: How 1SEO.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Digital Content and Social Media Marketing Creativity Led to an Increase in Sales for Harriet Carter Apogee Results & Capson Physicians Insurance Content Marketing from 0 to 60 Digital Third Coast & Shorr Packaging Protecting Packages Go Fish Digital & Elite Fixtures The Cost of Mining a Bitcoin Campaign Mannix Marketing & American Heating Company Content Marketing Campaign Red Door Interactive & Bridgepoint Education Content Gap Analysis Resolution Media & McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Search Demand Data Informs Sauce Content Marketing Campaign Stone Temple (now Perficient Digital) Attracts Major Clients Through Authority-Building Content The Media Image & Air Charter Service Private Jets of World Leaders SEO Campaign Wpromote & Sheex Bed and Bracket Sleep Challenge

WINNER: Stone Temple (now Perficient Digital) SUMMARY Stone Temple Consulting is a 60-employee digital marketing agency based in Massachusetts serving many of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top brands. As our business has been built almost entirely on our reputation, and that reputation has been powerfully enhanced by our content marketing (featuring ground-breaking research studies and creative use of video), winning this award would be a significant affirmation of the success we already know our content marketing has brought to us. We have invested significant resources into the production and promotion of our content. The return has been enormous, enabling us to build a ten million dollar, highly profitable agency with no outbound sales efforts. We see this award as an acknowledgment not only of the effectiveness of that strategy, but also of the power that large scale content marketing efforts have to help businesses of all types. This has led to our recent acquisition by Perficient Inc. (NASDAQ: PRFT) in July of 2018.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges were impressed by the incredibly detailed entry, which greatly outlined the thought that goes into each project. It was exciting to see video used in such a targeted and strategic way. Great work!

MOST INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN FINALISTS Assembly & FX Marketing Campaign of Fear Barefoot Proximity & Gallup Custom Workplace Solutions Elite SEM & Shopko Driving In-Store Sales Campaign Go Fish Digital & Phillips & Cohen Dramatic Organic Traffic Recovery Gruen Agency Development of Zone Controlling Software for Home Services Client Jellyfish & Walden University Leveraging Dynamic Search Ads to Drive Lead and Enrollment Growth Katana & University College at Azusa Pacific University Location3 & Mountain Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pizza Innovative Use of DoubleClick to Help Franchisees Increase Online Conversions MediaCom & Bose From Google to Amazon: Bose 360 Degree E-commerce Search Strategy Mediative AI Driven PPC Campaign

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JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges commented that Assemblyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use of Pinterest search to get in front of their target audience is innovative and impressive. They provided excellent use of strategy, analysis, idea and results in their submission.

BEST SOFTWARE INNOVATION FINALISTS Adalysis PPC Recommendation Engine Adthena AI Driven Machine Learned Search Intelligence Botify Clever ecommerce AdWords Automation Software OnCrawl Rankings PR Hunters Project Crockett SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool Sitebulb Crawl Maps Search Squared Audit & Automation for AdWords Trisolute Software GmbH News Dashboard for Mobile and Desktop

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WINNER: Sitebulb SUMMARY We’re a small, passionate and dedicated team on a simple mission - to create a technical SEO product that meets the evolving needs of a special group of professionals we are lucky enough to serve. Throughout our careers we have embraced the amazing, supportive community that fits around the world of search. We can’t overstate the impact the community has had on us, and just how much it has given us. Our product does a job that means our users are more successful and their websites are better, and more profitable. We’re told that it does this job better than any other tool out there, but we’ve more to do. We are totally committed to this always being the case and will not lose focus of our mission. To be recognised by this community as a product worthy of winning a Search Award would give us an enormous sense of pride, and we would truly feel that, through our software, we have given something back to this community that has given us so much.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges thought Sitebulb’s Crawl maps were unique and impressive. They found their approach to sitemap data fresh and new, helping to solve an obvious issue.

BEST PPC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Adalysis PPC Recommendation Engine Adlucent Deep Search Optmyzr Comprehensive Search PPC Management Software Suite

WINNER: Optmyzr SUMMARY Optmyzr is a turnkey PPC management suite designed for PPC pros (mid-level to expert). It can be implemented in minutes and begin transforming and optimizing PPC campaigns almost immediately. The Optmyzr team spent much of 2017 and 2018 immersed in AI and machine learning to drive significant advancements in PPC automation and campaign management. The suite draws on innovative, integrated WYSIWYG layered scripts. Optmyzr replaces bloated mainstream API-based competitors for a fraction of the cost. At the same time, it handles API suite essentials and much more. Optmyzr reinvested $1.5 million in profits into R&D over the past year, yielding significant suite enhancements, particularly during the first half of 2018. Notable innovations include (additional details within award submission): ·

Amazon Alexa voice assistant integration;

Optmyzr Express PPC Optimization (one-click for top optimizations);

Bing Ads Management expansion;

Advanced optimizations and automation fueled by AI and machine learning.

Optmyzr continues to break new ground in PPC management, offering a tremendous, lower-cost alternative to big box software systems. Optmyzr is designed around the actual (and rapidly evolving) day-to-day needs of PPC experts, whether in-house or on the agency side.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges thought Optmyzr is an excellent tool for all budgets. This software is always evolving and implementing new updates, which the judges found impressive.

BEST SEO SOFTWARE SUITE FINALISTS Botify Botify Software Suite Conductor Searchlight MarketMuse The MarketMuse Suite OnCrawl SEO Data Platform SEMrush SEO & Content Workflow

WINNER: SEMrush 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. The award is a great motivation for the team and proof to our clients they have made the right choice. We couldn’t have done it without trust, feedback and enormous support from our community. We are honored to be recognized as the best SEO software suite by the most experienced industry experts. We are putting our hard work and dedication in supplying the most innovative SEO software to our customers and providing them with top-notch service.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges commented that SEMrush’s suite is always a good go-to for SEOs. They were impressed by the SEO & Content Workflow addition, which puts them ahead of the competition.

BEST SEARCH SOFTWARE TOOL FINALISTS Adthena AI Driven Machine Learned Search Intelligence Back Azimuth HREFLang Builder Botify DeepCrawl Milestone CMS Module Voice-Search Friendly Content Management System OnCrawl SEO Crawler & Log Analyzer Search Squared Audit & Automation for AdWords SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool Sitebulb Website & SEO Auditor Swydo

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Sitebulb have one of the best new and powerful SEO tools that allows everyone, from freelancers to huge agencies, to perform effective SEO analysis. It is impressive that the tool is always changing, constantly being updated and improved.

BEST IN-HOUSE TEAM FINALISTS CallRail Fanatics SEO Team Group Nine Media Thrillist HomeToGo SEO Team MilliporeSigma Customer Acquisition and Channel Marketing Team

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WINNER: Fanatics SUMMARY The Fanatics SEO team is responsible for the strategic vision and implementation of the SEO strategy across our own branded sites, Fanatics.com; Fansedge.com & MajesticAthletic.com, as well as our 300+ partner sites, among these are NFLshop.com; Store.NBA.com; MLBshop.com; Shop.NHL.com; MLSstore.com and many more pro- and college teams. In the first 7 months of 2018, the Fanatics in-house SEO team migrated 25 small- and large ecommerce sites to a new platform, with minimal business impact, a better user experience, higher conversion rate and SEO migration recovery within 23-35 days.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS Fanatics have great results year on year, and the case studies to prove it. This entry provided a clear-cut demonstration of what it means to embrace the performance marketing objective while also providing a good culture and enticing place of work.

BEST SMALL INTEGRATED SEARCH AGENCY FINALISTS Aimclear Croud Digital Third Coast SS Digital Media

WINNER: Aimclear SUMMARY Aimclear, a storied Minnesota-based agency, persistently looks inward and outward to refine our agency business model, drive early opportunity, and lead next-gen marketing. A tumultuous 2016 and 2017 literally put lesser agencies out of business. Aimclear, however, foresaw a 2018 replete with hidden opportunities for truly integrated marketers steeped in classic creative and deep technical roots. After two “Best Large Integrated Agency” wins, Founder Marty Weintraub declared, “We will be Best SMALL Integrated Agency in 2018 - let’s codify our relevance with leadership.” Sure, six-time Inc. 5000 growth was crazy good for a ten-year company, but meant excess functional layering, tiered middle management, unintended specialization and eroding billable time. “Our marketing product rocked but risked becoming too damned expensive in an increasingly commoditized agency universe,” Weintraub lamented. Meanwhile, many agencies, large and small, were bursting at the seams with lightly experienced marketers lacking creativity. Aimclear REJECTED the premise and took the agency world back. The company purposefully reduced size while pushing innovation, working with more and larger clients, AND driving even greater results. A smaller, aggressive Aimclear emerged in 2018, crushing client projects, redefining integrated marketing, tendering brilliance for clients from start-ups and Silicon Valley icons to the US Congress.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Aimclear was the clear winner for this category. The judges thought this company would be an amazing agency to work for, and their submission presented details of their performance in an excellent way.

BEST LARGE INTEGRATED SEARCH AGENCY FINALISTS Barefoot Proximity Elite SEM Gruen Agency Search Laboratory TopSpot

WINNER: TopSpot SUMMARY Headquartered in Houston, Texas, TopSpot has been helping companies plan, implement and measure their online marketing efforts for the last 15 years. We are a search engine marketing agency with an emphasis on accountability, transparency, collaboration, education and delivering meaningful results for our clients. As a Premier Google Partner, Bing Ads Elite SMB Partner and a member of the Google Analytics Certified Partner Program, our culture is built around a quality focused approach-both in our work & customer service.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges were impressed with the work culture and ethics at TopSpot, with their desire to give back to the community and help their employees. The philosophy that the company was founded not to make money, but to work with companies they could help grow into successful online businesses was excellent.

BEST SMALL PPC AGENCY FINALISTS AdEdge Digital Marketing Marketing Mojo Tandem Interactive

WINNER: Tandem Interactive SUMMARY At Tandem Interactive, we are PPC marketing experts who know how to adjust any campaign to get the most bang-for-your-buck. From mom-and-pop shops to large national brands, we work with all industries to deliver ideal paid results. When it comes to PPC, we know transparency is key. We allow our clients to track all PPC marketing spend from start to finish. We see no reason to hide our success. We work with a team of 15 employees, with 5 PPC superheroes who have mastered every element of paid advertising. We work with Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook marketing as well for ideal multi-platform results. We also have 5 SEO team members, 4 social media gurus, and an all-knowing graphic designer who can handle anything. For all campaigns, we work to get our clients the most success for their investment. By researching latest trends, constantly challenging ourselves, and always benchmarking our results, we’re able to constantly improve. For us, this award would show that we’ve done so much, yet we still have so far to go in meeting our growing goals.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges thought that this entry clearly reflected the company, the team and their campaigns. Tandem Interactive are rightfully proud to show off their excellent work.

BEST LARGE PPC AGENCY FINALISTS 1SEO.com 3Q Digital Adlucent Logical Position Merkle Metric Theory Rise Interactive Search Laboratory Wpromote

WINNER: Merkle SUMMARY Merkle is a global data-driven, technology-enabled performance marketing agency. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1,000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with us to build and maximize the value of their customer portfolios. Merkle is very proud of the work we produce for our clients, the innovative methods and content we produce, and the leadership position we have earned within the Search community. Winning this US Search Award would have special meaning for Merkle, as a testament to our unwavering dedication to excellence in search marketing and our deep commitment to the success of our clients’ search strategies.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This was an outstanding entry by Merkle which clearly illustrated both the stand-out results achieved, solid accomplishments and a strong portfolio of clients along with thought-leadership examples.

BEST SMALL SEO AGENCY FINALISTS Bad Penny Factory Hive Digital LSEO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A Digital Marketing Agency Marie Haynes Consulting Marketing Mojo Red Door Interactive Tandem Interactive Victorious

WINNER: Victorious SUMMARY Victorious success as an organization is due to our incredible team of humble, hardworking, and generous employees. We try our hardest every day to be a counter-cultural organization that values employee health, wellness, and flourishing above all other priorities. We believe that success will come as a result of honoring our employees and creating a thriving workplace, therefore empowering them to deliver an unrivaled customer experience. We aren’t perfect, and we make many mistakes. We fail to live out this paradigm often. But our teammates are gracious and caring people who choose every day to come to work with a positive attitude and desire to follow us into new exciting stages of Victorious. This award is for our team. We love each of you and consider Victorious to best place to work on Earth because of you.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Victorious provided great examples of their agency performance and excellent overall results and growth. Their agency culture and aim to strive to achieve customer satisfaction was very impressive.

BEST LARGE SEO AGENCY FINALISTS 1SEO.com Go Fish Digital HigherVisibility Merkle Search Laboratory Stone Temple (now Perficient Digital) Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marketing Wpromote

WINNER: Go Fish Digital SUMMARY Go Fish Digital has had the distinct honor of being named The US Search Award’s Best Small SEO Agency in both 2016 and 2017. This year, due to our continued growth, we now meet the Large SEO Agency criteria, but we remain committed to the same creative solutions and quality standards that earned our agency he previous accolades. Being big doesn’t have to mean less innovation, more restrictive contributions to the community, or a pullback on employee-satisfaction goals. To us, it means exactly the opposite. We are more focused on those qualities than ever, as we genuinely believe they are what have helped us grow into the agency we are today. Being named the Best Large SEO Agency would mean the world to us. Earning this recognition would be a validation of the data-driven, hands-on approach we take, demonstrating that we’ve continued to provide a top-notch experience for our clients. This award would serve as testament to our amazing team who continue to push the envelope and share literally everything they discover with the broader SEO community.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS Go Fish Digital have provided such a strong contribution to the industry and the agency clearly still puts its people first, which is very admirable. It’s very impressive how they have grown from a small to a large SEO agency.

YOUNG SEARCH PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR FINALISTS Brennen Bliss Founder & CEO, PixelCutLabs S. Angeolyn Dayrit Manager, SEO, Reprise Digital Colby Dimock SEO Specialist, Nebo Agency Drew Dyer PPC Specialist, Jellyfish Elise Hubel Search Strategist, SS Digital Media Leigh McKenzie Senior SEO Strategist, From The Future Kelsey Russo Social Media Specialist, 1SEO Maddi Salmon Senior Content Associate, Go Fish Digital Kevin Schroeder Paid Media Analyst, Nebo Agency Ashley Spotts Digital Marketing Analyst, Search Discovery

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WINNER: S. Angeolyn Dayrit SUMMARY I started my professional career 2 years ago as an entry level SEO analyst knowing close to nothing about marketing, much less SEO. Since then I’ve developed not only my SEO skills but skills outside my field. Through gaining a deeper understanding of marketing, web development, content planning, and consumer behavior, I’ve grown to understand the many different SEO touchpoints. In addition to my personal growth, I’m proud of my SEO career because of the effect it has had on my historically traditional-media focused client. Since my time here at Reprise Digital, they’ve embraced digital marketing, content creation and now understand the value of owning the search engine results page through integrated search efforts. This has led to an increase in digital media spend including on social media, digital, and paid search as well as expanded our SEO scope of work across a portfolio of 20+ brands. In 2018 my key client contacts in leadership roles have started including us on important company initiatives such as corporate social responsibility. I attribute a lot of this achievement to the positive and collaborative working relationship I’ve developed with partner agencies.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The judges were extremely impressed with their Young Search Professional winner. They thought that Angeolyn’s ability to engage stakeholders, deliver outstanding thought leadership and also understand other disciplines outside of search was excellent.

US SEARCH PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Barry Schwartz SUMMARY Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more. Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 14 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events. Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies.

JUDGESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; COMMENTS The judges commented that Barry Schwartz has been successful in honouring the US SEO industry in the last year and completed outstanding work to lift a community.