The boys are back in town! Last night, the European Search Awards hosted their first live, in-person awards ceremony in three long years at Barcelona’s fabulous La Llotja de Mar. We were thrilled to be able to attend the event and even more delighted to take home a staggering 5 prizes!
Of our 12 nominations, here are the trophies we’ll have to cram into our suitcases:
- Best Use of Search – B2C (PPC): Large: Peak Ace & SharkNinja
- Most Innovative Campaign (PPC): Large: Peak Ace & SharkNinja
- Best PPC Campaign: Large: Peak Ace & SharkNinja
- Best Use of Data (PPC): Large: Peak Ace & SharkNinja
- Best Large PPC Agency
We also picked up silver awards for Best Large SEO Agency and Best Use of Search – B2B (PPC) (Large) for our campaign with Softgarden.
Bastian Grimm, CEO of Peak Ace, said of the wins:
“This is a wonderful achievement for our hardworking teams and a credit to our clients’ collaboration on so many excellent projects. To be recognised as the best large PPC agency in Europe is an honour shared by all our Peak Acers – thank you to Don’t Panic Events and to the judges!”
Congratulations to all our fellow nominees and winners!
The main event
Well, this was a lavish return to live awards ceremonies! The European Search Awards is the biggest event in the search marketing industry awards calendar and as the first live ceremony in three years it was completely sold out. Those of us lucky enough to get tickets were in for a real treat. After a drinks reception in the beautiful courtyard of La Llotja with canapes and a flamenco performance, we were ushered into the gorgeous and cavernous hall for a three-course meal. The dress code was „Dress To Impress“ and guests did not disappoint – everyone was excited for the chance to get dolled up for once.
After dinner, the awards ceremony began. Having been nominated for 12 prizes, we were keeping our fingers crossed to take home a few trophies – and were delighted to get up onstage to accept 5. It was wonderful to be recognised by the whole search community and to celebrate everyone’s work in a much more glamorous way than over Zoom from our own apartments.
Don’t Panic organised an official after-party at nightclub CDLC Carpe Diem to help everybody dance off their dinner until the early hours or as long as their high heels would allow them to.
Thanks so much to Don’t Panic for an unforgettable night! Can’t wait for the next one (as soon as we’re over our hangovers, anyway).
Our award-winning campaigns
Here’s a quick look at the campaigns we submitted this year.
Peak Ace & Softgarden: Recruiting clients for a recruiting specialist
Recruiting software provider Softgarden partnered with us to increase their leads and top impression share while slashing their CPL. Our strategy saw us use in-depth market and target group analysis to identify our audience’s needs and perform a thoroughgoing assessment of Softgarden’s consent management setup.
With our PPC and MarTech teams working together, we created a holistic campaign strategy. Our sophisticated tracking concept and redesigned consent banners garnered stronger, more reliable data, while our ad copy testing focused on our audiences’ emotional responses.
The results speak for themselves: we exceeded all our goals, more than doubling the number of leads and increasing tracking consent opt-ins to a staggering 83%, all while maximising efficiency. Thanks to our outstanding teamwork with our client and across our departments, we set Softgarden up for a long-term leading position in the recruiting sector.
Most of all, the client was happy:
“Teaming up with Peak Ace enabled us to massively increase our inbound lead supply. Furthermore, we implemented a complex tracking strategy together. This helped us lift our marketing and sales performance across all B2B channels to become one of the key players in the HR tech industry within the last 3 years.”
Peak Ace & SharkNinja: A clean path to growth
SharkNinja, a vacuum and cleaning supplies retailer, wanted to further expand its operations in Europe. After already delivering strong results in 2020, the client challenged us to double their revenue by the end of 2021, increase ROAS to 300% and boost conversions too.
We began with an in-depth audit of the account and competitors to get a clear blueprint of what and where we could optimise, then developed a data-driven strategy. We maximised seasonal advantages by implementing multiple versions of ad copy to correspond with Black Friday deals.
With creative ad customizer pricing adaptations, we successfully navigated the potential pitfall of daily changing prices across multiple retailers. We also did this incredibly efficiently, automating the process using self-built KNIME workflows.The result was a hugely profitable campaign with exceptional PPC results: a +435% revenue increase YoY, a 92.4% increase in conversion rate and a 42.57% boost to ROAS as well. And since we used open-source software, it was all at no additional cost to the client, who was so pleased with our work that they launched two further European markets with us.
SharkNinja said:
“Peak Ace has played a crucial part in growing our digital presence in Germany in the past year. This involved reorganising the account and introducing a new account structure, alongside the clever use of ad customizers, which both increased sales and cut the cost per acquisition.”
About the European Search Awards
The European Search Awards reward and celebrate the very best companies and people working in PPC, SEO, and Content Marketing across a variety of business sectors, in a shifting digital landscape which inspires innovation, creativity and connectivity.
Attracting hundreds of entries from leading search and digital agencies and professionals from across Europe, the European Search Awards is brought to you by We Are Search, who deliver respected, ethical awards around the world.
Judges are search industry experts from across Europe, hand-picked for their expertise, insight and experience. The judging process is a rigorous two-stage process which examines every aspect of a campaign from concept to application, to audience experience, to profitability.
