The jury of the Friends of Search Awards has decided. In the category Best PPC , KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, LedLoket and Soccerfanshop International will compete for the win. Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, Swoop Funding, STOX Energy Socks are nominated in the category Best SEO. The award ceremony will take place during Friends of Search 2025 on March 13th in the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam.
Barry Adams (chairman of the SEO jury): “The submitted award cases showed strong levels of innovation and strategic thinking about search and SEO. Increasingly, multi-channel approaches to search are rewarded, where SEO is applied beyond just webpages in Google. We found it tough to decide on a shortlist this year, with many entries achieving similar scores from the jury. We decided to look at SEO approaches that showed a keen awareness of the fast-moving change of pace in Google, and applied both trusted tactics and novel approaches to their SEO campaign.“
Frederick Vallaeys (chairman of the PPC jury): “This year’s Friends of Search PPC Award submissions were truly outstanding, making it incredibly difficult to narrow down our shortlist to just three. Each of these nominees exemplifies innovation, strategic thinking, and tangible impact in modern PPC. KLM impressed us with their use of emissions data as an innovative value-based bidding signal, proving that profitability and sustainability can go hand in hand. LedLoket showcased how a smaller retailer can compete at the highest level by leveraging generative AI to create all the assets needed for full-funnel campaigns. Soccerfanshop stood out for executing a seamless, data-driven strategy that enriched the consumer journey from click to purchase. These finalists represent the cutting edge of PPC excellence, and we look forward to announcing the winner soon.”
A jury of international experts
Assessing the entries, the jury looked at how the cases distinguish themselves in clear strategic thinking, innovation, effectiveness, tangible results, clarity and privacy-friendly and responsible data use. Other than Barry Adams and Frederick Vallayes, the jury consists of an international team of independent search experts: Jyll Saskin Gales (Google Ads coach), Lottie Namakando (Human Behaviour), Tetsuo Konno (Google), Jes Scholz (Jes Scholz Consulting), Arnout Hellemans (OnlineMarkethink) and Linda Hogenes (Coolblue).
About the Friends of Search Awards
The Friends of Search Awards are an initiative of industry associations DDMA and VIA Netherlands. The winners will present their case on stage at Friends of Search on March 13th at the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam, in addition to a full program featuring speakers such as Rand Fishkin, Andrew Lolk and Lily Ray. Tickets are still available at: shop.friendsofsearch.com/nl.