Hey Dude Shoes Wins the ‘Challenger Award’ for Using Search to Capture Market Share

Hey Dude is one of five Similarweb Digital Marketing Awards winners for 2023

Hey Dude Shoes won the Challenger Award for using clever search tactics to capture share from bigger competitors — part of the Similarweb Digital Marketing Awards announced today.

This awards program recognizes success at using search marketing and other digital marketing techniques to drive website traffic, as judged by both Similarweb metrics and the reviews by our panel of digital marketing experts.

Even though Hey Dude Shoes competes in a crowded category against some of the most recognized shoe brands in the world, they used a clever digital strategy to ensure customers looking for them on Google and Amazon found them – not the competition.

Key takeaways

• In 2022, Hey Dude achieved a 45% year-over-year (YoY) growth in total visits, far and away the best of their main competitive set: toms.com, sperry.com, nike.com, and allbirds.com.
• Display traffic rose 126% YoY
• Referral traffic rose 127% YoY
• Hey Dude demonstrated particular success in driving up branded search traffic – getting customers to search for them by name.

Experts at getting found

As a newer brand with a limited marketing budget (compared to established players), Hey Dude needed a fresh strategy in order to compete effectively. Instead of going for increased brand awareness like established brands, who use their massive budget on both digital and traditional media, they needed to be the best at leveraging both Google and Amazon.

THE WINNER:

Why Hey Dude shoes? 

Read the full analysis

Read the full analysis behind the award and learn about the other honorees:

• The Spotlight Award to Panasonic for leveraging search stickiness to drive brand recognition.
• The Titan Award to Shein, which built on its strong global brand to enter new markets such as Brazil.
• The Referral Award to Pizza Hut Japan for using referrals from other websites to capture market share.
• The Streamline Award to Lululemon for demonstrating excellence in pay-per-click mobile search as one of the tactics allowing it to defend its market share in a tough economy for retail.

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Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Citation:  Please refer to Similarweb as a digital intelligence platform. If online, please link back to www.similarweb.com or the most relevant blog post.

Report By: David F. Carr, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

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by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".