Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 14.10.2025 
How did Deviation achieve Global Search Award nomination status? The team shares their journey.
From Frustration to Foundation
Deviation was founded in April 2024 by Ashley Liddell and Sam Broadhead, two marketers who believed search was no longer just about Google.
After years working in traditional SEO and digital PR, Ashley saw an industry still treating search as a platform, not a behaviour. Together, they launched Deviation with a bold proposition: Search Everywhere®. A call to arms philosophy to brands that treats discoverability as something that happens across TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and even emerging LLM search interfaces not just on a SERP presented by Google.
“We wanted to prove that social platforms weren’t just for brand awareness,” says Ashley. “They’re search engines too, just in different contexts. We recognised that people now ask TikTok how to fix a problem the same way they’d once ask Google.”
From day one, Deviation’s mantra has been: “Sometimes, the only way to make meaningful change is to deviate from the path.”
Within months of launching, that deviation turned into measurable results, sitting at the forefront of an industry movement.
Shortlisted Work – Best Use Of Social-Media In A Search Campaign: Deviation x BullyBillows.
In late 2024, UK-based premium dog accessories brand BullyBillows partnered with Deviation to understand a worrying trend:
Google searches for their non-brand keywords — like “dog harness” and “dog collar”, were in YOY decline.
But when our team dug deeper, they found the searches hadn’t disappeared, they’d begun migrating. Users were asking the same questions on visual-first platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Reddit, not through traditional search, not on Google.
The Objective
BullyBillows wanted to:
- Drive a 20% year-on-year lift in brand search
- Double organic revenue (100% YoY increase)
- Achieve a minimum 4x ROI on a £55,000 organic-only strategy
The Insight
Deviation’s research revealed that people weren’t searching less, they were discovering differently. TikTok had become the new destination for product discovery. Google, once the start of the journey, now played the role of closer.
The Strategy: Search Everywhere® in Action
Deviation built a 12-month plan designed to meet users in their discovery phase on social and capture their intent (and conversions) back on Google.
The framework included three key steps:
- TikTok Search SEO
Using tools like Buzzabout.ai and TikTok Creator Search Insights, Deviation identified trending, intent-led searches such as “harness for dogs that pull” and “dog leads for runners”. They structured TikTok videos around these terms, briefing creators to use exact match phrasing in captions and voiceovers.
- Social-to-SERP Integration
Every TikTok search topic had a matching Google landing page. For example, “dog leads for runners” became a live collection page optimised for the same search terms, creating an aligned, full-funnel user journey.
- Creator Collaboration
Deviation leveraged BullyBillows’ ambassador network, aligning influencers’ UGC to search data. This ensured content could rank both on TikTok’s SERP and in Google’s Short Video feed. These videos where also repurposed onto PLPs and PDPs as appropriate to improve UX and evidence social-proof further.
The Results: Making Search Social and Social Searchable
In just three months, the results were exceptional:
- 139% Organic Revenue Increase achieved (H1 2025)
- +65% growth of [Brand] Searches (Back on Google)
- +195% increase in [Brand] + [Key Term/Intent] Searches (Back on Google)
- 1M+ TikTok video views, 19K likes, 1.1K shares, and 1.2K saves
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
The integration of search data and social content transformed how BullyBillows approached organic marketing. Their TikTok content began ranking for real intent-led queries, and Google even started pulling those same videos into its SERPs, blurring the line between platforms.
Within four months, BullyBillows’ organic revenue surpassed the entire previous year’s performance and the brand has since doubled down on Deviation’s strategy, facilitating even further growth and development.
As Ashley explains:
“We stopped chasing algorithms and started following people. Search behaviour often doesn’t die, it migrates to where it provides the least friction. You have to move with it.”
Why Being Shortlisted Matters
For a bootstrapped start-up that launched less than 18 months ago, being shortlisted for two Global Search Awards (Best Start-Up Agency and Best Use of Social Media in a Search Campaign) is more than recognition. It’s validation that Search Everywhere® is reshaping how the industry thinks about discovery.
“It proves that small teams can drive massive impact when they think differently,” says co-founder Sam Broadhead. “Our mission was to make social media and search work together, not compete, and this shortlisting shows that idea resonates.”
What’s Next for Deviation
As the agency grows from three to five team members, Deviation continues to develop Search Everywhere® as a measurable, scalable framework.
With talks at BrightonSEO (UK & San Diego), ManchesterDM, and The Social Media Conference Athens, the agency is helping marketers worldwide bridge the gap between traditional SEO, social-search, and AI-driven discoverability
Their next phase includes expanding their data partnerships, deepening LLM-driven visibility tracking, and helping brands prepare for a world where TikTok, Reddit, and AI/LLM platforms are all search engines.
Connect with Deviation
Website: https://www.wearedeviation.co.uk
TikTok: @wearedeviation
LinkedIn: Deviation Limited
Client: https://www.bullybillows.com
