Propellernet Wins Standout Charity Campaign of the Year

Last night we won Standout Charity / Not-for-Profit Campaign of the Year at the UK Digital Excellence Awards for our work with Dogs Trust.

Dogs Trust relies on sponsorships to help fund care for thousands of dogs a year, but rising acquisition costs and shrinking high-intent search demand meant the existing approach was losing efficiency. We rebuilt the paid media strategy from the ground up rather than trying to patch it.

Search was repositioned as the anchor, restructured across Brand and Generic terms to capture high-intent demand without relying on it alone. Performance Max used CRM and intent signals to reach high-value lookalike audiences, and Demand Gen introduced story-led creative earlier in the journey to warm up supporters who weren’t actively searching yet. Copy shifted from a functional donation ask to something more emotionally led, positioning sponsorship as an act of care.

Seasonal moments did a lot of the work too. A Valentine’s Day activation, reframing sponsorship as a meaningful gift, drove an 83% uplift in sponsorships over two weeks alongside a 31% cut in CPA, evidence that timing and emotionally resonant creative can move performance as much as targeting does.

The result was a more resilient acquisition model across channels, one that’s less dependent on a shrinking pool of high-intent searchers and better suited to sustaining sponsorship growth long term.

If you’re seeing acquisition costs rise and returns from search alone start to plateau, get in touch, or check out more of our Insights below.