|
The Google Partner Awards 2026 are here. As one of the industry’s most competitive award programs, Google Partners are already well into preparations for their submissions. The nomination window closes on December 12th, 2025. Given this looming deadline, we’ve compiled the top seven mistakes we commonly see across the board when creating submissions. Orange Bridge has been developing technology and industry award submissions for over a decade, and there’s a few habits that tend to stick around year after year. These are real, problematic practices that we’ve experienced among clients - not a list derived from ChatGPT. Our team develops hundreds of submissions and engages with leading AI and cloud platform providers, professional services firms, global consulting firms, cybersecurity providers, and other companies who participate in industry programs like the Google Partner Awards 2026. Incredible companies will miss out on recognition at top industry awards because they’re not aligning content with what platforms like Google, AWS, SAP, and Microsoft actually look for. 1. Writing the submission like a case studyIf I had to pick the biggest issue I see with award submissions, it’s this one. Most companies have a natural tendency to approach award entries with a case study mindset because it’s how most teams are used to telling their stories. But award evaluators aren’t looking for that structure, tone, or arc. The format, poaching, and emphasis required for a high-scoring award submission are very different from public-facing content, and most teams may never even notice that misalignment. 2. Sounding too much like marketing copyI sent a first submission draft back to a global professional services firm that we’ve worked with on the Google Partner Awards for three consecutive years. The team member who received it was new to the process, and to collaborating with our team. I received feedback the next day and a submission that was marked throughout the entire draft. Red lines, corrections, etc. While I’m extremely familiar with incorporating SME feedback, the problem in this particular instance was that marketing language that performs well in campaigns can actually undermine credibility in award submissions. It takes an experienced eye to distinguish between confident language and polished marketing language. 3. Making it all about your companyI understand how easy it is to fall into the what we do best trap. I’m guilty of it too when I make content for our company. This trap is especially attractive if your company offers a broad portfolio. But most award programs aren’t interested in your brand being the hero of the story or reading a reworked “About” section from your website. This isn’t an opportunity to describe your company’s journey because award programs don’t reward brand-first storytelling. Each award program has a distinctive definition of success, its own tone, and its own evaluation criteria. Those priorities shift year over year, and companies who reuse the same narrative across categories or platforms miss the tone that resonates with each platform’s reviewers. 4. Structuring the story the wrong wayNo, this isn’t an obvious challenge or simple correction. The strongest content and customer success stories can lose momentum if they’re not organized and featured appropriately. Reviewers won’t spend hours decoding your story so you need to get this part right. Your submission’s narrative architecture must guide evaluators effortlessly through the correct points in the right order. That structure varies by platform, by category, by investment priorities, and sometimes even by year. 5. Missing the platform’s languageEach section has to use the right language, data, and metrics in the right order. Sometimes sentences in an award submission appear fragmented or read more like a partial thought with abbreviations. Every word has to matter because your space is limited and there’s a lot of information you have to convey. Every award platform has a highly specific narrative style, vocabulary, and set of implicit expectations, all of which are nearly impossible to identify or replicate without deep familiarity. A submission may be beautifully written yet still feel off to reviewers if it doesn’t speak in the platform’s native language. 6. Recycling a proven story and formulaSome first time participants earn a win and then often think they can just rinse and repeat the winning formula the next year with the same results. But award programs don't work like that. We have a prominent client we’ve worked with since 2022 who has won multiple Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, including 5+ wins out of 5+ entries in 2023. This summer they kept pushing a use case that they’d featured the year before. But I stood my ground (respectfully) because I knew it was a mistake and didn't want to make a submission that wouldn't even have a chance of earning the results they hoped to achieve. Fortunately, they trust us and let me make the call. Now, they just won in the Industry category at the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards 2025, emphasizing the importance of not falling back on supposedly winning formulas or cases that feel like a sure thing. Award programs evolve quickly. A story that succeeded once rarely succeeds again in the same form. Reviewers can tell when a submission relies on prior momentum instead of new strategic positioning and they will score accordingly. 7. Believing good work speaks for itselfLet’s put the odds of winning an award into perspective to convey why all of these challenges and the right strategy matter. The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, for example, garner over 4,600 entries across over 100 regions per year. The chance of any single nomination earning a win is under 1%. You’re also competing with global powerhouses like EY who have dedicated Microsoft Alliance Teams devoted to making award submissions. Plus the technology market is increasingly saturated, which means award programs are getting more competitive as more companies compete to differentiate their brand in the market. Google doesn't publicly release numbers on how many entries they receive each year for its Partner Awards, but given the breadth of their platform, it's safe to assume it's even more than Microsoft. This means your chances drop to under 0.5% - steep odds if you're taking the chance of making entries without any prior experience executing submissions for award programs. Only a few companies will achieve finalist results, and fewer still win. Even amazing submissions face steep competition. The clear advantage goes to submissions that demonstrate alignment and evaluator-friendly presentation. Leverage a proven advantage in the awards spaceAward submissions live in a dynamic space. They’re part strategy, part criteria, part platform language, part data science, part storytelling. The difference between a strong submission and a winning one is expertise and experience. Orange Bridge specializes in technology and industry awards, including:
We’ve covered numerous strategies, trends, challenges, and successes shaping each award program in our blog and case studies. We understand how to help tech companies shape their achievements into award-ready submissions that persuade evaluators. We’re also consistently among the top featured brands in Google’s AI Overviews when querying about these programs, demonstrating our authority in the space. That’s why we offer dedicated award submission development services specifically tailored to the requirements, priorities, and criteria of each award platform. The deadline for the Google Partner of the Year Awards 2026 is only a few weeks away on December 13th, 2025. Your work deserves to be recognized. Work with a team who knows how to ensure it is.
|
