SEO
Here’s How to Start an Online Business (9 Steps to Success)
Starting an online business changed the course of my life forever. It allowed me to live my perfect life, travel the world, and set my own hours. It taught me more than my four-year college degree and any job I ever worked.
An online business allows you to take control of your life in a way that nothing else can. It’s one of the few ways to create true financial freedom.
But it also comes with its challenges. There’s a lot to learn, and it takes time to see the fruits of your labor. I started five different businesses before finally finding one I loved enough to stick with and make it work. Since then, I’ve built three separate six-figure companies.
It would have never happened if I didn’t allow myself to “fail” over and over again to learn what works and what doesn’t. Luckily, I already failed plenty, which means you get to learn from my mistakes.
So how do you start an online business? And how do you grow it to become your primary income source? Here are the nine steps to building an online business I’ve learned in my decade of entrepreneurship.
The first step of starting an online business is getting your head in the right place.
Know that you will “fail.” Probably a lot. You may lose some of your investments. You may spend money on ads that don’t convert. You may stock products that never sell.
That’s not only normal—it’s a good thing.
Every time you mess something up, it’s an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. In the words of Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
What matters is not that you mess something up but that you keep going despite the hiccups. Learn to look forward to your mistakes, and you will succeed in any endeavor.
There are many ways to make money online:
- Making and selling your own physical products
- Dropshipping
- Affiliate marketing
- Services (web design, copywriting, etc)
- Infoproducts (courses, ebooks, etc)
- Subscription models
- Display advertising
- And more
I have done almost all of these at one point or another in my career. I’ve sold SEO services, dropshipped jewelry and other products from China, made home decor items by hand and sold them both locally and online, done affiliate marketing for other brands, sold display ads on my websites, and more.
Each has its own pros and cons, and each can work. It depends on what you prefer to do. Here’s a quick and dirty overview of each:
E-commerce
Making and selling your own physical products, or even buying and selling them using a manufacturer, tend to have bigger profit margins per sale than dropshipping.
However, it’s more labor intensive and costs more. You need to handle the production, shipping, handling and storing inventory, and customer service.
Dropshipping cuts out a lot of this excess labor by off-loading the inventory management and, in some cases, the customer service to another company. But it comes at the cost of a lower profit margin.
You can either start your own e-commerce website or sell on websites like Amazon, Etsy, or eBay. Again, it depends on how much labor you want to put in—building your own website is best for profits in the long run but requires you to handle more variables.
Services and info products
Another lucrative option is starting an online business by offering services such as freelance writing, graphic design, coding, etc.
You can either offer these services via a website like UpWork or Fiverr or build your own website and work with clients directly. Many people start on the former and move to their own brand after seeing some success, which is the method I recommend.
Info products like courses and ebooks are also a great way to make money online. If you have nearly any skill, you can turn it into an info product you can sell. I’ve spent over $100,000 over the last 10 years buying online courses and info products to learn how to do everything from SEO to speaking Spanish, playing instruments, investing, and more.
Subscription models
There are a ton of subscription-model businesses these days. It could be a monthly delivery of your products or a membership to your club or course materials.
The great thing about subscriptions is recurring revenue, which is crucial to growing an online business. This model is best used in conjunction with other models.
For example, say you sell dog toys. You can capture recurring customers by adding a subscription box with dog toys that ship every month, like BarkBox does.
Display ads and affiliate marketing
The method I have had the most success with is affiliate marketing. Basically, you promote other people’s products and services and make a commission from any sales you make.
It’s my favorite because I like having as few responsibilities as possible. I don’t have to handle customer service, inventory, or any of that stuff. I just talk about the products I love and make money.
For example, I wrote a guide to buying a rooftop tent and included affiliate links to each tent:
Affiliate marketing also pairs well with display advertising. This allows you to monetize the supporting content you need to develop topical authority in addition to your direct affiliate content.
For example, let’s say you’re writing about the best mattresses for side sleepers.
You can promote specific mattresses and make a commission on them. But if you want to fully cover the mattress niche, you also need content covering things like “When should I buy a new mattress?” and “How to get rid of bed bugs?” These won’t typically convert well, but you can still display ads on those pages to monetize them.
My recommendation is to pick a method that sounds interesting and try it. But don’t be afraid to try different methods to see which ones you like. You may hate affiliate marketing but love making and selling your own products. You won’t know until you try.
Steps #2 and #3 can be done interchangeably. You may find you want to stick to a certain niche then figure out how to monetize it later, or you may decide you want to make a course or do a particular type of monetization and figure out the niche later.
Either way, choosing a niche is one of your most important decisions. It can take one to two years of work before you start making significant money from your business, so ensure it’s something you’ll be OK with talking about for a long time.
Some niches will be more competitive than others.
A good niche is one that:
- Has high-paying affiliate programs or products with a high margin.
- Isn’t too competitive.
- Has a large variety of things you can talk about.
- Is interesting enough to keep you working on it for a long time.
Personally, I only work in niches that I am interested in learning about myself. Even if I don’t know a lot about something, if I’m at least curious about it, I will be able to stick to it. I’ve tried working in niches I don’t care about, and it doesn’t work for me. You may be different.
To come up with niche ideas, answer the following questions:
- What do I know a lot about?
- What am I curious about?
- What do other people tell me I’m good at?
The answers can help guide you into a niche. Alternatively, you can just pick something random and try it. I did that for a few of my own businesses—I just had a random idea one day and went for it. In the worst-case scenario, you learn a lot and figure out what you don’t like.
Another way to come up with niche ideas is by looking at affiliate programs, then choosing one based on high-paying affiliate partners. From there, you can either build an affiliate site or build your own competing business with that affiliate. If the affiliate program pays well, the business likely makes a good profit margin on its products.
For example, if you head to AvantLink’s merchant list (you have to make an account to see it), you can browse affiliate programs in any niche and sort them by things like commission, category, conversion rate, and more.
I like to sort the list by commission rate (high to low) and go from there. But you can also continue to step #4 if you can’t decide because doing keyword research will help you find more opportunities.
As you develop ideas for a niche, it’s crucial to figure out how difficult it will be to break into it and where people in that niche are spending their time.
I always start with keyword research because it shows me the potential of the niche and the kind of content I’ll have to create to compete in that niche.
It starts with “seed keywords.” These are broad, generic keywords that cover the biggest topics in a niche.
For example, if you’re interested in the coffee niche, some seed keywords may be:
- coffee
- cappuccino
- french press
- nespresso
- Etc
Use these keywords to find the big competitors in your niche that most closely represent your own website or the one you’re trying to make. If the results are too different from a niche website, you’ll need to get a little less broad.
For example, if I Google “coffee,” I see sites like Starbucks, Wikipedia, Peets, etc. Obviously, these giant brands are not my competition.
Instead, let’s try something a little more niche, such as “how to use a french press.” Here, we find a website called homegrounds.co.
This site is closer to an affiliate marketing site, which is what I’m looking for. Now, I can plug that website into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and see what other keywords it’s ranking for and the page ranking for that keyword.
You’ll also see how many people search for that keyword per month (volume) and an estimation of how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword on Google (KD or Keyword Difficulty).
By scrolling through these keywords and looking at the potential volume, KD, and what page is ranking for them, we can get an idea of how hard it may be to enter the niche and what kind of traffic we can expect. We can also browse the website to see how it monetizes its content (paid ads, affiliates, products, etc.).
Do this for three to five websites in your niche to better understand how to tackle entering the niche and make money from it.
In addition to keyword research, you can use a tool like SparkToro to get an idea of where your potential audience spends their time (which social media channels, forums, etc.).
If you like what you see, continue to step #5. If not, continue researching other niches.
The name of your business won’t make or break it, but it’s still important. Here are some tips for choosing a good business name:
- Be clear, not clever – Your name should be easy to understand and spell.
- Pick a name that doesn’t limit you too much – You may start selling chairs, but you want a name that allows you to expand into selling other furniture or even other things entirely.
- Shorter is usually better – This is especially true for an online business where your customers may need to type out your URL and social media handles.
You also need to make sure you’re not encroaching on any trademarks or existing business names. If you’re in the U.S., you can look up whether a name is available or not on your state’s local government website or with a service like LegalZoom.
Once you’ve decided on a name, it’s time to set it up as a legal entity. Note that I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice, and my knowledge is limited to the U.S.
Sidenote.
This step doesn’t need to be done right away. You can do it at any point before you actually start earning money. Check out this Business Insider article for more info.
Typically, you can get away with a sole proprietorship to start. This is the bare minimum requirement to do business in the U.S.
However, once you start making decent money, it’s a good idea to upgrade to an LLC (limited liability company) or even eventually a corporation to limit how liable you are in the event of legal action, as well as to benefit from tax savings.
I recommend talking to a business attorney to help you set this up when you’re ready. But don’t feel pressured to do it from the beginning; you can worry about it once you’re making some money.
Beyond setting up a company, you also need to register your business and obtain any relevant permits. How you do that and if you need permits depend on which state you live in and how you monetize, so I’ll leave it up to you to research. Consider calling your local SBA (Small Business Administration) office for advice.
At this point, you should have a business entity set up and be ready to buy your domain name and build your website.
Your domain name will typically be your business name with a top-level domain (TLD) like .com or .co.uk at the end. You can get a name from a service like NameCheap or GoDaddy. Or you can buy one directly from your hosting company if you want to spend a little more but have an easier time setting it up.
Hosting is a service that allows you to “host” your website on the internet. Think of it as digital rent. I use Kinsta or SiteGround for WordPress blog websites, Shopify for e-commerce websites, and Wix for everything else (services and local businesses).
Sidenote.
Shopify and Wix are two-in-one platforms: They are both a content management system (CMS) like WordPress and provide website hosting. This makes them a bit easier to use and set up than WordPress with a separate hosting service.
My preferred method of building websites is with WordPress. If you’re planning on doing affiliate marketing or blogging, it’s the best option because it’s the most flexible.
Keep in mind that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are separate things. I use the .org version, which you must install on your website using your hosting provider. Usually, this is a one-click install. The .com version is a competitor to Wix, but I don’t like it personally.
With SiteGround, you just purchase its WordPress hosting plan and it will set it up for you.
Once the backend is set up and you’ve finished purchasing your domain name and hosting, you can log in to your website by typing www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.
Once you log in, the backend of your website looks like this:
This is where you can manage the appearance of your website via themes and customization, the blog posts and pages on your site, and more.
You’ll need to choose a theme to start building the frontend of your site. Most WordPress themes are well optimized these days, but you should focus on picking one that looks good and also loads quickly. Choose one that only has features you will use.
At this point, there’s a lot to learn and do to build your site. Rather than going through every single step in this article, here are some guides I will refer you to:
Regardless of the type of business you create, content is king. Publishing blog posts, videos, or podcasts is the best way to promote your business and get sales online.
Therefore, learning how to create and promote valuable content is one of the most important skills you can learn as a digital entrepreneur.
What makes content “valuable” depends on the platform. When it comes to SEO, valuable content means satisfying the search intent of the person using Google to find your content.
But “valuable” content on TikTok may mean your video is entertaining, YouTube may mean your video is informative or visually fascinating, and Facebook may mean your content sparks discussions.
My best advice is to figure out what content does well in whatever medium you’re creating content in, then master the fundamentals of that type of content.
For example, I write blog posts with the goal of ranking highly in Google search results. The content I create needs to be informative, helpful, easy to skim, and (when possible) entertaining.
To get better at my craft, I studied writing tips to become a better writer, researched how the Google search algorithm worked so I knew what it was looking for, and constantly pushed to find information I could include that no one else in the search results had.
I also spent well over $100,000 on online courses and mentors to teach me how to be better. It has been a constant game of self-growth and improving my craft.
All of these efforts have resulted in the sale of one of my websites for nearly half a million dollars. I can’t show the figures for that site, but I’ve since started another website I’m working on that is getting over 7,000 visits per month in less than one year as a side hustle:
Organic search-focused content is the main traffic generator for many websites; chances are it can be for yours too. It’s free, recurring traffic.
That said, you can figure out the type of content to create by studying your competitors and seeing what does well for them, then creating your own version of that content.
For example, say I want to break into the golf niche. I would look at my competitors on Google and social media to see what content they’re creating that’s working well and how they’re promoting it.
If we search for “golfing” on YouTube, we see three different kinds of videos from three different competitors that are each doing well:
To take it further, we can use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to find keyword ideas to rank for on Google and to see what kind of content our competitors are creating.
However, these competitors are already well established, and it may take a lot of work to beat them. That’s where Ahrefs’ Related terms report comes in handy.
For example, the keyword “golf tips for beginners” only has a KD score of 12, which means it’s relatively easy to rank for compared to the keyword “golfing” at 31.
If we look at the SERP overview, we can find competitors who aren’t as established, then look at the keywords their website is ranking for.
The website free-online-gold-tips.com only has a Domain Rating (DR) of 36. This means that compared to bigger competitors like Golf Digest, with a DR of 82, it is relatively new to the game. The fact that it’s ranking for this keyword means it’s not as competitive.
If we look at its website in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, we can see other keywords it’s ranking for that aren’t as competitive, as well as the content it wrote that’s ranking.
Doing this can help you decide what type of content to create. Making your content better is another story—here are some other guides to help you with that:
Once you’ve created the content, it’s also important to learn how to promote it so it can actually be seen and give you an ROI in the short term. Basically, your goal is this:
You hustle to get the early site traffic, then SEO kicks in to give you free, recurring traffic.
Now, there are a lot of ways to promote your content. Social media, email outreach, paid ads… the list goes on.
Rather than going over every content promotion strategy here, I’ll refer you to our guide to content promotion.
The final step in becoming a digital entrepreneur is scaling up your efforts or pivoting into another business idea.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this guide, I pivoted five times before I found a business I could scale up. It wasn’t because I failed or threw in the towel. I just realized I didn’t want to continue putting effort into those businesses to make them succeed.
This is a part of the journey. Trying things and being OK with changing and possibly “losing” your investment. It’s completely all right to choose to pivot if you’re not enjoying the process and can’t see yourself continuing in the long term.
If you decide to continue, it’s time to scale up whatever is working. For me, that means hiring a team of writers, editors, outreach specialists, and a virtual assistant. But it also means NOT doing certain tasks that aren’t moving the needle.
At this point, I recommend you create a brain dump of all the tasks you do to run your business. This could be things like:
- Doing keyword research
- Creating content
- Promoting content
- Making sales calls
- Finding affiliate or manufacturing partners
- Etc
Once you’ve written out every task—even the smallest ones you may only do on occasion—it’s time to organize them into four lists:
- Things only you can do.
- Things that can possibly be done by someone else.
- Things that can be automated with a tool or software.
- Things that don’t need to be done at all.
From here, it’s easy to create standard operating procedures around the tasks that can be done by someone else, find tools to automate things, and cut some tasks out entirely.
Here are some helpful related guides:
Voilà—you now know how to start an online business from scratch.
Final thoughts
I have to reiterate that starting an online business has been the single best decision I’ve ever made in my 29 years on this planet. It’s given me the freedom—both financially and over my time—to travel the world and build the exact life I want.
There’s a lot to learn (certainly more than I can teach you in one guide), and it’s a steep learning curve. You will fail, and you will feel disappointment and doubt. It’s all part of the process.
If you start today and commit to learning how to make money online, I promise you will succeed. You may have to pivot, but you will eventually hit a winner. And 10 years from now, you’ll thank yourself for reading this guide and making this life-changing decision.
SEO
How to Find Trending Keywords for SEO
One way in is to identify and rank for trending keywords before these big sites catch up and dominate the SERPs.
Here’s how you can discover trending keywords for your niche before competitors:
Enter any topic into Google Trends and you’ll see how it has been trending.
You can also adjust the timeframe to identify any emerging trends:
The best part of Google Trends, in my opinion, is the Related queries section at the bottom. It shows topics that are rising in interest over your selected timeframe:
Look out for “breakout” terms, which means that the search term has experienced an increase in search volume of more than 5,000%.
The disappointing thing about Google Trends is that it doesn’t show you many trending keywords.
So, if you want to see a massive list of trending keywords, the best choice is to use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Enter any topic, go to the Matching terms report, then click on the Growth column.
You’ll see >1.6 million keywords, sorted by the largest growth in search volume for the past three months. You can also select the timeframe by clicking the Period dropdown.
The best thing about using Keywords Explorer is that you get to see every important keyword metric, like its search volume (your country of choice or globally), its keyword difficulty (or how competitive it currently is to rank), its traffic potential (how much search traffic you could potentially get if you rank #1), its cost-per-click, and more.
You can even click on the SERP dropdown to see which pages are currently ranking for the keyword:
You can click on Identify Intents to find out what searchers are looking for when searching for this keyword:
So, not only can you find keywords that are trending, you’ll also get every piece of information you need to rank high for that keyword too.
Whatever’s trending on the Internet will find its way to the “front page of the Internet.” In short, Reddit is a one-stop shop to find trending keywords.
Start by entering a relevant keyword in the search bar and look for relevant subreddits. For example, these are some of the subreddits for “knives”:
Choose the most relevant subreddit, then sort by Top, and your preferred time period.
Scrolling through this subreddit, I found a discussion about “modern traditional knives”:
With 270 upvotes and 86 comments, this could be a potential topic to target if I sold knives online. But I can double-check if anyone’s searching for this keyword by entering it into Keywords Explorer:
Not a lot of search volume (yet), but there are people looking for it!
Many trends begin on social media so needless to say, it’s the place to go if you’re looking for trending keywords.
For X, you can click on Explore and you’ll see a For You tab. This shows you trends for the topics you’re currently interested in.
As you can see, X knows I’m interested in technology and thus shows me the latest news and trends in tech. However, this is subject to your personal algorithm, so depending on how you use X, it may or may not show you relevant trends.
So, a better way is to do a search for your topic and see what the top tweets are.
Instagram is less intuitive and doesn’t show you trends. So, you’ll have to make do by manipulating your algorithm to show you what’s popular in your niche or do a search and navigating to Tags:
Click on the hashtags to see which posts or topics are trending.
For TikTok, if you have a Business account, you’ll be able to access their Creative Center where they show you what’s trending now:
Like with Reddit, once you’ve noted down what’s trending in your niche, you’ll want to enter them into a keyword tool like Keywords Explorer to see if there is any search volume.
Here’s my cheat code for discovering trending keywords: Curate a newsletter.
Whether as a personal project, an internal newsletter for your team, or one that gets sent out to your customers, curating a newsletter will keep you up-to-date on all industry trends like no other.
For example, I write the Ahrefs’ Digest, our free weekly newsletter. Every week, I have to scour social media, forums, and other industry newsletters for the best-published content.
Doing so keeps me up-to-date on everything that’s happening in the industry—what just happened, what people are talking about, and what people are publishing.
For example, 200 issues later, I know that right now, people in SEO and marketing are interested in:
As you can see, we’ve already covered some of these topics and will cover more in the future.
Final thoughts
If you can’t beat them, be ahead of them.
When you can jump on trends before the big brands rush in, you stand a better chance of ranking higher on search engines and accumulating the good things: more authority and more backlinks. That can help you in your future quest to rank for the harder, more competitive keywords.
Did I miss out on any methods to find trending keywords? Let me know on LinkedIn.
SEO
Why Connected TV Ads Are A Power Play For A Successful Ad Strategy
Entertainment viewing habits have changed dramatically in recent years, leading search ad platforms to introduce connected TV (CTV) video ad opportunities alongside standard video and display ads.
Both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads provide advertisers with convenient access to a wide range of inventory and scale through their platforms.
What’s especially useful is that CTV ads can be managed within the same platform as search PPC ads, making it easy for advertisers to streamline their campaigns.
This means advertisers can get started with CTV ads with minimal hassle, reducing management complexity and costs.
First, What Are CTV Video Ads?
CTV ads are video ads that play on connected TV devices. These TVs can connect to the internet and stream content from apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.
Unlike traditional TV ads, which air during regular programming, CTV ads are shown while you’re watching your favorite streaming shows or movies.
CTV ads are basically the modern version of TV commercials, which are adapted for the streaming world.
Advertisers should pay attention to CTV ads because they offer a unique opportunity to engage audiences in a way that traditional TV advertising can’t match.
As streaming services continue to dominate the entertainment landscape, CTV ads allow advertisers to reach viewers who have cut the cord from cable and are consuming content on internet-connected devices.
The time people spend on streaming platforms is increasing, so CTV ads provide a direct and effective way to connect with engaged, attentive audiences in a variety of viewing environments.
In addition, the ad platforms help make CTV ads accessible to advertisers who found traditional TV out of reach.
The flexibility and data-driven approach of ad placements have become a powerful tool for maximizing advertising efforts as part of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.
CTV Ad Campaign Purpose And Goals
CTV ads are most often used for brand awareness and upper-funnel goals.
These ads enhance brand recognition and visibility, expanding ad touch points across viewing platforms.
While their primary objective is to raise brand awareness, CTV ads can also support other stages of the marketing funnel to connect with potential customers.
Audiences can be targeted during their consideration and decision-making stages with messages and content designed to nurture leads and drive conversions.
Key Features Of CTV Video Ads
To fully understand why CTV ads are such a powerful strategy for advertisers, it’s important to highlight the key features that set them apart from traditional TV ads.
Targeted Advertising
Unlike traditional TV ads, CTV video ads can be targeted to specific audiences, similar to search ads and social media ads.
This means advertisers can customize their messages based on factors like age, interests, viewing behavior, and even location. This precision makes the ads more relevant and engaging for viewers.
Unskippable Formats
Many CTV ads are unskippable on TV screens, ensuring that the entire message reaches the viewer. This is a significant advantage over other video ad formats, where users can skip the ad after a few seconds.
Cross-Device Reach
Ads aren’t just limited to TV screens. They are also displayed on other devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. This multi-device reach allows advertisers to connect with viewers wherever they watch TV.
Measurable Impact
One of the key benefits of CTV ads is the ability to measure their effectiveness.
Advertisers can track metrics like ad completion rates, viewer engagement, and even business outcomes (site visits, sales, leads), gaining insights into how well the campaigns perform. Recent data suggests business outcomes have now become the primary success metric.
Even for seasoned PPC advertisers, diving into CTV ads can feel overwhelming at first.
The transition from search campaigns to video-based formats introduces new creative requirements and targeting options.
But don’t let the unfamiliarity hold you back. While the CTV setup process isn’t entirely intuitive, this article will guide you through the basics.
By leveraging the tools and strategies you already use in search ads, you’ll unlock new opportunities with CTV ads.
Google CTV Ads
Platforms
Google offers CTV ads in two ways. One is through the standard ad platform and the other is Display & Video 360 (DV360).
Google Ads (Standard Platform)
- Google Ads primarily offers access to YouTube and a select group of CTV apps and publishers that partner with Google.
- In the CTV space, Google Ads primarily focuses on delivering video ads through YouTube.
- The YouTube app is available on devices such as smart TVs, game consoles, and streaming devices (Roku, Amazon Fire).
- Ideal as a starting point for CTV campaigns, especially if you’re focused on YouTube and a few other platforms.
Display & Video 360 (DV360)
- DV360 provides access to a much broader range of inventory, including premium CTV networks, programmatic TV, and a wider array of third-party apps and platforms.
- It is designed for more complex, cross-channel campaign management. It allows for integrated planning, buying, and optimization across different media types, including video, display, audio, and native ads.
- DV360 is ideal for larger advertisers or agencies that are handling more advanced digital strategies.
Networks
YouTube Ecosystem
YouTube ads and YouTube TV ads are both part of YouTube’s ecosystem, and advertisers purchase both through the Google Ads platform.
However, while the buying process is the same, Google places the ads based on the type of content:
- YouTube Ads: Shown across YouTube’s main platform, including on YouTube Home, video watch pages, and in search results. These ads target users watching regular YouTube content (user-generated and professional videos) and can be skippable, non-skippable, or bumper ads.
- YouTube TV Ads: These ads are shown specifically on YouTube TV’s live streaming service. Similar to traditional TV ads, they appear during live broadcasts and on-demand content from major networks and cable channels.
Google TV Ads
Google TV ads are purchased through the Google Ads platform, just like YouTube ads. This allows for managing and measuring campaigns all in one place.
However, they are shown on smart TVs through the Google TV platform. It acts as an operating system for smart TVs and streaming devices that consolidates content into one easy-to-use interface.
- Access to content from various streaming services (like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+) across over 125 channels.
- Ads appear as in-stream video ads.
Note that when selecting the networks, YouTube must also be selected to access placements on Google TV.
This means, there is currently no way to target only Google TV.
Looking strictly at CTV, YouTube TV has a massive opportunity for audience reach.
Google reported YouTube TV has surpassed 8 million subscribers, solidifying its position as the largest live TV streaming service in the U.S.
On the other hand, Google TV does not have a direct subscriber count like YouTube TV because it functions primarily as a content aggregation platform, offering a dashboard to access movies and TV shows from various streaming services.
According to Google, in the U.S., 60% of households now watch free, ad-supported streaming services and channels. Google TV and other retail Android TV OS devices will have 20.1 million addressable monthly active devices in the U.S. in 2023.
Various streaming services where Google TV ads are served:
- YouTube.
- Netflix.
- Hulu.
- Disney+.
- Roku.
- Paramount+.
- Peacock.
- Amazon Prime Video.
- HBO Max.
- Tubi.
- Pluto TV.
- Vudu.
- Sling TV.
- Apple TV.
- Discovery+.
Audiences
A major power play here is Google’s CTV ad’s access to world-class audience targeting.
In contrast to traditional TV ads, which rely on broad, regional airings with limited customization, Google Ads allow for precise audience targeting.
Advertisers can tap into a variety of options to reach specific viewers:
- Demographics: Gender, age, parental status, household income.
- Interests/detailed demographics: In-market, affinity, life events.
- Custom: Custom combinations, remarketing, customer match lists.
- Content: Keywords, topics, placements.
Ad formats
Although Google provides a range of video ad formats for YouTube, only a select few are available for Google TV/CTV.
These formats are short, unskippable, and designed to fit seamlessly into the streaming experience.
To access CTV ad placements, the “non-skippable” or “efficient reach” campaign subtypes must be selected in the campaign set-up.
Screenshot by author, October 2024Bid Strategy
With Google TV ads, the only available bidding strategy is cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM).
This means you’re paying based on how many times your ad is viewed, not on clicks, which helps focus on maximizing reach.
Your Target CPM is the average amount you’re willing to spend for every thousand impressions. Google Ads then optimizes bids around this target to help you get the most unique views possible.
Google Summary
For most advertisers, Google Ads is a solid choice for CTV campaigns, especially if you’re focused on YouTube and a few select platforms.
It’s user-friendly and set up for targeting and reach. The user experience is familiar if you are a regular advertiser.
However, there may be volume issues if the platform favors serving on YouTube over Google TV.
The key to utilizing Google Ads in the CTV realm is leveraging YouTube’s extensive reach across these devices and platforms to engage viewers with impactful video content.
How To Target CTV With Google – Step By Step
Google Ads Standard Platform
To access Google TV settings in campaign creation, the campaign must be a video reach, non-skippable format.
Step-by-step selections:
- New campaign.
- Choose your objective: Awareness and consideration.
- Select a campaign type: Video > Select a campaign subtype: Video reach > Select campaign subtype: Non-skippable reach or efficient reach.
- Ad formats: Select from multi-ad formats.
- Bid strategy: Pre-selected depending on the campaign subtype.
- Enter budgets and dates.
- Select networks > Select locations > Select languages.
- Select any related videos with YouTube URL.
- Additional settings: Devices, operating systems, advanced targeting for mobile phones and tablets.
- Select frequency capping > Select ad schedule > Select audiences.
- Create video ads: Provide the URL of the YouTube-hosted video to use as the ad.
- Bid is pre-set at CPM.
- Create campaign!
Microsoft CTV Ads
Platforms
Both Microsoft Ads platforms below cater to video advertising but target different environments and user behaviors.
Microsoft Ads (Standard Platform)
- Offers a streamlined approach to CTV advertising through the standard ad platform.
- Advertisers gain exclusive access to Netflix and a large video marketplace with 860+ CTV publishers, including major names like Disney+, Roku, Hulu, and more.
- Setting up campaigns is straightforward and quick, requiring few clicks and no setup fees.
Microsoft Invest
- Enterprise-level Demand-Side Platform (DSP) with a broader approach to video advertising across all screens, including CTV buying.
- Designed for larger advertisers and agencies with significant ad budgets, looking to manage extensive video advertising campaigns.
- A good fit for those with complex strategies and the need for advanced targeting and performance analytics.
- Here, advertisers can access Netflix placements through guaranteed programmatic buys.
- Smaller businesses or those with limited budgets may find it less accessible due to its enterprise-level features and focus.
Networks
Microsoft Ads CTV ads appear on a wide range of content on popular streaming platforms and connected TV apps, including services like Hulu and Roku.
This broad network is not Microsoft-owned or branded. Some premium networks and streaming platforms where the ads are served:
- Netflix.
- Roku.
- Hulu.
- Max.
- Fox.
- Disney+.
- Peacock.
- Paramount+.
- LG Channels.
- Discovery+.
- Samsung TV Plus.
- Pluto TV.
- Tubi.
- Vudu.
- Amazon Fire TV.
- Apple TV.
- Sling TV.
- Showtime.
- YouTube TV.
- Crackle.
Screenshot by author, October 2024Audience
Microsoft CTV ads provide powerful audience-targeting capabilities that are far beyond what traditional TV ads can offer.
Microsoft CTV ads use millions of first-party data points and advanced tools to reach audiences.
This level of precise targeting supports campaigns that are more efficient and more impactful than traditional TV ads.
Advertisers can leverage the following targeting for their campaigns:
- Demographics: Key demographic factors such as age, gender, etc.
- Genre Targeting: Align ads with specific content genres like action, comedy, business, or sports.
- In-Market Audiences: Users actively researching or planning to buy products or services similar to advertisers.
- Similar Audiences: Expands reach by targeting people who exhibit behaviors and interests similar to those of the existing audience.
- Customer Match: Advertisers use their own customer data (such as email lists) to match to known users on Microsoft and subsequently target ads to them.
- Remarketing: Re-engage people who have interacted previously with the brand.
Note: Microsoft provides a real-time audience meter on the right side of the set-up page. This instant feedback indicates if the targeting becomes too narrow, warning the campaign cannot be saved.
Screenshot by author, October 2024Ad Formats
Video ads are responsive, meaning their format adjusts automatically to fit the experience of the CTV streaming service or page where they appear. The placement of the CTV ads depends on both the video quality and bid.
Both online video ads and CTV ads can run on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. For outstream video campaigns, placements are available only on desktop and tablet.
- Online Video Ads: Play across devices within web content, including websites and apps, engaging users while they browse. They may appear in instream and outstream placements on the Microsoft Advertising Network. Instream placements include ads that appear while people stream media online.
- Outstream-Only Video Ads: They appear outside of traditional video content, such as within articles or social feeds, and integrate naturally into page content.
Creating CTV ads is simple – just provide:
- A destination URL.
- The video to upload.
Also available are AI-generated “recommended videos” that pull text and images from your final URL to create a video ad using predefined templates.
Screenshot by author, October 2024Bid Strategy
Microsoft Advertising uses cost-per-completed view (CPCV), optimizing bids based on the price the advertiser is willing to pay per completed video view.
With automated bidding, bids are adjusted automatically to meet performance goals. CPCV should typically range between $0.01 and $0.20. for CTV ads here.
Screenshot by author, October 2024Microsoft Results
According to Microsoft and Roku internal data, recent research shows that using CTV ads on the Microsoft Ads platform leads to some notable results.
Advertisers see an 18% increase in click-through rates for audience ads, along with a 9% lift in brand searches from users who were exposed to these ads.
Advertisers can access custom measurement solutions and brand lift studies at no extra cost while running these ads.
How To Target CTV With Microsoft – Step By Step
Microsoft Ads Standard Platform
Step-by-step selections:
- New campaign.
- Choose your goal: Brand awareness > Select a campaign type: Connected TV (CTV).
- Enter budget.
- Bid strategy: Cost per completed view (CPCV).
- Enter bid and frequency capping > Enter locations.
- Netflix terms and conditions: Includes video quality and other restrictions.
- Enter age, if applicable > Enter gender, if applicable.
- Select audiences.
- Genre, if applicable.
- Enter ad schedule.
- Ad: Add videos and the Final URL
- Save!
Top Takeaways
Integrating CTV ads into digital strategy is an effective way to grow reach and enhance overall performance, all with simpler ad management than ever before.
Today, we takeaway:
- Simplified Management: CTV ads can be managed within the same platform as search PPC ads, streamlining campaigns and reducing costs.
- Enhanced Audience Targeting: Ads provide precise targeting for reaching engaged viewers across streaming platforms, making ads more relevant and impactful.
- Growing Opportunity: With the shift toward streaming services, CTV ads are a valuable way to reach cord-cutters and expand the campaign’s reach.
More resources:
Featured Image: vectorfusionart/Shutterstock
SEO
8 PR Report Examples & Templates to Bookmark for Inspiration
At its core, a PR report is about presenting the impact of your hard work.
While day-to-day PR reports get into the nitty gritty of media monitoring, periodic reviews and campaign washups take a step back, looking at wider context, learnings, and next steps.
Let’s get into examples of both…
Here are five real-world PR report examples that stand out for their clarity and focus.
The “Exec-friendly one-pager” PR report from Rise at Seven
This one-page summary presents high-level results, perfect for senior stakeholders who need quick insights without getting bogged down in details.
Key metrics, like site traffic and sales generated, are presented through a clear narrative arc: the challenge, the idea, the results.
PR reporting is so much more than just how many links or coverage you’ve achieved for your activity. We have the ability to align this much closer to a brand or businesses’ overall objectives and goals.When we’re looking at reporting we focus on rankings, traffic, sales and in the end how much ££££ our campaigns have driven.
Key Takeaway
Provide a concise overview that executives can digest quickly, focusing on performance highlights and clear ROI.
The “PR supplement” report from Cedarwood Digital
This PR report example from Cedarwood Digital gives a quick snapshot of digital coverage, showcasing the campaign’s success in terms of links and authority.
The “supplement” report is great for clients who don’t need full PR play-by-plays—either because they’re more invested in other channels, or because reporting is regular enough that they’re already up to speed.
This is an example Digital PR report that we attach to our SEO report – we find it’s quite top level – but it works well for our clients.
Key Takeaway
Supplement broader marketing reports with concise PR snapshots that highlight key coverage.
The “monthly deep-dive” PR report from Distinctly
This is a solid example of a monthly PR report from Lauren Field, Senior Digital PR Manager at Distinctly, offering the exec summary and next steps up front, followed by a deeper-dive into campaign activities, organic visibility, media coverage, and competitor analysis.
It’s clear from the content that the Distinctly team reports on results across multiple channels, and throughout the entire sales funnel. If you’re looking to report holistically on your PR performance, get inspiration from the full report here.
Key Takeaway
Page one of your PR report doesn’t just need to be reserved for performance overviews—include next steps right away for time-pressed stakeholders who need the most crucial info up front. This is a good tactic if you’re creating reports for multiple audiences.
The “campaign wrap up” PR report example from Kaizen
This PR report from Shakira Sacks, PR Lead at Kaizen, is a great example of a well-structured campaign wrap-up.
It follows a logical and easy-to-read flow, moving through Campaign Overview > Results > Wider Impact > Next Steps.
High-level performance summaries, paired with the right amount of context, make this report ideal for mid-level managers or clients.
For more inspiration, check out the report in full here.
Key Takeaway
Follow a clear structure that walks the recipient through the campaign’s narrative, and use tools like Canva to create visually pleasing reports that guide the eye.
The “live coverage” PR dashboard from Escherman
This live reporting dashboard, built by Andrew Bruce Smith, Founderof Escherman agency, integrates cross-channel PR metrics like coverage authority and social shares.
PR dashboards don’t tend to give the recipient a whole lot of context. As such, they tend to be better for internal teams, or clients who prefer regular updates and minimal hand holding.
Key Takeaway
Live dashboards give internal teams and engaged clients insights to tweak campaigns in real-time.
Now you’ve seen some examples of real PR reports, here’s how to create them.
Here’s the TL;DR:
- Keep your reporting simple by focusing on one clear goal.
- Tailor the content, metrics, format, and cadence to your audience
- Don’t overdo it—stick to key insights and recommendations to keep things clear and actionable.
A great PR report doesn’t overwhelm the reader with information. Instead, it focuses on the most important insights and clearly answers a key question. Think of it as a scientific study, with a central hypothesis that needs testing.
Examples:
- Did we successfully drive traffic back to our site?
- How much additional awareness did we create with influencers?
- Did we successfully turn awareness into product sales?
A single-minded objective will keep you on track.
Your audience is the most important thing to consider when you start building your report.
Ask yourself: Do they really need to know this? What do they actually care about? How do they prefer to consume information?
Doing this will help you create reports that keep your clients coming back.
Different audiences will be interested in different ways of measuring goals. For example, on-the-ground teams are more likely to care about granular KPIs like the number of dofollow links.
C-suite or Directors, on the other hand, will want to see the top-level impact of your strategy.
They’ll prefer overarching PR KPIs like share of voice uplift across a number of campaign-relevant terms.
Or even site-level share of voice uplift vs. competitors.
The best reports don’t rely solely on numbers—they use charts, graphs, and visuals to tell a story.
If you’re planning to handle your PR reports yourself, Google Sheets or Docs are solid choices, but they can be a bit limiting in terms of design and flexibility.
That’s why a lot of PR pros go for more visual tools like Looker Studio or Canva.
If your audience is a senior exec, they’ll typically want a well-designed report featuring top-level summaries, carefully curated stats, and performance headlines.
Clients usually expect a white-labeled report with a healthy amount of context on deliverables and results, given they’re not involved in the day-to-day of it all.
And on the ground PRs or internal teams (like you) need live, granular reports, to iteratively review and develop strategy. In-platform data, spreadsheets, and Looker dashboards are format favorites for these bread-and-butter PRs.
Ahrefs’ new PR reporting dashboard is a great example. It gives you a live overview of link and search performance based on your Content Portfolio (ie. your own specified list of URLs).
Here’s what it looks like:
Tip
If you’re unsure how to report for your client, ask them. They might want to see top-level summaries in one section, and performance deep-dives in another.
While a custom PR template will take you a bit longer to configure, the extra effort is worthwhile if it keeps your client happy and keeps your agency on retainer. Plus, no time is really wasted if you repurpose those templates for other clients, and build out your own PR report library.
Your campaign goals and your audience are the two main things that should determine your reporting cadence.
For instance, if you’re reporting to the rest of your team, do so on a live and ongoing basis.
But if you’re presenting results to senior execs, you’ll be analyzing that data on a monthly, quarterly, yearly—or even sales-cycle dependent basis, if that’s how long it takes for you to see results.
There’s a tendency in PR to over-report. Carving out a clear narrative arc will keep you on track.
The best PR reports I’ve seen stick to this loose formula to deliver healthy insight:value.
- Exec summary (goal and campaign overview)
- Top wins
- Expectation vs reality (carefully curated charts that guide the story)
- Recommendations and next steps
Bank these templates to speed up your PR reporting—feel free to delete any components that aren’t relevant to your goal or audience.
PR campaign report template
Ready to create your own PR report? Here’s a simplified template you can customize for your campaigns…
Ongoing media coverage template
This next PR report template comes from Digital PR Lead, Alice Walker-Gibbons, from Embryo Digital.
If you’re analyzing the impact of your ongoing media coverage, this Google Sheets example will give you some key metrics to consider in your PR reporting.
Quarterly PR report template
Alex Jones, Head of Digital at Cartwright Communications, has developed a follow-along template that reflects his team’s approach to PR reporting.
Here’s what he has to say:
For digital PR reporting, we often split our monthly and quarterly reports into the following Primary Owned Goals:
- Volume of links
- Quality of links
- Relevance of links
- Domain Rating
- Trust Flow
We also add in the share of voice and sentiment analysis if these contribute to the client’s goals. We then split our reports into Secondary Shared Goals (SSGs):
- Keywords/rankings
- Traffic/sessions
- Conversions
- Revenue growth
Essentially, we want to analyze ranking and keyword changes in line with links acquired and then the impact on traffic and sessions. This can also tie back goal completions and any revenue driven as a result.
Wrapping up
When it comes to PR reporting, less is often more. Keep it clear, focused, and tailored to your audience’s needs.
If you’re wise about it, your PR reporting will not only prove the impact of your hard work, it will bring you repeat business, bigger budgets, and more creative control.
So, go ahead and bookmark these examples for inspiration.
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