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 2024

Bid 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:

1. New campaign.
2. Choose your objective: Awareness and consideration.
3. Select a campaign type: Video > Select a campaign subtype: Video reach > Select campaign subtype: Non-skippable reach or efficient reach.
4. Ad formats: Select from multi-ad formats.
5. Bid strategy: Pre-selected depending on the campaign subtype.
6. Enter budgets and dates.
7. Select networks > Select locations > Select languages.
8. Select any related videos with YouTube URL.
9. Additional settings: Devices, operating systems, advanced targeting for mobile phones and tablets.
10. Select frequency capping > Select ad schedule > Select audiences.
11. Create video ads: Provide the URL of the YouTube-hosted video to use as the ad.
12. Bid is pre-set at CPM.
13. 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 2024

Audience

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 2024

Ad 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:

1. A destination URL.
2. 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 2024

Bid 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 2024

Microsoft 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:

1. New campaign.
2. Choose your goal: Brand awareness > Select a campaign type: Connected TV (CTV).
3. Enter budget.
4. Bid strategy: Cost per completed view (CPCV).
5. Enter bid and frequency capping > Enter locations.
6. Netflix terms and conditions: Includes video quality and other restrictions.
7. Enter age, if applicable > Enter gender, if applicable.
8. Select audiences.
9. Genre, if applicable.
10. Enter ad schedule.
11. Ad: Add videos and the Final URL
12. 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

PR campaign report template

Ready to create your own PR report? Here’s a simplified template you can customize for your campaigns…

Grab the template here

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.

Grab the template here.

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

This week’s Ask an SEO column comes from an anonymous asker:

“What should a backlink profile look like, and how do you build good backlinks?”

Great question!

Backlinks are a part of SEO as a way to build trust and authority for your domain, but they’re not as important as link builders claim.

You can rank a website without backlinks. The trick is focusing on your audience and having them create brand demand. This can be equal in weight to backlinks but drives more customers.

Once you are driving demand and have created solid resources, backlinks start occurring naturally. And when you have an active audience built from other channels, you can survey them to create “link worthy” pages that can result in journalists reaching out.

With that said, and when all else is equal, having the trust and authority from a healthy and natural backlink profile can be the deciding factor on who gets into the top positions and who gets no traffic.

A healthy backlink profile is one that appears to be natural.

Search engines, including Google, expect a certain amount of spammy links from directories, website monitoring tools, and even competitors that spam or try to do a negative SEO attack. These are part of a healthy backlink profile.

What is unnatural is when your website or company has done nothing to earn an actual link.

When there is nothing noteworthy, no original thought leadership or studies, or something that goes viral and the media covers, there’s no reason someone would ever have linked to you.

Having backlinks for no reason would likely be considered an unhealthy link profile, especially if they’re mostly dofollow.

Healthy link profiles contain a mix of dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, and mentions from actual users in forums, communities, and social media shares.

Unhealthy backlink profiles are where a website has links from topically irrelevant websites, when the articles have mentions of big brands and “trustworthy” or “high authority” sites, and then randomly feature a smaller company or service provider with them.

It’s an old trick that does not work anymore. Unhealthy link profiles also include private blogger networks (PBNs), link farms, link wheels, link networks, and where the sites have a high domain authority (DA), Authority Score (AS), etc.

Bonus tip: DA, AS, and other metrics are not used by search engines. They are scores that third-party SEO tools created and have absolutely no say when it comes to the quality of a website or backlink.

If someone is telling you high DA is good and Google trusts these sites, they’re selling you snake oil.

Although backlinks are not as important as they used to be, backlinks still matter. So, if you’re looking to build some, here are a few strategies to try, avoid, and tread lightly with.

Scholarship, Grants, And Sponsorships

These don’t work. Google knows you’re offering them to get .edu links, and in rare cases .gov links. And definitely from charities and events.

It’s easy to map back to who paid or bought them, and these likely won’t count for you SEO-wise.

If they make up the majority of your links, you should expect them to be neutralized by the search engines or to get a manual action against your site for unnatural link building in Search Console from Google.

If you’re doing a sponsorship, ask for the website being sponsored to place “sponsored” instead of “nofollow.”

And if you’re doing a scholarship or grant, feature the winner on your site, provide a full education and follow up about them, and have them share their story for the next few years in a monthly or quarterly column on your blog.

If you genuinely want to do good, share their story and progress. Otherwise, it was just for getting backlinks, and that works against you.

Citations And Broken Links

When you get mentions in the media, or a competitor has a naturally occurring link to a study, but it goes to a broken page, this is a good way to build a natural link. Reach out to these sites and ask them to link to your study instead.

You can mention their visitors are currently hitting a dead page if it’s a broken link, and present your study or resource, which is of equal or better value. Or share that yours has been updated where the current source is outdated and no longer applies.

For citations where nobody has a link, try letting the website owner know it saves the user a trip to a search engine to find another answer. And when they have a good experience on the website, they’re likely to come back for more information.

Topically Relevant PR

I’m a big believer in PR to acquire backlinks naturally. But you have to do things that make sense for your business.

• Local stores and service providers should get links from local news stations, local bloggers, and niche websites in their industry.
• Service providers need to focus on trade publications, industry-relevant blogs and publications, events, and social networks.
• Stores will do well with niche and audience-relevant bloggers, communities, publications or media websites, and mass media coverage that is not affiliate links or in an affiliate folder.

Think about what is newsworthy that you can do or provide that these groups would want to cover.

PR and SEO agencies that work with content will be able to provide ideas, then you can choose which ones you like and run with them. Not every campaign will work, but hang in there – the right one will happen.

You can also try surveying your audience for original data points and studies, and then publish them. And that goes to the next tip.

The publications must be topically relevant to you in order to help with SEO and avoid penalties.

If your customers and users are not the reader base of the website or publication, the link and coverage will appear unnatural and you’ll eventually get penalized or a devaluation.

Press Releases

Press release backlinks and syndication backlinks work against you, not for you. But that doesn’t mean they cannot help with link acquisition. For this strategy to work, provide enough data to gauge interest.

Share some of the data points from the study as a teaser and give a way for editors, journalists, and industry professionals to reach out to you.

Don’t charge for the study. But ask them to source and cite the data on your website, or reference your company as the source of the information.

But keep in mind that if your talking points are the same as your competitors, and you have the same type of data, there’s no reason to add another citation or to cover you.

What can you discover and share that hasn’t been covered and will enhance the publication’s articles in a new way? Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and think about what is missing or what questions were not answered.

If comments are enabled on the publications, look for questions and build a resource backed by data that answers them.

You can then reach out to the editors and make a strong case to either add you or create a new post about the new topic since the previous one did well.

Bonus tip: Even if you don’t get a backlink, being cited can go a long way, as you may be able to use the company’s logo in your PR bar as a trust builder. You can also reach out to the PR or brand team and ask for the link using the citation strategy mentioned above.

Blog And Forum Commenting

This does not work. Search engines know that anyone can go and spam these, use a bot, or pay someone to do this.

They will work against you, not for you. Just don’t. Let the communities and site owners link to you naturally.

If your customers are on the blog or in the community, join the community and participate. Use it to acquire an audience and build trust for your brand.

Not for backlinks. The backlinks and community mentions will eventually happen. And this is how they can become natural.

Social Media Profile Links

This does not work because anyone can create an account and get the link.

Links for SEO must be earned. Social media is about building an audience and bringing them to your website.

The backlinks are useless for SEO, with one exception. Some search engines crawl and index accounts.

If you struggle to get crawled, an active social media account that gets crawled and indexed fast may be able to encourage spiders to find your website and pages more easily.

Focus On Being Worth Linking To

There’s no shortage of ways to get backlinks, but not all links are good. If the link can be purchased or acquired by anyone, like a directory, it won’t help you with SEO.

If your customers are not on that website, and the majority of the website isn’t topically relevant to you, chances are the backlink will work against you.

Healthy link profiles have a mix of good and bad, natural and unnatural. If your company hasn’t done or shared anything link-worthy, there are no backlinks that can bring you long-term success.

Focus on being worth linking to, and the backlinks will come naturally.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal