In the Pit with Cody Schneider | Marketing | Growth | Startups
Cody Schneider
Recent Episodes
Your brand doesn’t exist until it ranks on page one—and most founders have no idea how to make that happen.
In this episode, we break down the exact playbook for getting a brand-new domain to show up in Google for your company name. After going through this process firsthand with Graphed.com, you’ll learn how to choose a rankable name, build the right backlinks, trigger branded search behavior, and use Google Ads to accelerate the whole process.
If you're launching anything new, this is the tactical blueprint you wish you had earlier.
What You’ll Learn
- Why ranking for your brand name is the first real trust signal for any startup
- How to pick a name and domain you can actually rank for
- The “first 100 links” strategy that trains Google to recognize your brand
- Simple ways to generate branded search behavior across social and content
- How Google quietly tests your domain—and how to know when it’s happening
- How to use Google Search Ads to accelerate ranking and protect your brand
- Why .com still matters more than any other TLD
Timestamps
- 00:00 — Why your new domain must rank for your own brand name
- 00:31 — Why ranking for your brand name is a critical early trust signal
- 01:03 — The rookie mistake founders make when picking a brand name
- 01:13 — What ideal, non-competitive SERPs should look like
- 01:35 — Graphed.com’s journey to finally ranking in position one
- 01:45 — Overview of the process to teach Google your brand
- 01:55 — Step 1: Build backlinks to your homepage
- 03:29 — Step 2: Drive branded search with social posts & content
- 04:21 — Step 3: Run Google Search Ads on your exact brand name
- 05:45 — Why you should always buy the .com for your brand
- 06:16 — Final thoughts + Graphed free trial
Key Topics & Insights
1. Ranking for Your Brand Name = Early-Stage Trust
If someone Googles your company and doesn’t find you, credibility collapses. Ranking for your brand name is one of the first—and easiest—trust signals to secure. Graphed.com took ~2 months to rank, but with this framework, it can happen in as little as 24–48 hours.
2. How to Choose a Rankable Name
- Avoid names already used by active companies
- Look for search results filled with noise, not competitors
- Ideal: two words, few syllables, easy to spell
- And always, always buy the .com
3. Build the First 100 Backlinks (Brand-Name Anchors Only)
Your #1 job early is to teach Google what your company is.
Do this by:
- Building backlinks to your homepage
- Using your brand name as the anchor text (not keywords)
These are foundational “identity” links that help Google map brand → domain.
How to build them:
- Submit to software directories
- Use link submission services
- Cold email companies for guest post swaps
- Layer PR on top later
4. Trigger Branded Search Behavior
Once Google sees your backlinks, you need humans to reinforce the signal:
- Search your brand name
- Click your domain
- Spend time on the page
Google then learns:
“When people search this name, this is the site they want.”You create this behavior through:
- Social posts
- Newsletters
- Podcast mentions
- Repeated use of the brand everywhere
5. How Google Tests Your Domain
Google will quietly experiment by showing your domain for branded queries.
You’ll see this in Search Console via:
- Rising impressions
- Increasing CTR
- Sudden jumps in average position
This is the moment Google “decides” you belong on page one.
6. Accelerate Everything With Google Search Ads
Run a brand campaign:
- Exact-match brand keyword
- Minimum bid: around $5
- Send traffic to homepage
This forces the association between brand name → your site, and accelerates your rise in organic search.
Brand protection tips:
- Raise bids to block competitors
- Add sitelinks to take more SERP real estate
- Optional: multiple ad accounts (with caution)
7. Why .com Still Beats Every Other Domain
Consumers inherently trust .com more than .io, .co, .xyz, etc.
It drives higher CTR and reduces friction in word-of-mouth.
If the .com isn’t available, pick a new name—don’t settle.
Sponsor
Today’s episode is brought to you by Graphed – an AI data analyst & BI platform.
With Graphed you can:
Connect data like GA4, Facebook Ads, HubSpot, Google Ads, Search Console, Amplitude
Build interactive dashboards just by chatting (no Looker Studio/Tableau learning curve)
Use it as your ETL + data warehouse + BI layer in one place
Ask:
“Build me a stacked bar chart of new users vs. all users over time from GA4”
…and Graphed just builds it for you.
👉 Get a 14-day free trial with 10 seats for your team: https://graphed.com/
There’s a whole narrative right now that “vibe coding is a bubble” and all the MRR from AI-built apps isn’t real.
In this episode, we chat with Jacob Klug, founder of the agency Creme, which specializes in building lovable MVPs on top of tools like Lovable and AI coding assistants. Jacob makes the case that most of the “AI apps are trash” discourse is really a skill issue, not a tool issue—and he breaks down the exact process his team uses to ship full platform-level apps in two-week sprints.
We dig into how to scope and design software that doesn’t look AI-generated, how to think about personal operating systems vs. SaaS, why ideas are getting worse even as tools get better, and how creators and agencies can turn niche domain expertise into real products.
If you’re an operator, marketer, or founder trying to figure out how to actually use AI coding tools (instead of just tweeting about them), this one’s for you.
Guest
Jacob Klug — founder of Creme, an agency building “lovable MVPs” and full-stack products with Lovable + AI tools; helps founders, startups & enterprises ship production apps in weeks without sacrificing UX.
Guest Links
Website: https://www.creme.digital/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-klug-37b254156/
X (Twitter): https://x.com/Jacobsklug
What You’ll Learn
- Why the “vibe coding is a bubble” take is mostly a skill and discipline problem
- How Jacob’s agency ships full startup-grade products using Lovable and AI
- The PRD-first formula they use before ever opening a builder
- How to decide when to build vs. when to buy software in 2025
- Why we’re entering a wave of personal OSes and custom internal tools
- How to avoid shipping janky AI UI and make your app look intentionally designed
- The mindset shift from “I could build anything” → “I will build this one specific thing”
- Why specializing in one AI tool (Lovable, Cursor, n8n, etc.) beats being “the AI guy”
- Tactical content and lead-gen plays for agencies on LinkedIn and YouTube
- How to learn AI tooling without getting paralyzed by the infinite possibilities
Timestamps
- 00:00 — Vibe coding: bubble or breakthrough?
- 02:23 — Effective use of no-code tools
- 05:23 — Stack and scoping for MVP development
- 07:08 — Trends in personal software development
- 10:33 — Personal projects: blood work analysis tool
- 13:00 — Steps to start building custom software
- 17:49 — Successful and unsuccessful product categories
- 21:01 — Learning and adopting AI tools
- 27:45 — Creator collaboration in software development
- 32:14 — Lead generation strategies for AI-powered agencies
Key Topics & Ideas
1. Bubble or Skill Issue?
- Why early no-code/AI apps looked janky
- How tools like Lovable increased automation from ~50% → ~85%
- The remaining 10–15% where real engineering still matters
- Many failures come from non-devs skipping fundamentals
2. How Creme Builds Lovable MVPs
- Every project starts with a clear PRD (often drafted with ChatGPT)
- AI is used to tighten scope before building
- When Creme stays fully in Lovable vs. moving code to Cursor
- Using Lovable Cloud for hosting, database, and analytics
3. Personal Operating Systems & Internal Tools
- People replacing SaaS subscriptions with their own custom tools
- In a 20-person cohort, nearly everyone built workflow apps
- Rise of the Personal OS: one system for life + work
- Example builds:
- Bloodwork tracker from PDF uploads
- Unified messaging CRM (WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, email)
- Automated 30-second sales briefings
4. How to Learn AI Coding Tools
- Half the cohort hadn’t built anything before starting
- Main blocker: overwhelm, not skill
- Learn core concepts: frontend vs. backend, auth, roles, security
- Build daily reps, focus on the next thing you need—not “all of AI”
5. Designing Apps That Don’t Look AI-Generated
- Good design is still the hardest and biggest edge
- Creme process: build a /components library, define buttons/cards/inputs, assign stable IDs
- Tools: Mobbin, Figma Community kits, 21st.dev
- Best prompt: “Here’s a screenshot → copy this.”
6. What Works in Product Ideas
- Most of Creme’s builds are full startup platforms, not micro-tools
- AI makes shipping easier, but ideas are getting worse without depth
- Real advantage = domain expertise + niche problem + AI speed
7. Creators x Software
- Creators can now ship products without capital
- Jacob prefers retainers over equity
- Analogy: Like creator brands—most fail, a few go huge
8. Career Strategy: Specialize
- Future = verticalized expertise, not “AI generalists”
- Specialist lanes: Lovable, Cursor, n8n, automation
- Be the person for one tool + one market
9. Content & Lead Gen
- Jacob's two rules for content: people are selfish and people are bored
- Build content that teaches, sparks emotion, and creates curiosity
- Post ~5x/week, prioritize visual posts
- Long-term: YouTube deep dives for high-intent inbound
Sponsor
Today’s episode is brought to you by Graphed – an AI data analyst & BI platform.
With Graphed you can:
Connect data like GA4, Facebook Ads, HubSpot, Google Ads, Search Console, Amplitude
Build interactive dashboards just by chatting (no Looker Studio/Tableau learning curve)
Use it as your ETL + data warehouse + BI layer in one place
Ask:
“Build me a stacked bar chart of new users vs. all users over time from GA4”
…and Graphed just builds it for you.
👉 Get a 14-day free trial with 10 seats for your team: https://graphed.com/
Think of page one as real estate—and claim as much of it as possible. Jesper Nissen breaks down modern parasite SEO: leveraging high-authority platforms (YouTube, Instagram, X/Twitter Articles, Perplexity/Qwen pages, etc.) to rank quickly for branded, local, and long-tail keywords. We cover indexing workflows, daisy-chain linking, exact-match domain plays, and the content + link velocity patterns that are working now.
Guest
Jesper Nissen — SEO educator, link-building practitioner, founder of SchemaWriter.ai and the cloud-stacking platform YACSS; speaker at POFU Live / SEO Rockstars; MSc in Physics (U. of Copenhagen).
Guest Links
Website: https://jespernissen.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JesperNissenSEO
X (Twitter): https://x.com/jespernissenseo?lang=en
What You’ll Learn
- Parasite SEO, 2025 edition: Why page-one results increasingly favor social UGC, news, and authority domains—and how to ride that DA for fast wins.
- Platforms that still rank: Jesper’s current leaderboard (e.g., Qwen, Perplexity) and what changed for Claude Artifacts.
- Local + long-tail focus: How to use Facebook/Instagram posts, YouTube videos & community posts, and X Articles to own branded and geo-keywords.
- Indexing workflow: Indexing services + social “daisy-chain” links to accelerate discovery.
- EMD plays: Exact-match domains (service+city and SaaS feature terms) and smart, steady link velocity patterns.
- Social → Search shift: Why Instagram and Facebook posts have started surfacing in Google (July 2025 change) and how to write posts to rank.
Timestamps
- 00:00 — Owning page one like “real estate”
- 02:16 — Parasite SEO vs. traditional guest posts
- 08:45 — Reddit’s link-out limits & why Jesper moved on
- 14:58 — Claude Artifacts surge (and why it cooled)
- 18:02 — What’s working now: Quen & Perplexity pages
- 21:35 — Indexing flow: drip pings + social link bursts
- 26:40 — Meta shift: FB/IG posts in Google (local SEO gold)
- 31:55 — Exact-match domains + link velocity math
- 46:55 — Shorts as TOF magnets; long-form as sales letter
- 51:40 — Priming YouTube with low-CPC X ads (global)
Jesper’s Parasite SEO Playbook (Step-by-Step)
- Pick a target query (branded, local, or long-tail).
- Publish across high-DA surfaces:
- YouTube (video + Community post), X/Twitter (Articles), Instagram, Facebook Page, plus AI page builders (e.g., Quen, Perplexity).
- Front-load keywords in social posts (especially the first words of FB/IG captions for cleaner URLs/titles).
- Daisy-chain internal links: point your X Article to the IG/FB/YouTube/AI pages to aid indexing.
- Kick indexing via reputable ping/index services, then add lightweight social links to nudge crawl.
- Measure and iterate: keep winners, replace laggards, expand with adjacent long tails.
Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Mini-Framework
- When to use: service+city rank-and-rent, or narrowly defined SaaS use-cases.
- Build: one-page lander, fast crawl path, 5–10 quality links/month early, layer socials & citations; avoid unnatural velocity spikes.
- Why it works: high topical alignment + clean intent matching.
(Jesper’s background in cloud stacking/YACSS and SchemaWriter.ai complements this with structured data & internal “powerstack” patterns.)
Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Graphed — the AI-native analytics platform that builds dashboards from plain English. Connect GA4, ads, CRM, GSC, and Sheets to get KPI boards in minutes. Learn more: https://graphed.com/
Billboards at $0.75 CPM. Streaming TV you can actually measure. Tim Rowe breaks down how to blend OOH + CTV to drop blended CAC, spark geo-lift, and build “living-room” brand equity—without massive budgets.
Streaming has turned TV into a performance channel you can buy, cap, and measure like digital—often at CPMs rivaling or beating social. Tim explains how their ad server + pixel connect living-room exposure to down-funnel actions, with many brands seeing $3–$4 cost per visit and 3–4× higher conversion vs other traffic sources. On OOH, the overlooked arbitrage is static or digital boards priced like real estate: win by buying the biggest formats in the largest markets at the lowest biddable entry price, then engineer earned media (social virality) and geo-lift. Start with ~$5k for a real CTV test (smaller tests can still work as an add-on), measure blended CAC, branded search, and market-level lift, and let creative—not hyper-granular targeting—do the heavy lifting.
Guest
- Website: https://cognitionads.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troweactual
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/oohinsider
- Tim’s newsletter/resource hub: https://stateofstreaming.com/
What You’ll Learn
- Why streaming made TV relevant again—and cheap ($1–$2 CPMs in some geos).
- How to attribute TV exposure → search → site visit → purchase within a 48-hour view-through window.
- The out-of-home (OOH) arbitrage: buying big signs in big markets for sub-$1 CPMs.
- How OOH + CTV lower blended CAC and lift branded search in target geographies.
- Practical first tests: budgets, pixels, frequency caps, creative, and geo measurement.
- Event playbooks: digital billboard trucks, rideshare screens, street teams, and QR flows.
- Targeting reality: on CTV, less targeting often wins—use creative as the filter.
- Retargeting on TV (yes): pixel site traffic and follow with CTV/audio/display.
Timestamps & Chapters
- 00:00 — Why TV is “back”: streaming CPMs and geo-targeted buys
- 01:30 — Direct attribution: 48-hour view-through from TV → search → site → purchase
- 03:45 — OOH primer: static vs digital, programmatic buys, and PMP tips
- 06:05 — The arbitrage: big boards, big markets, tiny CPMs (often <$1)
- 09:15 — Measuring lift: branded search, Search Console, geo-heatmaps, blended CAC
- 12:10 — Earned media by design: turning boards into social fuel
- 15:20 — Event playbook: mobile LED trucks, rideshare TV, coffee-cart sponsorships
- 18:05 — CTV mechanics: ad server + pixel, frequency caps, “hands on keyboard” setup
- 21:10 — Budgeting your first test (~$5k) and what “good” looks like
- 23:00 — Targeting truth: broad wins; use creative, use your 1P data for segments/lookalikes
- 26:10 — Retargeting on TV and building a full streaming funnel
- 28:00 — Who this works best for (DTC, local services, ABM/SaaS, events)
- 30:00 — Getting started and where to reach Tim
Playbooks & How-Tos
1) Fast OOH Test (2–4 weeks)
- Pick 1–2 large markets your sales team targets.
- Buy largest formats you can afford (static or digital) at the lowest CPM; test via https://www.blipbillboards.com/
(entry-level) or via PMPs/direct with operators. - Creative: one bold claim + large logo + simple URL/QR. Design for 0–3 second read.
- Measure: branded search & direct/organic sessions from those geos; compare pre/post.
2) Streaming TV (CTV) Starter
- Pixel your site (for attribution + retargeting).
- Launch a broad geo campaign; cap frequency; rotate 1–2 :15–:30 creatives.
- Budget: aim for $5k to reach statistical signal; smaller ($1.5–$2k) still useful as a display-like add-on.
- KPI: cost per visit ($3–$4 is common in Tim’s data), conversion rate lift vs other traffic, branded search lift, blended CAC shift.
3) Event Swarm Tactics
- Digital billboard truck looping near venue entrances all day.
- Rideshare TV for the event radius; add a QR to capture emails or drive an offer.
- Street team + product samples or demo cards; sponsor a coffee cart beside the venue.
Key Takeaways (Skimmable)
- CPMs: OOH can hit ~$0.75; CTV often $1–$2 in the right geos.
- Attribution: Use a 48-hour view-through window from TV exposure to on-site actions.
- Blended CAC: Expect downstream CAC reductions across channels from brand lift.
- Targeting: On CTV, broader = cheaper CPMs and often better performance; let creative and 1P audiences do the work.
- Budget: $5k is a solid first test; smaller tests still demonstrate directionality.
- Creative: Be bold; engineer shareable moments to multiply paid with earned.
Links & Resources Mentioned
- Cognition Ads (Tim’s company): https://cognitionads.com/
- State of Streaming (news & insights): https://stateofstreaming.com/
- Blip (entry-level digital billboards): https://www.blipbillboards.com/
- The Trade Desk: https://www.thetradedesk.com/
- DV360: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/display-video-360/
- Google Search Console (measure geo-lift): https://search.google.com/search-console/about
Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Graphed — an AI-native analytics platform that builds dashboards from plain English. Connect GA4, ads, CRM and get KPI boards in minutes. Learn more: https://graphed.com/