Creating a discovery

A discovery is your starting point for outreach. The 6-step wizard guides you through configuring your search, and then ConvertMate finds relevant articles and pages where your brand could be mentioned.

Starting a new discovery

Go to Outreach → New discovery to begin.

Start a new discovery

Step 1: Choose your objective

Select what type of link building you want to do:

Brand mentions

Choose this if you want to be included in:

• "Best tools" or "Top X" listicles
• Comparison articles
• Industry roundups
• Resource pages

Specific page backlinks

Choose this if you have a specific page you want links to:

• A comprehensive guide
• A research report or study
• A tool or calculator page
• Educational content

Step 2: Enter your target

Based on your objective:

For brand mentions:

Enter your domain (e.g., yourbrand.com). ConvertMate extracts your brand name and analyzes your website to understand what you offer.

For specific page backlinks:

Enter the full URL of the page you want to promote (e.g., https://yourbrand.com/ultimate-guide). The page content is analyzed to understand what value it provides.

You can also configure:

• Target country - Focus search results on a specific country
• Target language - Generate emails in your preferred language

Step 3: Configure your messaging

This step defines how you'll approach contacts:

Value proposition (required)

Explain why someone should mention your brand or link to your page. Focus on the value for their readers, not just your features.

Good example: "We help e-commerce stores increase organic traffic through AI-powered SEO. Our free tier includes tools that would complement your article's recommendations for small business owners." Less effective: "We are a SaaS company with many features. Please link to us."

Minimum 50 characters required.

Incentive type (required)

Select what you're offering in exchange:

• Organic mention - No explicit incentive, just the value of being included
• Free trial or access - Extended trial, premium features, or account credits
• Affiliate commission - Revenue share for referrals
• Newsletter feature - Promotion to your audience
• Expert quotes - Provide expert commentary for their content
• Product samples - Physical products for review
• Link exchange - Mutual linking arrangement
• Custom - Define your own incentive

Incentive details (required unless organic mention)

Describe the specific incentive you're offering. Be concrete.

Good example: "3 months free access to our Business plan (normally $149/month) to try with your team before writing about us."

Minimum 30 characters required for non-organic incentives.

Step 4: Select topics

ConvertMate generates 8-10 relevant topics based on your target. These topics guide the search for relevant articles.

Select at least 3 topics that best represent the type of content where you want to appear.

Topics cost 5 credits to generate (one-time charge per discovery).

Examples of generated topics:

• "SEO tools for e-commerce"
• "AI marketing automation platforms"
• "Best Shopify apps for SEO"

If you're resuming a previous discovery, your topics are preserved and you won't be charged again.

Step 5: Set your budget

Choose how many sources you want to discover:

• 10 sources - approximately 50 credits
• 20 sources - approximately 100 credits
• 50 sources - approximately 250 credits
• 100 sources - approximately 500 credits

Each source costs 5 credits to discover. If fewer sources are found than your maximum, unused credits are refunded.

Consider starting with 10-20 sources to test your topic selection, then run additional discoveries if needed.

Step 6: Review and launch

Review your configuration:

• Objective and target
• Value proposition and incentive
• Selected topics
• Budget and estimated credits

Click Launch discovery to start. The process typically takes 2-5 minutes depending on the number of sources requested.

During discovery

While the discovery runs, you'll see:

• Progress percentage
• Current step (generating queries, searching sources, etc.)
• Number of sources found so far

You can leave the page and return later. The discovery continues in the background.

After discovery completes

Once finished, you'll see your discovered sources organized by domain. Each source includes:

• Page title and URL
• Brief description
• Which topic matched this source

From here, you can:

• Find contacts for individual sources or in batches
• Archive sources that don't fit your criteria
• Generate emails once contacts are found

Resuming a discovery

If you started a discovery but didn't finish, you can resume from where you left off. Your topics and configuration are preserved.

Go to Outreach → Sources and look for discoveries in "Draft" or "Topics ready" status.

What's next

After your discovery completes, proceed to find contacts for your most promising sources.

• Managing outreach sources
• Finding contacts
• Generating outreach emails

Need help refining your search? Use the chat widget in the bottom-right corner, or email support@convertmate.io.