How to find online businesses

Find agencies, online bookkeepers and software companies that have no map listing. Otto searches the web, checks each site is that kind of business and is in the US, and finds the person who runs it.

Updated 2026-10-31

Some businesses you want to reach are not on a map: AI automation agencies, agencies that build online stores and websites, online bookkeepers, software companies. Online businesses (web search) finds them for your cold campaigns.

Before you start

It needs web search switched on for your Otto server. Until it is, the choice is greyed out on the finder with the reason beside it, and nothing is searched. Ask Otto's team to switch it on.

Find them

1. Open a draft campaign under Growth → Outreach → Cold campaigns and go to Find businesses.
2. Under Where to look, choose Online businesses (web search).
3. Describe the businesses in a few words, such as "AI automation agencies" or "agencies that build online stores for fashion brands".
4. If you like, add a US state or a city with its state. Leave it empty to search the whole US.
5. Pick who to write to and how many, then press Find businesses. It takes several minutes.

What Otto checks

• It searches the web a few times for what you described, adding words such as "agency", "company" and "services" and your place.
• It passes over sites that are not a business's own: directories and listings, job boards, social networks, news and blog articles, "best of" lists, review sites, freelancer platforms, app stores and big platforms. LinkedIn and Yelp are never opened. Businesses you already have, or passed on before, are skipped.
• It reads each business's own site to check it is that kind of business. Usually the words you typed are in its title or headings. When that is not clear, a small AI check reads the site and answers yes or no; a site it cannot decide on is left out.
• It keeps only US businesses whose own site shows they are in the US: a US street address, a US state in the site's details, a phone number with a US area code, or "based in" a US city or state. A site that shows none of these is left out, even if it looks American. Cold campaigns write only to US businesses.

Then it finds the person who runs it and their address, exactly as for local businesses.

What it costs

The same as local businesses: finding and keeping are free, and each email delivered costs one credit. See how credits work.

The hit rate

Beside each search, Otto says how many sites it read, how many named a person and had a confirmed mailbox, and how many it dropped and why: not a business's own site, not that kind of business, not shown to be in the US, or a site that could not be read. A search that failed says it failed, never "0 found".

Have a list already?

Under Leads and credits, Look up a list of websites takes up to 100 websites (paste them, or upload a CSV with a website column). Then Add the confirmed ones to a campaign.

Keep it full

The lead agent (Keep this campaign full) searches online businesses too when the campaign's last search did. Its approval in Reviews says so.