Ni-catalyzed methanation has been discovered more than 100 years ago. Since then, many applications based on syngas - from coal or biomass - for the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) have been established. Nevertheless, methanation still bears great potential for optimization. Especially for decentralized, biomass-based applications, decreased methanation temperatures and pressures are expected to lower the costs of the overall process. Consequently, it is necessary to obtain a catalyst that is highly active under such reduced reaction conditions. This objective was successfully reached by a systematic variation of reduction temperature, pressure, and hydrogen concentration under the aspects of the design of experiment within the catalyst activation process.