How to Search Effectively

The most important lever for genuinely great leads is you — through the way you search and the feedback you give. Leadscraper isn't a database dump where you pull a ready-made list. It's a specialized lead researcher that, for every search, first builds a plan, then researches live on the web and in German industry directories, association and membership lists, and then checks every single result against your target audience.

That has one consequence that defines this article: how you phrase things and how you evaluate makes or breaks the quality. Once you understand that, you'll get leads that feel almost hand-picked within a few rounds.

The Core Principle: Start Broad, Train, Get More Specific

The best sequence is almost always the same:

1. Start broad. Phrase your search a little more openly at first, rather than narrowing it to the maximum right away.
2. Train. Reject non-matching leads with "Not a fit" and give a reason. Leads you move further through the pipeline are treated as fitting.
3. Get more specific. With every rating, Leadscraper learns your patterns. You can then sharpen your search deliberately.

The reason: a very narrow first search gives the system little room to show you a range of candidates — and therefore little material for you to show what you want. A slightly broader search plus a few rating rounds gets you to accurate results faster than trying to write the perfect query on the first attempt.

Target Audience and Search — Two Different Things

Leadscraper distinguishes two levels, and it's worth understanding the difference:

• The target audience is the learning container. Your ratings and the patterns recognized from them accumulate here across multiple similar searches. The target audience gets smarter over time.
• The search (query) is the concrete request across four fields. It determines which companies are considered in that particular run.

Create a separate target audience for each real customer segment — that way the learned information doesn't get mixed up. "Carpentry shops in Bavaria" and "SaaS startups nationwide" belong in separate target audiences, because your feedback signals would otherwise create contradictory patterns.

The Four Fields of a Search

A search consists of these fields. The more precisely you fill them in, the better the plan Leadscraper builds from them:

• Company type — the industry or type of company you're looking for. This is the most important field.
• Region / City — the geographic focus. Leadscraper specializes in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and knows the German federal states.
• Contact person / Role — the function you want to reach (e.g., purchasing, management, marketing).
• Company size — optional, if headcount is relevant to you.

Everyday Language Beats Jargon

Phrase the company type the way companies describe themselves on their own website — not in catalogue or industry-code language. "Carpentry shop" finds more real businesses than "furniture manufacture", "electrician" more than "electrotechnical trade". Leadscraper researches live on real company websites; everyday terms simply match there more frequently.

Set a Region Rather Than Leaving It Out

A location alone is not a company type. "Hamburg" on its own is not a valid search — the what is missing. Enter the location in the region/city field and the industry in the company type field.

What Happens in the Background When You Search

When you start a search, you can watch Leadscraper think in real time via the activity log. This isn't decorative — it's the real value add: you can trace why the search runs the way it does:

1. Load profile. Leadscraper pulls in your target audience and previous ratings.
2. Plan strategy. It sets a goal, chooses a strategy, and states the reasoning behind it.
3. Choose sources. You see which associations, registers, and industry directories are targeted — marked as "⭐ Curated Source" or "💡 Own Suggestion".
4. Research & evaluate. Candidates are found, their websites are read, and each is checked individually.

Each search delivers up to 10 leads — not 200 that you then have to sort through manually. That's intentional: quality over quantity. Every one of these leads has passed the individual check.

Giving Feedback — How Leadscraper Learns

This is the lever with the greatest impact. Every lead can be rated on the results screen:

• Accepting is implicit — moving a lead further through the pipeline (finding contacts, opening the acquisition plan) signals that it fits.
• "Not a fit" — with a structured reason. Choose a preset reason (e.g., wrong industry, wrong role, wrong region, wrong size, not an operating company, no buying signal, already known, poor data) or write a short comment. Ratings can be reset at any time.

The rejection reason is gold. A "Not a fit" without a reason only says that something was wrong. With a reason, Leadscraper knows what — and can course-correct in the next run. Rate honestly, including borderline cases: that's exactly where the system learns your grey zones.

How Accuracy Develops

Leadscraper learns in stages. You can see the current status on the Memory page:

The exact percentages depend on your industry and the quality of your ratings — but the direction is reliable: more (good) feedback = better leads.

What Leadscraper Does With Your Feedback

Roughly every 10th step (10, 20, 30…), the system evaluates your ratings and condenses them into patterns — around topics like industry, size, region, role, or business model. These patterns then automatically guide which companies it shows you and which it filters out before they even reach you. On the Memory page, you can see these recognized acceptance and rejection patterns listed.

Setting Up Your Company Profile

You can add your own company's website. Leadscraper reads it and understands what you offer and who it's for. This helps the system better assess whether a lead is a fit for you — and gives you a direct explanation of why a lead is relevant.

Let Successful Searches Run in the Background

If a search is working well, you don't have to start it manually every time. You can schedule it to run automatically at regular intervals and deliver fresh leads — ideal for an ongoing segment you're constantly working. Since Leadscraper remembers companies it's already delivered, you won't get duplicates from previous runs.

Give It a Few Rounds

The most common mistake: judging after a single run. At cold start, Leadscraper doesn't know your target audience yet — the first 10 leads are a starting point, not a final result.

Rate the first run completely, start the next one, rate again. Only evaluate quality after several runs plus ratings. Almost every target audience makes a noticeable jump between the first and the third run.

When You're Getting Few Results

If a search comes back thin, it's usually one of two things — and both are easy to fix:

• The search was too broad. "IT service providers Germany" as an industry+country combination is too wide. Before starting, Leadscraper checks your search and suggests concrete ways to sharpen it (e.g., adding a region or refining the industry). Accept the suggestions.
• The search was too narrow for a first run. Then take the opposite approach: start a bit broader, rate a few rounds, then narrow it down.

In both cases, the same mechanic applies: start broad → train → get more specific.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many leads do I get per search?
Up to 10 — checked, individually evaluated results rather than a long unfiltered list.

When will I notice that the training is working?
From around 10 ratings, your patterns actively flow into new searches. From ~20–25, the difference becomes clearly visible.

Do I have to rate every lead?
The more you rate, the faster the system learns. Especially valuable are "Not a fit" ratings with a reason — those sharpen accuracy the most.

Should I create a separate target audience for each segment?
Yes. Separate segments belong in separate target audiences so that what's been learned doesn't get mixed up.

Which countries does Leadscraper cover?
The DACH region: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Where can I see what Leadscraper has learned about my target audience?
On the Memory page. There you'll find the current learning stage, the number of your ratings, and the recognized acceptance and rejection patterns.

Related articles: "Describing Your Target Audience Correctly", "Giving Feedback and Training Leadscraper", "Letting Searches Run Automatically in the Background".

Updated on: 23/06/2026