Prospects and lead data
Build an intent audience: filters, the intent window, the 50,000 cap and saving to a list
How to build an intent audience in Prospects: describe or filter who you want, set the intent window, preview the size, stay under 50,000 people per audience, then save the audience to a list, export it and add it to a campaign.
Before you start
Intent audiences are in Prospects, at /prospects, on every paid plan. An audience is a set of people in the United States who researched a topic you chose in the last 1 to 10 days and who match your filters. Building one is free: there are no credits and no per-lead charge. Unlimited intent leads: what is included
1. Describe or filter who you want
There are two ways to start, and you can mix them:
- Describe your audience. Type it the way you would say it, for example "Marketing directors at SaaS companies in Texas researching CRM software". EmailPal turns the sentence into filters and interests, which you can then adjust.
- Pick filters in the panel.
The filters:
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Interests | Topics people are researching. Search the list of topics, for example "solar panels", and add one or more. |
| Job titles | Titles to match, for example "CEO" or "Head of Marketing". |
| Seniority | Folded into the job titles, so it narrows by title. |
| Department | The team the person works in. |
| Company size | Employee-count bands. |
| Company revenue | Revenue bands. |
| Industries | For example "Software" or "Construction". |
| Company domains | Only people at these companies, for example acme.com. |
| State | US states. |
| Cities | Needs a state. A city on its own does not reliably narrow the location, so it is refused. |
| ZIP codes | US ZIP codes. |
| Gender | Where the data has it. |
2. Set the intent window
The intent window is how recent the research has to be: from 1 to 10 days, 7 by default. Interest signals go stale fast, so a shorter window means fewer, fresher people.
3. Preview the size
Press Preview. You see how many people match and a few sample rows. Previews cost nothing, so adjust and preview as often as you like.
The 50,000 cap and how to narrow
One audience holds at most 50,000 people. If more match, the preview says so ("This audience matches N people - the maximum is 50,000") and Generate stays disabled. The server checks the count itself, so the limit cannot be skipped.
To get under it:
- Shorten the intent window, for example from 7 days to 3.
- Add a seniority, department, company size or revenue band.
- Add a state, or a city with its state, or ZIP codes.
- Choose more specific interests, or fewer of them.
- Split one big audience into several smaller ones, for example one per state.
If nobody matches, widen the filters or the intent window instead.
4. Generate the audience
Name the audience and press Generate. Building takes a few minutes; the audience shows its progress and appears in Your audiences when it is ready. If a build fails, nothing is charged: change the filters and generate again.
From the audience you can page through its rows, open a row to see every field, choose columns, and delete the audience. Deleting an audience does not remove people from lists you already saved.
5. Save it to a list
Choose Save to a list, then a new list (give it a name) or an existing list. Everyone with a usable email is added to the list and saved as a contact in the CRM. People who are suppressed or were removed from the data are skipped, and contacts already in your CRM are never overwritten.
Large audiences import in the background. The dialog shows the progress, you can close it and the import keeps running, and the list shows Importing until it finishes. If an import stops, the list shows the error and you can retry from it.
Saved contacts start unverified. Run the list through list verification before the first send.
6. Export or send
- Export: open the list in Prospects, Lists and download it as a CSV. Lists of up to 50,000 people export in one file.
- Send: choose Add to campaign from the list. Anyone unsubscribed, blocklisted, bounced or already in a campaign is skipped. Add prospects to lists and campaigns
FAQs
Why did Generate say my audience is too big?
It matched more than 50,000 people. Narrow the filters or shorten the intent window, preview again, then generate.
Why was my city filter refused?
A city needs its state. Add the state and preview again.
Does previewing cost anything?
No. Previews and audiences are included in every paid plan.
Can I build audiences from the API?
On the Scale plan. The Prospects and intent leads API
Need More Help?
Unlimited intent leads: what is included, Lead data accuracy and verifying before you send, or open a ticket.