What Lookalike Search is 💡
Lookalike Search helps you find new companies similar to your best customers by analyzing how they actually operate, not just basic filters like industry or size.
🚀 How It Works
Lookalike Search analyzes company websites and profiles to identify shared patterns and surface similar businesses.
You can start with a person or a company as your “lookalike.”
1️⃣ People Lookalikes
Find professionals who closely resemble your ideal contact.
Just paste a LinkedIn profile URL, and Lookalike Search will identify similar people based on role, company type, and professional context.
How to use it:
Click the People tab at the top of the page.
Paste their LinkedIn profile URL into the Person Lookalikes filter.
Hit Search, our AI instantly finds similar prospects.
You’ll get a list of professionals who are:
Similar to that person
Working at comparable companies
In similar departments
2️⃣ Company Lookalikes
Prefer to start with a business?
Click the Company tab.
Enter the company’s website URL in the Company Lookalikes filter.
Launch the search to see a list of similar companies.
How it works:
The engine looks at the company’s online presence and identifies patterns such as:
What the company does
How it describes its products or services
The type of customers it seems to target
Similar positioning across other companies
It then matches these patterns to other companies in the database.
💡 Pro Tips
Getting better results is often about choosing the right starting point:
Some websites are very clear and specific → great for accurate results
Others use generic wording → results may be broader
Sites with very little text or mostly visuals can be harder to interpret
If results don’t feel perfect on the first try, that’s normal, just refine your input.
🔎 Need ideas for starter companies?
If you’re not sure where to begin, try searching for:
“[company name] competitors”
“[company name] alternatives”
“best companies like [company name]”
Then plug those domains into Lookalike Search to quickly find similar companies. 🚀
3️⃣ Multiple Lookalike Searches 🏢
Found some good results but want to get more? Add multiple domains to your lookalike base.
Pick 1–3 strong domains from your results and add them in your Company lookalikes filter.
The results will be a mix between Lookalikes of the references you added into the Company lookalikes filter.
You can add up to 10 domains to one search. We don't recommend to exceed this number to keep your searches more narrow.
If you want to search for companies that are very different in terms of industries, we recommend opening separate search tabs for these searches and grouping them. That way, you can really use the Keywords and Industry searches to your advantage, as they would apply to all your search results in the current tab.
4️⃣ Use Industry Tags 🏷️
Use Industries (Ocean.io) to refine your results by category and focus your search on specific types of companies.
Companies often have both broad categories and narrow tags.
Check the industry columns in your results and include or exclude specific tags to zero in on your audience.
5️⃣ Add Keywords for Extra Power 🗝️
Need to target something super specific?
Use the Keywords filter to find companies mentioning particular terms on their website. It’s perfect for niche searches, check our detailed Keywords guide for more ideas.
🎯 Fine-Tune Your Results
The advanced options only apply to the company lookalike search, or to the company in the people lookalike search.
Precise vs. Broad
Precise (default)
Precise finds close matches by looking at the text on the website, LinkedIn specialties and their description. Use this method if you wish to find fewer, more accurate Lookalikes.
Broad
Broad casts a wider net for more results. It looks at the industries each result is placed in, making this method more helpful to find more results when accuracy isn't as important.
Relevance Score
Matches are graded A, B, or C (A = strongest). By default, results of C and above are shown.
Behind the scenes, Ocean.io uses a more detailed internal scoring model created by our algorithm to determine the order in which results are displayed.
Because the scoring scale can vary significantly depending on the type of search you perform, we simplify the output into three easy-to-read categories: A, B, and C. These grades are designed to give you a quick overview of relevance, without needing to interpret complex numerical scores.
To change the minimum relevance you wish to see, look in the bottom of the Company lookalikes or Person lookalikes filter, in the Advanced settings. By default, C is selected. Click on it to change it to B or A.
By default, the Precise search uses a minimum relevance of C. Want more results? Switch to Broad search.
Prefer tighter matches? Raise the minimum relevancy to A or B just remember, higher relevance means fewer results.
Note:
Lookalike Search results are ranked automatically using relevance scores (A, B, C), with A results being the most relevant and always shown first. The selected relevance level works as a cutoff: choosing A shows only A results (B and C are excluded), choosing B shows both A and B results (C is excluded), and choosing C shows A, B, and C results (the full set). This setting controls which results are included, not how they are ordered. The order of results is determined by the algorithm based on relevance and cannot be manually changed.
Iterate for Perfection
Add a few of your favorite results back into the lookalike filter to expand your search and shuffle the results of multiple Lookalike searches.
🗂️ Work in Multiple Tabs
Need to run several searches at once?
Ocean.io lets you open new tabs just like in your web browser, there’s no limit.
Each tab can hold a different search and its own set of results, so you can:
Compare multiple lookalike searches side by side
Keep past results open while starting new ones
Adjust filters on any tab without losing progress
Simply click “+ New Tab” at the top to start another search and keep everything organized.
💡 Tip: Combine filters (industry, size, location) with the Lookalike Search to build laser-focused prospect lists in minutes.
🎥 Want a Personalized Walkthrough?
Need extra guidance or a team training?
We offer live webinars where our experts walk you through Lookalike Search step-by-step and answer questions in real time.
👉 Click here to request a webinar
That’s it! Start with a single person or company, and let Lookalike Search uncover your next wave of high-fit prospects, quickly, accurately, and with zero guesswork.
Happy hunting!