The Lookalike search is an incredibly powerful tool to create a hyper-targeted list of leads. However, with great power comes ... probably the need for some training to keep you on track. Here are some helpful tips we've gathered for you, based on real user experiences.
We'll discuss:
Adding keywords into the mix 🗝️ (add-on)
1. On using the right company domain 🔎
The lookalike search asks you for a company name or domain as starting point. Our engine will use the website text of the company, combined with data it found on LinkedIn to find similar companies that describe themselves in the same way.
Finding the right base for your lookalike search can be a process of trial and error. Some domains use more generic words, some use more specialized words. Some domains contain lots of text, some have less text to work with. On rare occasions, a domain could only contain images or have so little text to work with, that our lookalike engine has a hard time finding good results.
Don't panic - it's perfectly normal to try out a handful of domains before settling on the results. Having issues finding an alternative domain? One of our users recommends the following:
Simply open Google.com and key in "[company name] main competitor" or
"[company name] alternative". Try the first few domains that pop up in a lookalike search, and see a long list of results rolling out of the system within seconds.
2. Multi-domain search 🏢
So you've done a search, and you've got some good results, but it's not quite there yet. A neat little trick you can apply is to help the algorithm by adding more domains into the mix.
We recommend selecting 1-3 domains from the results and clicking on "Add Lookalike filter", as per the example below.
Why not add domains manually in the search field, you ask? Our algorithm looks at commonalities between websites in characteristics that our human brain would never thought of, within a split second. This is what makes the lookalike search unique, but a bit too complex at times to steer manually. That's why selecting and adding results it already found, is the recommended approach for the best results.
An example is a search where you are searching for marketing agencies providing marketing automation services for HubSpot. Initially, in the search results, you might see some marketing agencies pop up that provide marketing automation services for other CRMs as well. If you select a few companies from the results that are also focused on HubSpot and add them to the lookalike filter, our algorithm will put extra weight on the keywords these companies have in common, and so it should help you narrow down your search.
3. Supplement with industry tags 🏷️
The "Industry tags" filter is a good one to keep in mind for your searches. It can be used separately, of course, but in combination with the lookalike filter, it gives you an advantage to zoom into your target audience even better.
Companies are usually assigned to multiple industries; some broader (categories), some narrower (tags). When performing a lookalike search, check out the industries that pop up in the columns or quickview of your results, and supplement your search to include or exclude some of them. It will cut down the results quickly, but leaves you with a hyper-targeted list.
4. Broaden and narrow 🪡
By default, you'll use our "Targeted" version of the lookalike search, with "Medium relevance" being the cutoff point. In other words, our search engine will look for commonalities with other companies in both website content as well as industries, and if the relevance score assigned in comparison to your lookalike company base reaches below a certain point, the results will be hidden.
If you care less about the website content, and are satisfied with the industries of the companies that are popping up - consider changing to a "Broad" search. This will give you many more results.
Reached the end of the results and you think they're still pretty relevant? Change the minimum relevance to "Low" and continue the hunt with more companies popping up.
5. Adding keywords into the mix 🗝️ (add-on)
Even though this is mostly relevant for niche use cases - it's an extremely powerful tool to get the exact results that you want.
The keywords filter allows you to find companies that mention particular terms on their website. If that triggers your imagination, check out this knowledge base article in which we explain the keywords search into details.