Let's look at our third way to Find in Clay 101: Find businesses using Google Maps.

In this lesson, we'll show you how to use Clay's Google Maps integration to efficiently find and prospect local businesses within your Ideal Customer Profile.

🎯 Why Google Maps Prospecting?

Before we dive into the how, let's talk about the why. Finding Businesses with Google Maps fills an important gap in B2B data:

Many local businesses have a strong physical presence but a weak digital footprint. They might have a Google listing but no LinkedIn page or comprehensive website.

I'm talking about: dentists, lawyers, contractors consultants and more. These prospects fall into this category. They're valuable, but just missed by traditional B2B databases.

By using Google Maps in Clay, you can discover hidden gems and reach out before your competitors even know they exist.

This approach is particularly valuable when targeting:

• Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
• "Mom and pop" shops
• Local service providers
• Businesses in traditional industries with limited online presence

🛠️ Step-by-Step: Using Google Maps in Clay

Let's walk through how to use Google Maps in Clay:

• To start, open the Sources Modal by clicking the Create New Table button from the Clay homepage.
• Then select Google Maps from the list of available data sources. You'll need to choose whether to create a new table or add results to an existing workbook.
• Next, you'll need to define your search area. Since Google Maps is location-based, this is a critical step. Input a city, neighborhood, or exact address as your starting point. You can adjust the search radius by zooming in or out, and fine-tune the location by manually dragging the map pin.
• For example, if you're searching for dentists in Brooklyn, NY, you could focus on specific neighborhoods like Fort Greene, Gowanus, and Prospect Heights, or expand the radius for a broader search.
• Now it's time to choose your search method. You can search in two ways:
• Free Text Search lets you enter any keyword, like "best dental clinics" or "top-rated restaurants."
• Business Type Search, which I recommend, lets you choose from pre-defined Google Business categories for more accurate results. Selecting "Dentists" under Business Type will yield more reliable results than a generic text search.
• Once you've configured your search, click Submit to pull businesses matching your criteria. Google Maps will return up to 1,000 results as a default maximum limit. It's important to let Clay continue fetching results in real time—don't assume the initial count is final.

The Google Maps integration may take some time to populate all results. What initially appears as a few dozen listings could grow to hundreds as the data loads, so be patient.

💡 Maximizing Your Google Maps Data

Next, to get the most value from your Google Maps data in Clay, you can:

• Filter for quality: Focus on highly-rated businesses (4+ stars) to find the most established, successful prospects
• Leverage AI insights: Use Clay's AI to analyze customer reviews and understand business positioning
• Look for deeper data: Do more enrichments to get details like number of practitioners, service offerings, and web presence

📈 How Would You Put This Data to Work?

Well, if you're doing small and medium-sized business prospecting, Google Maps data gives you access to hard-to-find businesses that are perfect for your product or service.

Any local service provider targeting becomes much more efficient. For example, if you sell insurance to dental practices, you can quickly build a list of every dentist in a specific area.

Even in traditional industries with limited online presence, Google Maps helps you identify prospects. Think construction companies, auto repair shops, or family-owned restaurants.

The key advantage is reaching businesses your competitors might miss because they rely only on standard B2B data sources.

🎯 Best Practices for Google Maps Prospecting

First, be precise with location parameters. The more specific your geographic targeting, the more relevant your results will be. If you're running a multi-location campaigns, consider running separate searches for each area rather than one broad search.

Second, use business types for more reliable results. The categorization in Google's business type system is comprehensive and will yield more consistent results than free text searches.

Next, allow time for results to fully populate. The Google Maps integration doesn't return all results instantly, so be patient and let it complete its work before analyzing the data.

Finally, plan to add secondary enrichments. Google Maps gives you basic information, and if you enrich this further, you'll be able to create real, personalized outreach.

✅ Conclusion

By using Google Maps in Clay, you can tap into overlooked markets and give you a competitive edge in local markets. This approach complements traditional company search by filling in gaps and uncovering those businesses that aren't really online, but have a strong physical presence.

In our next set of lessons, we'll move from the Find phase to the Enrich phase of FETE. We'll show you how to take the raw data you've gathered from companies, people, and Google Maps searches and add more depth and context.

Get ready to turn your basic data into rich, actionable insights in the upcoming Enrich lessons!

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