Janhavi Nagarhalli

Product-led growth (PLG) is all about letting your product do the talking. People no longer want to sit through multiple sales calls and lengthy onboarding processes —they prefer to quickly experience the product value and speed up their decision-making. 

Of course, the best way to convey product value is to educate your prospects via the channels where they are most active, aka LinkedIn. Given that 4 out of 5 users on the platform are decision-makers, using LinkedIn ads is the ideal way to educate your target accounts about how your tool best solves their pain points. 

Let’s dive into how you can leverage the power of LinkedIn ads in a PLG motion ⬇️

Leverage account engagement data the right way

Account engagement data is a treasure trove that offers crucial context on how your prospects make buying decisions. You can use it to tailor your ads based on how far they’re along the PLG funnel. 

Unfortunately, companies struggle with effectively consolidating and leveraging this data for their ad campaigns. If you want to run personalized account-level campaigns on LinkedIn, you must invest in a tool that translates complex data into actionable insights to help refine your ad strategy. 

Here are a few ways you can use Factors to interpret your account data, optimize your LinkedIn ads, and move prospects across the PLG funnel:

Show ads based on product engagement

Any time a user signs up, boom – they instantly get an email prompting them to schedule a demo. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s unlikely that every user who signs up is ready to talk to sales.

We suggest using LinkedIn ads to strategically target the buying committee and show them how your features effectively solve their problems. It is a subtle approach that showcases your product's USP without seeming pushy for a sales call.

You can use our Audience Builder feature to target the right accounts with your preferred criteria. For example, if you want to target all accounts who signed up for a free trial but haven’t booked a demo, you can create a segment on our platform and import it to LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Now that you’ve begun showing ads to potential customers, it’s time to focus on “how” you show these ads. 

It’s important to remember that not everyone who signs up for your product is a guaranteed customer. You shouldn’t bombard users with the same ad repeatedly, as this can cause a negative attitude toward your brand. Buuut, you still want to ensure your product is top of mind while they’re evaluating other solutions. 

A tricky balance, isn’t it? 👀

Luckily, with Smart Reach, you can implement a cap for how many times you want to show your ads to specific accounts. Here’s an example of how we use Smart Reach at Factors to control exposure to our ad campaigns:

1. For every account that signs up for our product, we initially set a cap of 500 impressions monthly.

2. If they log in more than twice, it indicates they found value in our product but still need to truly understand the features. In this case, we bump it up to 750 impressions per month. 

3. When they hit certain product milestones, such as creating a dashboard or setting up alerts – it implies they’re aware of our features but still need a final nudge to move to the paid plan. At this stage, we double the frequency cap to 1500 impressions.

4. Once they click the “upgrade” button, we set the cap to 3000 impressions. 

As we’re increasing the frequency cap for all these accounts, we’re ensuring that ads are only shown to relevant accounts without causing ad fatigue. 

If you want to know whether your target accounts are truly resonating with your ads, you can use True ROI. With view-through attribution, you get the complete picture of how LinkedIn plays a role in turning your free-trial users into paying customers.

Here’s a report that shows how many people signed up for a demo:

Once you add the event “LinkedIn ad viewed,” you can see how many users signed up after viewing your ads. This gives greater clarity on how your ad campaigns drive signups and revenue. 

Plus, you can also leverage our CAPI integration to send your conversion data from your website and CRM to LinkedIn to better scale and optimize your ad campaigns. CAPI ensures that you show your ads only to accounts that fall under your ICP, thereby helping you massively save ad spend. Here’s how you can set up CAPI to target your ads to users who set up an alert:

Wrapping up

Showcasing the product front and center is the core of PLG. When you use LinkedIn ads the right way, you can drive consideration for signed up users and turn them into advocates in no time. Speak to our team today to find out how you can use AdPilot to boost your PLG motion. 

B2B sales is a long and arduous process. Leading prospects from “Qualified Lead” to “Closed won” is a trying ordeal for even the best SDRs. So, what’s the best way to fast-track these deals?

Two words: LinkedIn ads. 

Instead of having your sales reps constantly follow up with “just checking in” emails, you can leverage the power of your ad campaigns to drive consideration for your product as they’re talking to your sales team. 

Let’s dive into how you can use LinkedIn ads to support your outbound efforts ⬇️

Streamline your ABM with account engagement data 

As you know, ABM typically involves marketing and sales aligning on a target list of accounts and then reaching out to them parallelly via sales outbound and marketing campaigns. However, the way marketers implement this process leaves much to be desired.

For example, if someone replies to your sales email, they’d naturally have higher buyer intent than someone who simply leaves your emails unopened. Would it make sense to show ads to prospects that aren’t interested in your solution? Moreover, you have no control over how your ads are shown to accounts in this list. For instance, you’d naturally want to show more ads to accounts in the SQL stage rather than ones already in negotiations. 

Rather than spreading your LinkedIn impressions uniformly across all accounts in the target account list, it is wiser to focus most of your ad spend on accounts showing more intent. You can use account engagement data to tailor your ads based on how far they’re along the sales funnel. To achieve this, you must invest in a tool that consolidates all your CRM data and turns it into actionable insights for your ad strategy.

Here’s how you can use Factors AdPilot to interpret your account data, optimize your LinkedIn ads, and move prospects across the funnel:

Show ads based on sales engagement 

While your prospects engage with your sales rep, you can target the buying committee by adding them to a sequential ad campaign and showing how your features effectively solve their problems.

You can use Audience Builder to target the right accounts per your campaign objectives. For example, if you want to target all accounts that have completed a demo call, you can create a segment on our platform and import it to LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

However, you should also limit the number of times you show them ads to avoid ad fatigue. Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t yet have a feature that allows you to control the ad frequency at an account level. Lucky for you, Smart Reach can make it happen!

Smart Reach allows you to cap the number of impressions shown to specific accounts. Find out how we use Smart Reach at Factors to control ad exposure:

1. Every account in the target account list (agreed on by marketing and sales) gets 500 impressions per month.

2. If the account replies to an email or starts showing website activity, we bump up the impressions for them to 1500

3. If a deal is booked we increase the impression cap to 2500 and by 1000 for every stage in the deal funnel.

This approach results in better sales and marketing alignment and allows you to target your account list better.

If you want to know whether your ads are truly working, it’s True ROI to the rescue. Thanks to view-through attribution, you get a complete overview of how prospects interact with your ads and make buying decisions.

Here’s a report that shows how many prospects view your ads and visit your website after a demo call: 

You can also use our CAPI integration to send your conversion data from your website and CRM to LinkedIn. For example, you can send data of users who respond to sales emails to optimize your campaigns better: 

Wrapping up

Outbound Sales can be daunting, but simultaneously running LinkedIn ads makes it easier. When you target your ads to prospects according to how they’re engaged with sales, you can speed up your sales process without seeming pushy. Speak to our team today to learn how AdPilot can help you supercharge your ad campaigns and close deals in no time.

It’s no secret every company massively focuses on acquiring new customers. However, it’s equally important to focus on customer retention because acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing ones.  

But what’s the best way to drive customer retention and generate upselling opportunities? While most marketers would vouch for emails, we believe it’s LinkedIn ads 👀

Scroll ahead to learn how LinkedIn could be a valuable asset for your customer marketing initiatives ⬇️

Why use LinkedIn for customer marketing?

We know using LinkedIn ads might seem unusual, especially when it’s easier and more feasible just to send emails to your existing customer base. But we’ve identified a few shortcomings with this approach:

• For starters, your emails would only reach 1-2 contacts in an account instead of the entire buying committee. If you want to encourage your customer to consider upgrading their plan, targeting the relevant folks via your ads would be easier. 
• Even when you do send emails to your customers, there’s a high chance your emails will remain unopened and they’ll be unaware of the content within. 

LinkedIn is a surefire way to reach your stakeholders without cluttering their inboxes and ensuring they’re aware of your latest features. Now, let’s look at how you can use ads to reach them. 

Measure product usage data 

Every customer uses your product differently. While some see your tool as a holy grail in their tech stack, others might not be as dependent on it. You need to analyze product usage to understand how frequently customers use your product in their daily activities. You can also leverage NPS surveys to gauge their satisfaction with your tool. 

We recommend running LinkedIn ads based on their probability of churn and the number of days to contract expiry. For example, if you notice low product usage for a specific set of accounts, you can increase the frequency at which you show them ads. 

You can also prioritize showing ads to customers based on how they rate your tool on your NPS surveys. If customers rate your tool as 7 or below on NPS surveys, you can target these accounts with ads that showcase your product’s differentiators. 

Phew, that sounds like a lot of conditions for running ads. Imagine manually creating multiple audience lists for each campaign goal and tracking their ROI. Seems exhausting 🥱

What if we told you that we have a solution that makes running and optimizing LinkedIn ads a breeze? 

Presenting: AdPilot by Factors, your one-stop solution to supercharging LinkedIn ads ROI.

Here’s how you can use AdPilot to increase upselling opportunities:

Audience Builder can help you target the right customers with your preferred criteria. For example, if you want to target all accounts that have logged in less than five times you can create a segment on Factors and import it to Campaign Manager.

But remember, not all customers are equal – you’d naturally want to show more ads based on churn propensity. *sigh* If only you could control how your ads are shown, right?

Well, with Smart Reach you can!

Marketers can use Smart Reach, to control ad exposure across their target account list. You can show your ads based on the number of days till contract renewal and churn score, which is calculated by analyzing NPS scores and product usage. Here’s a visual explanation of the same:

Let’s dive deep into how we use Smart Reach at Factors to control exposure to our ad campaigns:

1. Currently, all our customers are capped at 500 impressions per month 

2. For customers where renewal is less than 3 months but churn probability is low - we increase to 1000 impressions to keep them aware of our new product upgrades

3. Regarding customers where renewal is less than 3 months and churn probability is medium, we raise the cap to 1500 impressions to further drive home the point about how our product is the ideal solution for all their pain points

4. For customers whose renewal is less than 3 months and whose churn probability is high, we increase the cap to 3000 impressions and run ads based on our customers' success stories to boost credibility. 

We follow a similar pattern when showing ads based on the number of days till contract expiry, wherein we increase the number of impressions for accounts as they get closer to their contract end date.

As we adjust the frequency cap for all these accounts, we ensure that ads are only shown to relevant customers without causing ad fatigue. 

If you want to measure how customers take action after viewing your ads, you can use True ROI. With view-through attribution, you can clearly see how seeing an ad impacts their decision to use the product. 

Here’s a report that shows how many people decided to log in after viewing an ad: 

With our CAPI integration, you can optimize your ad efforts by only showing your ads to customers at churn risk or reaching contract expiry. Here’s how you can set up CAPI to target your ads to customers who have not logged in for more than a month:

When running ads for customers, we recommend showcasing your best testimonials and case studies case studies to boost credibility for your product. Here’s an example of how Gong uses customer reviews in their ads:

Wrapping up

Customer marketing should be a critical part of your marketing strategy, but many marketers neglect it or send a couple of emails occasionally. Leveraging LinkedIn ads is a great way to keep your customers aware about how they can make the most of your product. Speak to our team today to learn how AdPilot can 2x your LinkedIn ROI.

If you’re building a SaaS company and haven’t invested in Google ads yet, you have no idea what you’re missing.
Over 80% of businesses use Google ads as a part of their marketing strategy and typically see a return of $2 for every $1 spent on Google ads. If you want to target in-market prospects and grow pipeline, this is the way to do it.
But how can SaaS companies leverage Google ads for revenue growth? Find your answer here, where we discuss the ABCs of SaaS google ads ⬇️

Firstly, when should SaaS companies run Google ads?

Ishaan Manchanda, the founder of GrowthSpree, has over 7 years of experience in PPC marketing, and he recommends that you begin running ads once you achieve product-market fit (PMF):
“Consider launching Google search ads only when you’ve achieved PMF and acquired at least 10-15 customers. If you’re still in the very early stages, paying for ads won’t make sense when you’re still making changes to your product.” 

Running ads on Google has many benefits, the main one being that Google ads are intent-driven. Unlike other platforms, Google only shows your ads to folks looking for your solution. So, you only have to pay when a user clicks on your ad.

Your ad data also clarifies how you can modify your strategy for greater conversions. Now, let’s explore the types of ad formats you can leverage when launching Google ads.

Types of Google ads 

Google Search Ads

These ads appear in search results above the organic results when people search for relevant keywords like "email marketing automation software." They are intent-based ads targeting existing demand.

Google Display Ads

These ads are shown on a vast collection of third-party websites that agreed to display Google ads. They can be in text, image, video, or rich media formats.

YouTube Ads

Video ads are an underrated method of generating leads for your business. SaaS companies can create video and display or text ads shown during or before YouTube videos or elsewhere on YouTube's platform. Video ads can be skippable or non-skippable.

App Campaigns

If the SaaS company has a mobile app, Google automatically creates ads by pulling the most relevant text, images, and ratings from the app store to drive mobile app installs and in-app conversions.

How to run Google ads for SaaS companies: a step-by-step guide 

Here is a step-by-step guide for SaaS companies to launch effective Google Ads campaigns:

1. Define Your Campaign Objectives

When asked, “What is your campaign objective?” The most obvious answer is “to generate revenue.” However, you need to establish SMART goals to establish more clarity amongst the team, so that you can refine your ad strategy moving forward.
Example: Increase qualified leads from Google Ads by 30% in Q3 2024 by implementing targeted campaigns, optimized landing pages, and SMART Goals in Google Analytics. 

2. Develop Audience Personas

Create detailed profiles of your ideal customers - their demographics, interests, pain points, etc.

Identify the keywords and search queries they will likely use when looking for a solution like yours. Determine the most relevant ad formats, landing pages, and offers for each persona. 

3. Set Up Your Google Ads Account

Create a new Google Ads account or link an existing one to your SaaS business. Set your campaign objective to "Leads" to drive signups and demos. Choose the Search campaign type to reach people actively searching for your solution

4. Conduct Keyword Research

Use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords and assess their potential.

Identify long-tail keywords that indicate high purchase intent. Group keywords into themed ad groups for more targeted ads

We’ve researched what keyword themes work best and have analyzed the following keyword types:

• Branded keywords
• Competitor keywords
• Pricing keywords
• Product/Feature keywords

💡Find out how to use these keywords in your Google ads strategy.

5. Optimize Landing Pages

Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group with a clear value proposition and call-to-action. For instance, if you’re creating a competitor landing page, you need to ensure 

Ensure pages load quickly and are mobile-friendly. A/B test different page elements to improve conversion rates. 

Tas Bober, a paid ads landing page expert and founder at Delphinium Solutions, recommends placing your form fields and displaying your product in the first fold of the landing page
“Create landing pages that: 

1/ Deliver on the promise of the ads 

2/ Showcase your product 

3/ Call out who you're for 

4/ Use clear language (think 5th grade) 

5/ Bucket features into themes 

6/ Save the company awards for the About page 

7/ Use *relevant* social proof 

8/ Tell the user what to expect after reaching out” 

At Factors, we highlight the core value propositions in the first fold to drive consideration and engage prospects

6. Set Your Bids and Budget 

Set a daily budget that allows you to get sufficient data to assess performance. Adjust bids and budgets over time based on the cost per click and conversion rates. You should also keep these metrics in mind when setting a Google ads budget:

• Calculate your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and ensure your budget allows you to acquire customers at or below this cost.
• Determine your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and set a budget that reflects this value to ensure profitability.

Distribute your budget across different campaigns and ad types to test and find the most effective strategies. To optimize your budget allocation, you can also employ automated bidding strategies like Target CPA.

7. Monitor and Optimize

Regularly check your Google Ads dashboard to analyze key metrics like CTR, conversion rate, CPC, and ROAS. Use the Search Terms report to identify negative keywords to add to your campaigns. Make ongoing optimizations to bids, budgets, ads, and landing pages to improve performance.

Measure your Google ads performance with Factors

Google ads are critical to your overall GTM strategy. If you want to make the most of Google ads, Factors is the tool you need! 

You can use our “Account Identification” feature to deanonymize visitors who visit your site and also identify which campaign brought them to the website:

With our advanced attribution and analytics features, you can visualize how they engage with your ads and how your ad campaigns contribute to generating pipeline:

You can also leverage our Segment Insights features to understand how paid search is performing in comparison to other performance marketing initiatives (e.g. LinkedIn ads), thereby allowing you to strategize and change your approach to generate maximum ROI.

You can also connect Factors with G2 to understand how many accounts visit G2 product pages, competitor pages, and category pages after viewing your ads. 

Well, we aren’t going to reveal it all here! Contact our sales team to learn more about how you can leverage Factors to make the most of your Google ad spend.

When you think of an ABM platform, Demandbase naturally comes to mind. Demandbase (also known as Demandbase One) has been around since 2007 and has served 10,000+ customers after its launch. 

But is it the right fit for your business? Get your answer as you scroll through our article and learn about the 5 Demandbase alternatives currently in the market ⬇️

Why look for a Demandbase alternative?

Demandbase offers a range of features such as:

• Account Identification: Identify high-potential accounts visiting your website or showing buying intent signals online.
• Account Targeting: Tailor marketing campaigns to specific accounts based on firmographics, technographics, and buying behaviors. (e.g., industry, technology used, website activity)
• Multiple Journeys: Create and manage personalized marketing journeys for different account segments based on product lines, business units, or other factors.
• Campaign Influence Metrics: Track and measure the impact of marketing campaigns on account progression within the sales funnel.

However, according to reviews across sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius, users have stated that the setup process is tricky and the UI is outdated:

If you’re an SMB looking for an ABM platform, let’s examine what you must consider when making the purchase.

4 Factors to consider when looking for a Demandbase alternative

Cost-effective: Users have found that Demandbase's pricing is steep compared to other products that offer similar features. Find a tool that provides the best bang for your buck.

Easy to use: Choose a tool with an intuitive user interface that doesn’t have a deep learning curve. This will save you time and help you make the most of the tool.

Intent signals from relevant sources: Remember, there is such a thing as “too many signals.”  make sure you have the right data from channels that most contribute to revenue impact.

LinkedIn ads ROI: If you’re running LinkedIn ads, you must ensure you’re making the most of your ad budget. 

Top 5 Demandbase alternatives

Want to find the right tool and boost your marketing ROI? We’ve done the heavy lifting and compiled a list of the six best Demandbase alternatives you can consider:

1. Factors.ai

Factors is a marketing attribution platform that helps marketers streamline their GTM efforts and optimize their marketing spend. We offer multiple features like:

• Factors can pull intent signals from LinkedIn and G2, which gives greater visibility into high-intent accounts considering your solution. Plus, you can unify all your account-level data from multiple sources.
• Our account and engagement scoring features allow you to assign a value to every interaction an ICP account has with your website. You can now prioritize accounts with high scores to close deals faster. 
• Our segment insights feature lets you understand how different user segments resonate with your product. 
• Factors can also help you personalize your cold outreach based on intent data, thereby taking your sales strategy to the next level.
• Use Factors to create custom workflow automations to simplify your business processes across multiple CRMs
• Our new AdPilot feature can improve the way you run LinkedIn ads and help you get 2x ROI from your ad campaigns

Why Factors is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Demandbase doesn’t have many features that showcase the impact of paid marketing compared to Factors.
• Our IP database includes 4.6 billion companies, whereas Demandbase has 3.6 billion.
• You cannot conduct segment-wise analysis on Demandbase
• LinkedIn AdPilot gives a complete overview of how LinkedIn plays a role in generating revenue, a feature currently missing in Demandbase

Limitations

• Factors doesn’t offer deanonymization at a contact level

Pricing

💡Learn more about our pricing here

2. Albacross

Albacross is a well-established B2B marketing data platform that leverages advanced intent data to identify and capitalize on hidden opportunities from website traffic.

• Website Visitors: Turn website traffic into companies and capture accounts in the buying window
• IP Enrich API: Apply real-time buyer intelligence across your technology stack
• Account-Based Marketing: Target key accounts with customized ads on 90% of ad space globally
• Buying Signals: You can combine Bombora’s powerful intent signals with Albacross to uncover the buyer journey

Why Albacross is a good alternative to Demandbase

Albacross has contact enrichment within the same platform, so there would be no requirement to integrate with multiple enrichment tools

💡Also read: Top 10 Albacross Alternatives

Limitations

• Albacross doesn't allow custom engagement scoring 
• The platform doesn’t include LinkedIn view-through attribution

Pricing

3. Rollworks

RollWorks is an Account-Based Platform with ABM and advertising solutions that allow marketers to deeply understand their buyers and attribute revenue to marketing initiatives such as display ads, social ads, and triggered emails. 

Why Rollworks is a good alternative to Demandbase

Users have reported that it is a far more feasible solution than Demandbase, with a cost of $975 per month. 

Limitations

Customers have mentioned that running LinkedIn ad campaigns with Rollworks can get tedious, and they face issues when showing ads to the right accounts 

Pricing 

Rollworks doesn’t mention its pricing on its website. They have separate plans for Account-based marketing and Account-based advertising. 

4. Recotap

Recotap is an AI-driven Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platform that helps B2B Marketers run targeted ABM campaigns at scale. They break their offering into 3 categories:

• Data Hub: Account level, Contact level, Technographics, or Intent data. You'll find it all here
• Engagement Hub: Engage your accounts across multiple channels with personalized content
• Insights Hub: Let our AI crunch data from ads, emails, CRM, website visits & more to provide the right insights

Why Recotap is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Recotap is a better platform for brands aiming to leverage LinkedIn for ABM 
• It is a cost-effective solution 

Limitations

• Limited reporting options 
• It doesn’t integrate with G2 

Pricing 

Recotap doesn’t have its pricing on its website, but they offer 3 pricing tiers (Starter, Growth, Enterprise) 

5. Common Room

Why Common Room  is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Common Room focuses heavily on community management and engagement, a feature currently unavailable in Demandbase
• If you prioritize a seamless and intuitive user experience, Common Room might offer a more straightforward approach compared to Demandbase
• Common Room offers flexible pricing plans that might be more suitable for smaller businesses or startups compared to Demandbase

Limitations

• Common Room cannot derive intent signals from G2 
• It’s a relatively newer product, so many features are still under development
• Engagement scoring feature isn’t as advanced as other tools on this list

Pricing

Choose the best Demandbase alternative

Streamlining sales and marketing alignment is a cakewalk when you have the right ABM platform. You must invest in a solution that helps you make the most of your marketing effort without burning a hole in your pockets.Sign up for a free trial today to understand how Factors allows you to leverage intent signals and accurately measure the impact of your marketing campaigns.

Prospecting is never easy. The constant struggle to filter through contact data manually and find the right emails for outreach sequences makes every sales rep’s head spin. Now, it’s contact enrichment tools to the rescue!

Clay is a powerful data enrichment tool that allows you to scale your lead lists and personalize your outbound motion. But is Clay the right fit for you?
Read ahead to learn more about Clay and five other Clay alternatives you can evaluate to find the perfect contact enrichment tool for your needs ⬇️ 

About Clay: Pros, Cons, and Pricing

Clay is a data automation platform that helps you build enriched prospect lists. With over 75 enrichment tools and a built-in AI agent, it's easily the most powerful enrichment tool for sales teams of all sizes. The only downside is that it gets expensive if you don't use the credits efficiently.

Here’s a breakdown of Clay’s pricing:

What should you look for in a Clay alternative?

Cost-effectiveness: As mentioned above, Clay credits can become expensive and drive up your company's costs. You must find a solution that offers the most bang for your buck.

Intent signals: Along with contact enrichment, it is crucial to ensure your emails resonate with your target prospects. When you layer in signal-based selling, you can drive consideration quicker.

Learning Curve: While Clay has a user-friendly interface, mastering all its features can take some time. You must ensure you invest in a tool that is easy to use for all sales team members.

5 Clay alternatives you must consider

Now that you know what you should look for before investing in a contact enrichment tool, here are 8 Clay alternatives to review: 

Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a data intelligence and sales engagement platform with a vast B2B contact database of over 275M professional contacts. 

Why Apollo.io is a good Clay Alternative

• Apollo has comprehensive CRM capabilities, which aren't currently present in Clay. 
• Apollo also has advanced reporting features and detailed filtering options that allow users to build better-targeted lists.

Limitations 

• Users have reported that the Chrome extension sometimes doesn’t provide accurate phone numbers.
• The platform can be tricky to use since it has a vast range of features and multiple use cases.

Pricing

Cognism

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform specializing in machine learning to accelerate sales and recruitment leads. Their key features include international coverage and unrestricted access to people and company-level data.

Why Cognism is a good alternative to Clay

• Cognism is designed specifically for B2B sales, offering high-quality data that is essential for prospecting and lead generation. For businesses focused primarily on B2B outreach, Cognism offers a more targeted solution.
• Cognism’s emphasis on providing accurate data and maintaining compliance with GDPR and CCPA makes it a strong choice for businesses that prioritize data integrity and legal compliance.
• Cognism’s user-friendly interface and focused feature set make it easier for sales teams to deploy and use compared to Clay's potentially more complex setup.

Limitations 

• Clay’s ability to create custom workflows and automate a wide range of processes makes it a more versatile tool. It can be used across departments, not just for sales.
• While Cognism excels in providing sales data, Clay’s strength lies in enriching data from various sources, giving businesses a more holistic view.
• Clay’s strong integration capabilities allow businesses to create a more cohesive and efficient tech stack, which is particularly beneficial for companies looking to streamline multiple business processes.

Pricing

Cognism currently doesn’t offer pricing details on their website. However we did some digging and wrote it in our article here: Cognism Pricing, Alternatives & More | 2024

Instantly

Why Instantly is a good alternative to Clay

• Instantly is designed specifically for email outreach and lead generation, making it more effective and streamlined for this purpose.
• Instantly may offer a more affordable solution for businesses primarily needing email automation compared to Clay.com's broader, more complex feature set.
• Instantly’s specific tools to improve email deliverability, such as spam testing and email warm-up, can directly enhance the effectiveness of email campaigns

Limitations 

• Instantly’s lead management features are lacklustre when compared to Clay
• Instantly.ai’s performance speed has been flagged as a concern. Many users have experienced delays and sluggishness in executing tasks and accessing functionalities.
• Integrating Instantly.ai with other systems and applications has posed challenges for users. This has caused compatibility issues and disruptions in workflow integration.

Pricing

LeadIQ

LeadIQ is a prospecting and sales intelligence tool that simplifies the process of capturing, enriching, and engaging with leads. It is designed to help sales teams find contact information quickly and efficiently and use that data for outreach.

Why LeadIQ is a good alternative to Clay

• LeadIQ offers a more user-friendly experience for teams that must ramp up quickly without diving into complex workflows. 
• LeadIQ excels in capturing and enriching prospect data in real time directly from LinkedIn and other sources.

Limitations 

• Users have stated that the Chrome extension doesn’t work effectively on LinkedIn
• Multiple G2 reviews mention that the UX feels a bit cluttered

Pricing

Lusha

Lusha is a sales prospecting tool that has earned its reputation for simplicity and reliability. It’s particularly known for its extensive database of contact information, providing users with accurate direct dials and email addresses. 

Why Lusha is a good alternative to Clay

• Lusha offers a user-friendly interface for teams seeking a simple sales prospecting tool.
• The browser extension integrates directly with LinkedIn, instantly capturing prospect details.
• Best suited for smaller teams or those new to sales prospecting who need an efficient and simple solution.

Limitations 

• ​​Lusha's database, although extensive, may not cover all industries or geographic areas comprehensively.
• The solution has limited filter choices
• Sometimes it auto-populates the wrong information in the incorrect field, leading to multiple inaccuracies.

Pricing

Factors + Clay: A new era of outbound sales

What’s the one thing that can take your sales strategy to the next level? Two words: Intent data. When you combine Clay’s enrichment solution with Factors’ intent signals, you get a complete view of in-market accounts, thereby allowing you to refine your outreach strategy.

Check out our Factors x Clay playbook to understand how to make the most of both platforms and supercharge your outbound motion. 

Choose the best Clay alternative today

With so many tools in the market, finding the right contact enrichment tool can be tricky. You must ensure that you choose the right sales prospecting tool that offers accurate information and can be adopted by everyone on the sales team.