How to Search by Company Size in Apollo.io?

One of the most overlooked filtering strategies in B2B prospecting is company size targeting, and it's costing sales teams thousands of wasted outreach hours every year. If you're selling a mid-market SaaS product and you're pitching to 10-person startups, your conversion rate will be painfully low — not because your product is bad, but because you're talking to the wrong companies entirely. Apollo.io's company size filters let you zero in on organizations that match your ideal customer profile with surgical precision.

Why Company Size Targeting Is Non-Negotiable

Company size directly influences buying behavior, budget availability, procurement processes, and the type of solution a company needs.

• Startups (1–10 employees) move fast but have micro-budgets and minimal processes
• Small businesses (11–50) are budget-conscious and need quick, easy-to-implement solutions
• SMBs (51–200) have defined departments but still make agile decisions
• Mid-market (201–1,000) have procurement cycles, multiple stakeholders, and real budgets
• Enterprise (1,000+) have long cycles, complex buying committees, and major contract values

Knowing where your product fits and targeting accordingly is the foundation of efficient prospecting. Apollo makes this filtering fast and flexible.

Step 1: Access the Company Size Filter in People Search

The company size filter in Apollo lives within both the People and Companies search views.

• Go to Search > People in the left sidebar
• Scroll down the filter panel to find # of Employees (sometimes listed as "Company Headcount")
• Click on it to expand the options
• You'll see preset ranges or the option to enter a custom range

Apollo's default employee count ranges:

• 1–10
• 11–50
• 51–200
• 201–500
• 501–1,000
• 1,001–5,000
• 5,001–10,000
• 10,000+

You can select one or multiple ranges simultaneously, which is helpful if your sweet spot spans two adjacent brackets (e.g., 200–1,000 employees).

Step 2: Use the Company Revenue Filter for Even Tighter Targeting

Employee count is a great proxy for company size, but revenue is often a more accurate signal of buying power, especially when two companies have similar headcounts but vastly different revenue profiles.

• In the same filter panel, look for Annual Revenue
• Set a revenue range that aligns with your typical customer
• Common ranges: Under $1M, $1M–$10M, $10M–$50M, $50M–$200M, $200M+

Combining employee count with revenue gives you the clearest picture of a company's financial capacity and organizational complexity.

Example combo for a mid-market SaaS tool:

• Employees: 200–1,000
• Revenue: $10M–$100M
• Industry: Technology / Software
• Geography: United States

This combination will pull companies that are large enough to have a real budget, defined departments, and a buying process — without the 12-month enterprise procurement cycle.

Step 3: Search by Company Size at the Account Level

If you're running an account-based strategy, use the Companies search (not People) to build a target account list by company size first, then drill into contacts.

• Go to Search > Companies
• Apply the employee count and revenue filters
• Add industry, geography, and technology filters as needed
• Export the company list or save it as a target account list

From there, you can click into individual companies to see the contacts within those accounts and identify decision makers. This top-down ABM approach ensures you're only engaging contacts at size-appropriate companies.

Step 4: Combine Company Size with Industry for Vertical-Specific Targeting

Company size alone is powerful.

Company size plus industry is devastating for your competitors who aren't filtering this precisely.

• Add the Industry filter alongside your employee count
• Apollo allows multi-select, so you can pick multiple verticals at once
• Examples: SaaS + Fintech + Healthcare = technology-forward industries with similar buyer behaviors

Practical vertical combinations by size:

• HR Tech selling → Companies with 200–2,000 employees, Industries: All (HR needs exist everywhere)
• Logistics SaaS → Companies with 100–1,000 employees, Industries: Manufacturing, E-commerce, Retail
• Cybersecurity → Companies with 500+ employees, Industries: Finance, Healthcare, Government

Companies scaling their operations globally need HR infrastructure that matches their growth. Deel is purpose-built for companies at that 50–5,000 employee stage, helping them hire internationally, stay compliant, and pay distributed teams in local currencies. See how Deel works.

Step 5: Use Growth Signals to Refine Company Size Targeting

A company with 200 employees today might have 400 in six months. Apollo's data includes growth signals that can help you identify companies on a trajectory that matches your ICP.

• Look for the Hiring Activity signal (available on higher-tier plans)
• Companies with high hiring activity are growing fast and likely have expanding budgets
• Filter for companies hiring in specific departments (e.g., a lot of sales hires = sales budget expansion)
• Pair with your target employee range to catch companies entering your ICP size bracket

This forward-looking approach lets you get in front of the right companies before they become obvious targets for every other vendor.

Step 6: Build Separate Campaigns for Different Size Segments

Here's a prospecting mistake that kills conversion rates: using the same messaging for a 20-person startup and a 500-person mid-market company. Their pain points, budgets, and decision-making processes are completely different.

Build separate saved searches and separate email sequences for each size segment:

Startup tier (1–50 employees):

• Shorter sales cycle
• Founder or CEO is likely the buyer
• Messaging: speed, simplicity, ROI
• Price sensitivity is high

SMB tier (51–200 employees):

• Department heads make decisions
• Messaging: efficiency, time savings, team productivity
• Some procurement process but still agile

Mid-market tier (201–1,000 employees):

• VP or Director level buyers with defined budgets
• Messaging: scalability, integration, compliance, security
• Multiple stakeholders involved

Enterprise tier (1,000+ employees):

• Long procurement cycles, RFP processes
• Messaging: enterprise security, SLAs, dedicated support
• Multi-year contract potential

Step 7: Export and Segment Your Size-Filtered Lists

Once your filters are set, export your lists with company size data included so you can segment further in your CRM or email tool.

• Select all contacts in your filtered search (or a batch)
• Click Export to CSV or push to CRM
• Make sure to include Company Size / Employees and Revenue as export fields
• In your CRM, create lists or segments by company size tier
• Route leads to the right reps based on company size (e.g., SMB reps get small accounts, enterprise reps get large ones)

Advanced Tips for Company Size Filtering

Use headcount growth rate alongside absolute headcount

A company going from 50 to 150 employees in 12 months is a fundamentally different business than one that's been stable at 150 for five years. Growth rate signals urgency and budget expansion.

Target by department size, not just total headcount

Apollo sometimes provides department-level headcount data. If you're selling to sales teams, filter for companies with 10+ people in sales, regardless of total company size.

Cross-reference with funding data

A 50-person company that just raised a $20M Series B has more buying power than a 200-person bootstrapped company. Apollo's funding filters let you add this dimension to your size-based targeting.

Monitor for companies crossing your size threshold

Set a saved search alert for companies entering your target size range. As startups grow into SMBs or SMBs into mid-market, they become new ICP-fit targets automatically.

Common Mistakes with Company Size Filtering

• Too narrow a range — setting 201–500 only might miss 501–600 employee companies that fit your ICP
• Ignoring revenue — a 100-person professional services firm often has more revenue than a 300-person startup
• Same messaging across sizes — kills conversion; always segment your outreach by size tier
• Not updating size filters after product changes — if you launch an enterprise plan, update your targeting accordingly
• Forgetting to check company size in intent data — high-intent signals at non-ICP-size companies are still not worth pursuing

Final Thoughts

Filtering by company size in Apollo.io isn't just a nice-to-have — it's a fundamental lever for prospecting efficiency. When your outreach reaches companies at exactly the right stage of growth, with the right budget, and the right organizational complexity for your solution, conversion rates climb and sales cycles shorten. Use size filters in combination with industry, revenue, and intent data, and you'll have one of the most targeted prospecting engines available to any B2B sales team.