Your pipeline doesn't fill itself. If you want consistent, high-quality leads without burning hours on manual research, Apollo.io is the tool that changes everything — and the good news is that finding leads in Apollo is simpler than most people think.
Apollo.io is a full-stack sales intelligence and engagement platform with one of the largest B2B contact databases in the world. Here's how to find leads in Apollo.io like a pro.
What "Finding Leads" Means in Apollo.io
Finding leads in Apollo means searching for individual people — decision-makers, influencers, and buyers — within companies that match your ideal customer profile. Unlike company search, lead search is person-level targeting.
You're looking for:
- The VP of Sales at a 200-person SaaS company
- The Head of Procurement at a manufacturing firm
- The CTO at a Series B startup using AWS
Apollo makes it possible to find all of these people, along with their verified emails, direct phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles.
Step-by-Step: How to Find Leads in Apollo.io
- Log in to Apollo.io and click "Search" in the left sidebar
- Select "People" instead of Companies
- You'll see the People search interface — this is your lead generation playground
Now it's time to build your filters.
Key Filters for Finding the Right Leads
Apollo's People search has a rich filtering system that lets you zero in on exactly the right contacts. The most valuable filters include:
- Job Title — Search for titles like "CEO," "Director of Marketing," or "Head of Engineering"
- Seniority Level — Filter by C-Suite, VP, Director, Manager, or Individual Contributor
- Department — Narrow by sales, marketing, finance, IT, operations, HR, and more
- Industry — Target leads from specific industries aligned with your offer
- Company Headcount — Only show people who work at companies of a specific size
- Location — Filter by country, state, or city for geographically targeted campaigns
- Technologies Used — Find leads at companies using specific tools your product integrates with or competes against
- Keywords — Search bio and profile keywords to find leads with specific expertise or interests
Layering these filters is the secret to building ultra-targeted lead lists in minutes.
Finding Verified Emails and Phone Numbers
The real value in Apollo comes when you "unlock" a contact's information. Here's how it works:
- Click on any person in the search results
- Apollo will show you their available contact details — email addresses and phone numbers (based on your plan's credit allowance)
- Click "Access email" or "Access phone" to reveal the information using your available credits
- Apollo verifies emails to reduce bounce rates, giving you a quality score on each address
Always prioritize contacts with high email confidence scores to protect your sender reputation.
Building Lead Lists in Apollo
Once you've filtered your search and found people worth targeting, save them to a list:
- Check the boxes next to individual leads — or select all matching results
- Click "Save to List" in the action toolbar
- Choose an existing list or create a new one (example: "B2B Marketing Directors — NYC — Q3 Campaign")
- Your list saves in Apollo and is ready to push into a sequence or export
Lists are the backbone of every organized outbound campaign.
Pushing Leads Into Apollo Sequences
One of Apollo's best features is its native email sequencing tool. Once you've built a lead list, you can:
- Click "Add to Sequence" from any list
- Choose a pre-built or custom multi-step email sequence
- Set the timing, spacing, and personalization tokens
- Launch your campaign directly from Apollo without needing a separate tool
This means you go from finding leads to reaching leads in the same platform — no CSV exports or third-party integrations required for basic outreach.
Organizing Your Lead Research with Notion
As you build and refine your lead lists, organizing your research outside of Apollo is just as important. Sales teams that win use structured systems to track their ICP hypotheses, note what filters work, document their sequence performance, and plan their next campaign.
Notion is the perfect companion tool for this. Use it to build a lead research database, document your Apollo filter combinations, track which lists converted best, and collaborate with your SDRs and AEs in real time.
👉 Get started with Notion for free — it's the smartest way to pair Apollo's data with your team's strategy.
Pro Tips for Finding Better Leads Faster
- Use "Saved Searches" to re-run your best-performing filter combinations with fresh data weekly
- Enable Intent Signals to surface leads who are actively researching buying decisions in your category
- Use the Chrome Extension to find and save leads directly from LinkedIn profiles
- Combine People and Company filters at the same time — Apollo lets you filter by person attributes AND company attributes simultaneously
- Exclude existing customers by uploading a suppression list so you don't waste credits on contacts already in your CRM
- Sort by "Recently Changed Jobs" to find decision-makers who just stepped into a new role — they're often the most likely to buy
Why Lead Quality Beats Lead Quantity Every Time
The biggest mistake salespeople make in Apollo is going too broad. Finding 50,000 leads means nothing if none of them are a fit. The teams that close the most deals spend time on filter precision before they spend credits on contact reveals.
Build tight, intent-driven lists. Reach fewer people with better messages. Watch your reply rates climb.
Apollo's People search gives you everything you need to do this at scale — now go use it.