Building a Lead Engine After Apollo Shut Us Out
Building a Lead Engine After Apollo Shut Us Out Client Internal Project (Product Siddha) Service Provider Product Siddha Industry B2B / Marketing Automation Service AI Automation Services / Lead Generation Workflow Automation The Problem: Apollo Went Down, and Our Lead Flow Stopped Like many agencies, Product Siddha relied on Apollo for fast prospect lists and outbound campaigns. It worked well – until Apify’s Apollo scraping access was suddenly banned. Overnight, our outbound system stopped working. No more fresh leads. No more automated contact lists. We tried a few alternatives like Ample Leads and Scraper City. They worked, but most of the data felt old or repeated. We needed something fresh, real-time, and under our control. The goal was clear: Pull live business data from Google Maps Find key decision-makers via LinkedIn Automate everything through n8n Keep it cheaper than Apollo or Sales Navigator scraping The Solution: A Smart, Lightweight Lead Engine Instead of switching to another expensive tool, Product Siddha decided to build its own lead generation system – powered by open tools like Google Maps, Apify, and n8n. Here’s how our new lead engine works: Google Maps Scraper → Fresh Business Data The system starts by pulling live business listings directly from Google Maps (for example: “clinics in Melbourne”). This ensures that every lead is from a real, active business. Google Sheets → Clean Data Storage The scraped data – business name, website, phone, and address – is automatically added to a Google Sheet for easy use. SERP API → Decision Maker Discovery Using Google’s free Search API, the system finds decision-maker names and LinkedIn profile URLs based on each company’s website. Apify LinkedIn Scraper → Profiles & Emails Next, Apify’s LinkedIn automation fetches profile data, roles, and professional emails for each contact. n8n → Full Automation n8n ties everything together. It schedules scrapes, merges data, and updates Google Sheets, all without any manual effort. The Outcome: Reliable Leads Without the Heavy Price Our internal automation system now runs smoothly without relying on Apollo or similar databases. Key Wins: Fresh business data from Google Maps Real-time decision-maker insights from LinkedIn Fully automated workflow via n8n Lower cost than any paid lead database Zero manual upkeep once built Measurable Results: Accuracy: ~60% (strong for live scraped data) Time saved: Hours each week Cost: Significantly lower than Apollo or Sales Navigator Maintenance: Zero ongoing management Output: Google Sheet with business name, contact, title, email, LinkedIn URL, company, website, phone, and address Lessons Learned Live data beats bulk databases every time. Automation doesn’t have to be perfect, just consistent. Building your own tools can often be faster (and smarter) than finding new ones. Now, this same workflow helps us: Test new Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) Feed AI tools for personalized outreach Run cleaner, higher-quality cold campaigns The Stack Tools Used: n8n, Google Maps API, Google SERP API, Apify LinkedIn Scraper, Google Sheets Watch the Walkthrough: Product Siddha Case Video Conclusion: Own Your Data, Own Your Growth This project shows how Product Siddha uses AI automation to solve real business problems, quickly and cost-effectively. By creating our own lightweight lead system, we now have control, flexibility, and accuracy without paying for outdated data. Want a similar setup for your sales or marketing team? Reach out to Product Siddha – we’ll help you build it, or share the JSON file so you can tinker with it yourself.









