Discover how to use Clay (clay.com) for smarter lead generation. Learn its key features, avoid wasting credits, and turn data into a powerful prospecting system.
Imagine Excel that thinks for you, finds leads, and writes cold emails. That’s essentially how a pitch for Clay could start. But before it works for you, you need to learn how to use it effectively. This guide will show you how Clay works, what features we use daily, and how to avoid wasting credits after just a few clicks.
Clay is one of those tools that, once mastered, changes how you approach prospecting.
To make it simple, think of Clay in two ways:
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After looking at the table, you might think that Clay is like Excel with AI. However, it is actually a powerful lead generation tool, but only if you know its key features.
Clay lets you filter companies by industry, location, team size, LinkedIn activity, and even keywords.
Use case:
Building a targeted list of potential clients in a specific country and market segment (e.g., SaaS companies in Germany with 11–50 employees).
After selecting companies, you can search for specific roles (e.g., CEO, CTO, Head of Marketing) based on function, seniority, and location.
Use case:
Once you have a company list, find the decision-makers for your campaign.
Clay pulls data from sources like Apollo, Hunter, Clearbit, and LinkedIn to fill in missing info - email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, team size, etc.
Use cases:
This is a feature that turns a raw database into a working prospecting system.
This AI-powered scraper visits a company’s website, reads the content, and extracts relevant info to add to your table.
Use case:
Claygent reads the "About Us" page and generates a summary for messaging or analysis.
Think of this as Excel’s =IF() on steroids. You build logic and automation without coding just describe what you want, and Clay generates the formula.
Use case:
If a company is from Poland, has >50 employees, and a valid email → mark as “ready to contact”.
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Clay offers enormous possibilities, but it's also easy to get lost in it. Every click that downloads data has a real cost. Downloading an email? A few credits. Scraping a company's website? More. If you click (trust and better don't click) "Run All" on 500 records without setting filters, Clay won't ask if you're sure. It will just do exactly what you told it to do.
Clay is most profitable when used as a system for aggregating and processing information, not as an automatic lead generator, although it can be set up that way with the right knowledge.
Start with small data packages, e.g. 10 records at a time, watch closely what happens to each column, and always verify the costs before you click "run". Only then does Clay really start to do the job. Remember that your task is to understand the scope of the data you are dealing with as well as possible and process it accordingly. Clay won't do the strategic work for you, it will just operationalize it.
Importantly, Clay will only charge for the data provided. If there is no data, there will be an error in data retrieval, and Clay will automatically return the credits to your account.
Clay won't do the work for you - you need to have a well-thought-out strategy and, most importantly, a clearly defined goal for its use. Therefore, approach this tool as a system that needs to be properly set up.
If you know what data you want to use and what you want to achieve with it, create a process map, for example using MIRO or a simple text document, to understand the set of actions to be performed within specific columns in the table and information links.
That's why we use Clay at Vanderbuild. This tool combines a modern tool-stack with strategic thinking. This is exactly the approach that top clients and growth managers are looking for today.