Find similar companies: how to search for “lookalikes” of your best B2B customers

Blog · Partner: POLISH YELLOW PAGES® · since 1991

A post from the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® blog (formerly DATABOT.PL), originally published on 17.11.2022. Some information (tools, prices, regulations) may have changed since then.

Find similar companies: how to generate relevant leads with lookalikes

The ideal customer exists. You know, the one where everything just fits. Industry, sales, number of employees and so on. You’d like to clone that customer, wouldn’t you? What if we told you: it’s possible! At least almost 

In this article we explain what B2B lookalikes are and why you absolutely need a tool with a “Find similar companies” feature!

What are B2B lookalikes anyway?

B2B lookalikes or lookalikes in B2B are a list of companies generated by artificial intelligence . The machine searches for similar companies using an existing reference list of companies (e.g. prospects, existing customers or leads). These lookalikes share certain key attributes or similar characteristics with the companies given to them as a reference.

In other words, B2B lookalikes resemble customers or companies with high sales potential , because they resemble your existing customers or hot leads.

Lookalike audiences are already quite well known in B2C ; on Facebooku for example, you can generate lookalike audiences based on your website visitors. In the end you gain an audience of similar people at whom you can target ads directly .

This lookalike feature, or the “find similar companies” feature, is an important part of account-based marketing . Account-based marketing (ABM) is a targeted B2B marketing strategy in which marketing and sales teams work closely together to give customers personalised buying experiences. With the help of high-quality analytical data you can focus on the right customers and not waste time on companies that don’t belong to your target group anyway.

Looking for similar companies? 

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How does artificial intelligence help me find similar companies?

As already said, high-quality data is the foundation of B2B lookalikes or lookalike audiences. By data we mean the list of prospects you import, as well as the data the AI uses to compare them with your list.

The more qualified this database is, the more relevant the resulting list of your prospects will be. That is why we recommend using lists of existing customers. They are often more relevant than prospect lists, because your customers have already bought your product or are happy with your services.

With an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) you can make sure your list of companies fits perfectly and contains the right lookalikes. An ICP is a hypothetical description of your ideal customer – the kind of company for which your product or service is most useful. The point is to see which companies you will typically have the fastest, most successful sales cycle with, the highest retention rates and the most delighted customers.

Do you already know your ICP? Good! But if you don’t, we’ll tell you later about a simpler way of identifying ideal target customers .

How to define your ideal customer:

• How many employees does your ideal customer have on average?
• What is your ideal customer’s average turnover?
• Which industry (industries) is/are ideal for your product?
• Where is your ideal customer located?

Depending on your product or brand, you can add more points to the list!

After you enter the data or import a list, the AI searches for companies with similar attributes to the companies on the list. How exactly does the AI do this? It depends on the software or platform.

When you create a lookalike audience on LinkedIn, LinkedIn’s AI matches your list against existing users and companies. On Facebook it does this at B2C level – matching user profile data . With Google’s “Similar audiences” feature, the AI compares your data with the search engine’s entire database.

Sales intelligence software with a “Find similar companies” feature uses publicly available data (e.g. from websites, social media and more) and various databases (e.g. the trade register and others) for the matching process.

How do I find B2B lookalikes or similar companies?

As already mentioned, the tool’s AI will create a list of similar companies for you. But before it does, you first have to upload a list into the tool or to the ad managers of LinkedIn and Co. Another option is to create lookalikes based on audiences from Facebook or LinkedIn .

With option number 1 you need a relatively large list of companies , existing customers or leads, especially for social media, which you have to import there for the AI to calculate anything at all. You will find out more about the exact size of such a list later .

But: what do you do now if you have only one or two companies you’d like lookalikes of? Don’t worry! We have found a solution!

Of course you can search the internet yourself for similar companies, but that isn’t sensible because of time constraints. There are useful tools and software from the field of sales intelligence that you can use to do this work for you!

For example, with DataBot you can generate a lookalike list of hundreds of similar companies from a single company !

This means that even if you don’t have much data or many companies you want to “clone”, you can benefit enormously from such a tool! Further optimisation and filtering of lookalikes with TARGET, for example with the filter criteria “at least 10 sales staff available” or by minimum turnover and much more. Create your ideal B2B lookalike list !

Tip: For a better result it is best to enter more than one company. When you are looking for pasta producers and submit information on a company that produces pasta and pasta sauces, some results will also include producers of pure pasta sauces. If you enter another company that produces only pasta, your lookalike list will be much more accurate.

You can also use the AI-generated list from TARGET for phone calls, social selling and more. On the other hand, with Lookalike Audiences on LinkedIn and Co. you don’t see your lookalikes and can use them only for ads on those platforms.

Try B2B lookalikes now

What kinds of data can be used to generate B2B lookalikes?

You have several options for the data used to generate B2B lookalikes. As already mentioned, the list or audience doesn’t necessarily have to consist of your existing customers . You can also use lists of prospects for which the AI searches for similar companies for you. Let’s now go through together exactly which options you have:

Customer lookalikes

Probably the best way to create B2B lookalikes is to use existing customers as a basis. There is nothing more beneficial than getting lookalikes of companies that already use and love your product. That almost guarantees the lookalikes will feel the same! In addition, you can win them over using the same use case in the acquisition process .

Pro tip: Use individual customer groups to generate B2B lookalikes. Lookalikes of your A-customers will be even easier to convince and will bring higher revenue!

You don’t have to use your regular customers either – it also works with newly acquired customers . Use customers from an industry you didn’t really know much about, and B2B lookalikes will give you more insight into that sector. And probably more customers!

Looking for similar companies? 

Discover new opportunities and get companies that match your ICP 

FIND OUT MORE

Lead lookalikes

Want more hot leads? Here you go!

The lookalike feature “Similar companies” is also great for lead lists! Those who downloaded your white paper or requested a trial account are great for creating lookalikes. You can also use B2B lookalikes to gather more high-quality leads and go straight into a targeted sales process .

Lists from a sales intelligence tool, a lead generation tool, or even addresses bought from an address provider can also be used for B2B lookalikes.

Website visitor lookalikes

Do you track and identify the companies that have visited your website? Then you have probably already guessed that this data is also great for creating B2B lookalikes! So you identify many visitors or their companies and let the AI do the rest. In the next step it is worth finding out whether they are prospects.

Tip: Use a scoring system for B2B user tracking and create lookalikes only from companies that are very active on the website.

Lookalikes of selected target customers

What’s more, you can choose some of your target or existing customers who operate in a market that is not, or was not, a target. With lookalikes you can directly identify which companies in their market also belong to your target group!

Especially if your organisation needs one person or team dealing with a specific industry , it can be very useful to learn as much as possible about that industry. B2B lookalikes save the time and energy you would have spent on manual searching.

Company lookalikes

Do you have a few companies in mind you’d like to target but somehow can’t find other similar companies ? These companies are not yet “real leads”? Then B2B lookalikes will make the process a walk in the park! From a few exciting companies the AI generates many more companies similar to the ones you wanted to reach. With this method you not only get an overview of such companies but can also approach them directly with marketing and sales activities.

Or have you just won new customers? Then approach companies similar to them directly and win them over by presenting a similar use case in your offer !

What are the advantages of using the find similar companies feature?

As you can see, there are many ways to turn a small amount of data into a larger amount using the “Find similar companies” feature. This gives you a huge advantage !

And you don’t even need much data – from a list of a few companies, customers or leads, the AI can create hundreds of prospects !

Let’s take a closer look at the other benefits you will have:

1. Work efficiently: save time and resources

You probably already know this: searching for prospects manually always costs you an enormous amount of time . You have to search the web meticulously – Google, social media, various websites and so on. This is not only annoying and time-consuming but also stops you doing your actual work.

If as a salesperson you spend more time on research instead of acquisition , that isn’t ideal. As a boss you can also do the maths: does it pay to let my employees spend an hour gathering information? Or should I rather automate the research process and let them do their actual work? The answer is obvious.

2. Qualify leads faster

Lead qualification is special. In most cases you get leads that at first you can’t really categorise or assess. Then you have to find out whether it is worth qualifying that lead or whether it is a waste of time. So again it comes down to time and resources.

With B2B lookalikes you can almost save yourself the qualification process. If you “clone” only customers or leads that have already converted or exactly match the target group , you already know the approach is worthwhile.

3. Get to know your competition

Have you ever thought about entering your own company and a few competitors into the “Find similar companies” feature? Try it!

If you don’t know exactly who operates in your market or who might be a threat to you , you can of course use this feature for that too! This gives you detailed information and lets you monitor your competitors.

4. Secure an advantage over the competition

While the competition is still spending time searching manually for more prospects, you have a clear advantage thanks to B2B lookalikes . Simply because you approach similar companies faster and more precisely than your competitors.

In this way prospects will see you as the first in your industry and will associate the products, services and solutions in your portfolio only with your brand.

Try B2B lookalikes for your use case

How can I benefit most from B2B lookalikes?

Now you know what data you can use to generate B2B lookalikes and what benefits it brings. But what comes next? How do you make the best use of lists of similar companies for your purposes? The next step belongs to your marketing and sales team! You can use the lists in the acquisition process as well as for further marketing activities . You decide!

Define or expand your target group

As we have mentioned several times, you don’t have to know your target market and audience inside out . With the “Find similar companies” feature you will get to know your target group based on your existing customers!

This means both your main target audience and individual target audiences for your departments. Because you can create any number of lookalike lists, you can run many tests with this feature. This way you discover more exciting sales opportunities and define your target group in detail.

Generate relevant, high-quality leads

B2B lookalikes help enormously with lead generation. Why? Because you can make sure the lookalikes are exactly like the companies that are already your best customers !

This means you no longer have to deal with bad leads you feared would not convert in the first place. You only talk to companies that need your service or product .

The most practical thing is that similar companies can be won over with the same use cases as your existing customers – after all, their problems often overlap with those of similar companies.

Use your lookalikes for cold calling

Old but gold – acquisition by phone! You can of course use lookalike lists for cold calling . There are, however, a few things to bear in mind for data protection reasons. With B2B lookalikes you can be sure your offer is interesting and useful for your counterpart.

If you want to learn more about GDPR-compliant cold calling, we recommend our article: B2B cold calling in German-speaking markets .

Use lookalikes for social selling

Telesales not your thing? No problem! You can also use B2B lookalikes for social selling. With lookalike lists you can, for example, search for employees of your target customers on LinkedIn and write to them. It is also worth using B2B lookalikes for networking and general exchange within your target audience. There are, however, certain dos and don’ts to bear in mind when it comes to social selling.

Use lookalikes for advertising

Lookalikes are also a great way to advertise across different channels . Now that you know your target customers, you can tailor ads to their problems and needs . Depending on the product/service offered, one channel may be more suitable than another. Of course, the budget also determines how many ads you can place and where.

In addition to these three options, you can also upload a list of target companies to Facebook and LinkedIn for Lookalike Audiences .

Google also offers a similar audiences feature. This will help you generate more target companies and prospects similar to the companies on your list. It is very likely that your product, service and even ads will appeal to companies similar to your target customers, right?

Pro tip: Of course you can also use the list of similar companies from DataBot for LinkedIn ads.

Your advantage? You can already filter similar companies in Echobot TARGET by turnover, number of employees and much more. If you then upload this target group to LinkedIn, the ads will be shown only to employees of these similar companies.

You can narrow this target group further at person level with LinkedIn’s filters. This makes a very powerful target group for your ad campaigns.

Looking for similar companies? 

Discover new opportunities and get companies that match your ICP 

FIND OUT MORE

What are lookalike audiences on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is an international business network and social media platform for business contacts. Especially if you operate in B2B, you may find that ads, or targeting ads at specific companies through their employees, are particularly useful for you on this platform.

LinkedIn offers a Lookalike Audience feature that can be used in ads. You can upload your own lists to LinkedIn or create custom audiences  on LinkedIn (for example based on website visitors or conversions) to generate a lookalike audience.

Use it to discover more prospects and uncover sales opportunities!

Want to try B2B lookalikes now?

How do I create a lookalike audience on LinkedIn?

If you want to create a LinkedIn Lookalike Audience, you first need to go to the advertising section of the business platform.

Here are the steps to create lookalike audiences:

1. Log in to Campaign Manager.

2. Click the correct account name if you have several accounts.

3. Click the Assets tab in the account.

4. Select Matched audiences from the drop-down menu.

Screenshot:  www.linkedin.com

5. Click Create audience.

6. If you haven’t yet uploaded a list of target companies, click Upload list > Companies/contacts. Note: you can of course use the Lookalike feature with audiences from LinkedIn.

7. If you already have lists uploaded to LinkedIn, click Create > Lookalike and choose the list you want to create a Lookalike Audience from. 

Note: your list must contain at least 300 companies!

8. Alternatively, you can click the icon with two heads in the top right corner of the page.

9. If everything worked, a green box will appear.

10. After you create a lookalike audience, it may take up to 48 hours (in rare cases longer) for the number of generated audiences to appear on the landing page.

What are lookalike audiences on Facebook?

Facebook’s Lookalike Audience feature is similar to the feature of the same name on LinkedIn. Here too the platform provides profiles similar to those you already have. With one click Facebook multiplies the target group , which you can then target precisely with ads . Bear in mind, however, that Facebook is used more in the B2C sector .

How do I create a lookalike audience on Facebook?

Here is how to create a lookalike audience on Facebook:

1. Go to the Audiences section in Facebook Ads Manager.

2. Click Create audience.

3. Select Lookalike audience.

4. Choose a target group – you can upload a list of target customers, e.g. from LinkedIn, or activate this feature via a Facebook audience (e.g. website visitors).

Note: your target group must consist of at least 100 people from the same country.

5. Choose the countries or regions you want to target.

6. Choose the desired audience size. The size is given on a scale of 1–10. Lower numbers have high similarity, higher numbers have wide reach.

7. Completing a lookalike audience can take from 6 to 24 hours.

What are similar audiences on Google?

Google’s “Similar audiences” feature works – you guessed it – basically the same way as LinkedIn’s and Facebook’s Lookalike Audience features . Google itself describes the feature to users as follows:

Similar audiences is a targeting feature based on your own data lists, most often remarketing lists, which helps expand the reach of your best-performing audiences by targeting ads at new users with characteristics similar to your website visitors.

Source:  support.google.com

In doing so, Google promises up to 41% higher conversion rates when using this feature if you combine similar audiences with retargeting.

How do I create a similar audience on Google?

And here is how to set up similar audiences on Google:

1. Log in to your Google Ads account.

2. Click any campaign in the navigation bar on the left, or the name of the campaign you want to add the feature to.

3. Select Audiences from the side menu to the right of the navigation bar.

4. Click the pencil icon. The “Edit audiences” area opens!

5. Click Select an ad group or the pencil icon next to it.

6. Click Remarketing and similar in the “All audiences” field, and then on the list type.

7. Choose the lists you want to use for the lookalike feature. You can also maximise the ranges for similar audiences to simplify this process.

8. Click Save.

Conclusion — B2B lookalikes will increase your success

To sum up, we can say: with B2B lookalikes you can sit back, relax and let artificial intelligence work for you.

Even if you have only a few companies you’d like lookalikes of, some tools already create a lookalike list for you. The “Find similar companies” feature makes business life easier in so many areas – it would be a shame to waste this potential.

No matter what stage your company is at, whether you want to multiply your first customer won or are already looking for companies similar to your existing customers : B2B lookalikes bring many benefits.

Get to know your competitors and be faster than them! Save time, resources and nerves! And all with just a few clicks… try it !

Try B2B lookalikes now

Tags:  Find similar companies, B2B, Lead generation, Lookalikes, Marketing, Sales, similar companies, sales opportunities, distribution

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Source

• POLISH YELLOW PAGES® (databot.pl) – original blog post

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