Lead Search: Improve Your Results with Ami
Last updated: October 30, 2026
Improve your cold outreach search by telling Ami AI what you want to change: more matching leads, more relevant companies, or more accurate roles. Share your current query, the criteria you must keep, and examples of results that missed the mark.
More leads and better-fit leads are different goals. Tell Ami which matters most so you can refine your audience without accidentally removing an important requirement.
đź“Ť Where to start
Open Campaign Builder → Audience → Cold outreach.
Review your audience description in Search criteria.
Open Ami AI from the sidebar. Share your current query and explain what you want to improve.
Review the revised wording and make sure Search criteria reflects the audience you want before searching.
You can ask Ami to suggest a rewrite first:
Help me improve this cold outreach query: [paste your query]. My goal is [more matching leads / better-fit leads]. Keep these requirements: [must-haves]. Suggest revised wording and explain what you changed.
🧩 Common use cases
🔎 I want to find more leads without losing my ideal customer profile
How to set it up:
Open Ami AI and share your current Search criteria.
Explain which requirements are essential and which you can relax.
Ask for a broader version:
This query returned too few leads: [paste query]. Keep B2B SaaS and US headquarters as requirements. Suggest related sales leadership titles and a broader company size range. Explain the trade-offs before rewriting the query.
Review the suggestion and update Search criteria before searching again.
âś… You have a broader query with your essential requirements preserved.
đź’ˇ Good to know: Adding more requirements can reduce the available audience. Try removing or broadening one criterion you are willing to relax at a time so you can see what helps.
🎯 I want more relevant companies and contacts
How to set it up:
Review a few search results and identify what makes them a poor fit.
Open Ami AI and share your query plus specific feedback:
My query is [paste query]. The results include recruitment agencies and individual sales representatives. I need companies that sell their own B2B software and people who lead the sales team. Rewrite the query to make those requirements clear and exclude those poor-fit groups.
Review the revised Search criteria and check the next results against the same requirements.
âś… Your query explains both what a good fit looks like and what to exclude.
❌ Too vague: “Find better leads.”
✅ Clear: “Exclude staffing agencies and individual contributors. Focus on Heads of Sales and VPs of Sales at companies that sell their own B2B software.”
🇺🇸 I want both the company and the contact to be based in the United States
How to set it up:
Open Ami AI and explain that company location and contact location are separate requirements.
Ask:
Rewrite my query so it only includes companies headquartered in the United States and contacts who are also located in the United States. Exclude contacts based abroad, including people working remotely for US companies. Keep my other audience criteria unchanged: [paste query].
Check that both requirements appear in Search criteria.
âś… Your query specifies both company headquarters and contact location.
đź’ˇ Good to know: Remote employees based in the US still meet these criteria. The exclusion concerns location, not remote work itself.
đź’¬ I want help turning my customer profile into a search query
How to set it up:
Open Ami AI and explain what you sell, who buys it, and the problem you solve.
Share examples of good-fit customers and explain why they fit.
Ask:
Help me turn this customer profile into a cold outreach query: [describe your customers]. Suggest relevant roles, company characteristics, and geography. Help me decide which criteria are essential and which to leave out. Include only firm requirements in the final query, and ask me about anything unclear.
Review the proposed audience before using it in Search criteria.
âś… You have a concrete audience description to review and test.
đź’ˇ Best practices in Campaign Builder
1. Write requirements, not preferences
The search breaks your query into criteria. A lead must match every criterion to appear in the results, so only include requirements you actually want to enforce.
Avoid phrases such as “prioritize,” “prefer,” or “ideally.” The search does not interpret them as instructions to rank some leads above others.
❌ “Find US SaaS companies. Prioritize companies with 50–200 employees.”
✅ “Find US SaaS companies with 50–200 employees.”
If company size is not a requirement, leave it out. You can discuss optional ideas with Ami AI, but decide which ones to include as requirements in your final Search criteria.
2. Use suppression lists for existing customers
Each search starts fresh. Instructions such as “exclude my existing customers” do not tell the search which companies are your customers.
Use a suppression list to exclude existing customers from outreach.
❌ “Find SaaS companies and exclude my existing customers.”
âś… Describe your target audience in Search criteria and manage existing-customer exclusions through your suppression list.
You can still write explicit audience exclusions in your query, such as “Exclude recruitment agencies and consulting firms.”
3. Handle previous-campaign leads through duplicate detection
Do not add instructions such as “exclude leads from campaign #123” or “only find people you haven’t found before.” A new search does not use previous campaign results as exclusion criteria.
AiSDR’s duplicate detection automatically identifies duplicates and shows a warning. Review those warnings; they are separate from your search criteria.
❌ “Repeat my last search, but exclude everyone from campaign #123.”
âś… Define a different audience segment and review any duplicate warnings.
To reduce overlap with a previous search, change the actual targeting criteria—for example, company size, company location, industry, or job titles. Rephrasing the same audience does not make it a new audience, and changing criteria does not guarantee zero overlap.
For example, if your initial search targeted US B2B SaaS companies with 50–200 employees, your next search could target the same roles at US B2B SaaS companies with 201–500 employees, if that segment also fits your ICP.
Check your setup before searching
Start with who, where, and what kind of company. Include roles or responsibilities, geography, and company characteristics.
Specify company and contact locations separately when both matter.
Use targeting strength to review your wording. Address missing details beneath Search criteria, then review the actual results too.
Start with Auto unless you have a specific reason to select another search source.
Use relevant title alternatives. Make clear that any of the listed titles is acceptable, and keep them aligned with the responsibilities you need.
Review the per-company limit. Use Max … / company to control how many contacts can come from one company.
Test a small batch first. Review the fit and give Ami specific feedback before requesting a larger list.
✅ Clear starting query: “Find contacts whose title is Head of Sales or VP of Sales at B2B SaaS companies headquartered in the United States with 50–200 employees. Contacts must also be based in the United States. Exclude recruitment agencies and consulting firms.”
❌ Too broad: “Find salespeople at tech companies.”
❤ Need help refining your audience?
Share your query and a few examples of leads that do or don’t fit with our team. Reach out, and we’ll help you identify what to adjust.